Sam Chandler of Alna was born in an Ellsworth hospital on a November election day. His mother completed an absentee ballot in the hospital.

Growing up on Mount Desert Island, Chandler followed the news and listened to his parents and his older brothers talking politics.

“I was generally paying attention to things people my age weren’t paying attention to, and I’ve always been a progressive.”

At 17, he slipped into a Democratic caucus in Southwest Harbor and tried to vote for Dennis Kucinich. “They counted and there was one extra vote, and I (said), ‘Oh, that was me, sorry.’

“They were relatively entertained, because I was 17, a young person trying to disrupt the system.”

At 18, he registered in the Maine Green Party, now the Maine Green Independent Party. His jobs in social work would reinforce his political progressiveness.

“I have a strong propensity to get involved with (helping) people who are struggling against ... oppression that damages their personal life and makes it difficult for them to succeed and function.

“And so I’m constantly looking for what viable solutions exist to tackle wealth inequality (and) systems of oppression that damage our environment (and) create divides ... over race (and) wealth.”

Unchecked capitalism destroys the planet and creates the big business that fosters oppression, Chandler said. “Greens generally favor a small local economy .... What I want to see is basically a political system that is truly democratic.”

The Greens can bring about centrist discussions and are willing to compromise, but they draw the line on certain issues such as health care, he said. He favors a system whose lower costs for medications and decreased bureaucracy would furnish a general fund for free health care to all Mainers. Anyone who still wanted private health care could buy it, he said.

At 27, the jazz pianist-keyboardist-singer-songwriter and child care worker has run for the Legislature and lost; served about a year on on the party’s state committee; and on Aug. 22, he was elected unopposed to a two-year term as secretary of the state party.

He had already held the office since January; Chandler was a state committee member when the party added a second co-chairmanship. The secretary took that seat and Chandler was named secretary.

Plans for graduate school outside Maine a year from now could cause him to leave the post before his term is up, Chandler said. He earned a bachelor degree in jazz piano performance from University of Southern Maine and has been with the Portland-based rock band Theodore Treehouse for five years.

He is looking to get a teaching degree. The social work and work in educational settings, including Morris Farm’s (Wiscasset) farm camp this summer, helped inspired the idea. “I’ve become really attached to working with kids in that setting. So that’s what’s pushing me to go down this path right now.

“Music is a lifelong passion of mine. But what I’ve determined is (that) music will be purely a creative force, that I don’t need it to me make money or to be anything other than an outlet for my creativity.”

Having that outlet, and the collaboration skills that music has honed, help him navigate political challenges, he said. “I don’t think I’d be able to be as strong as an activist as I am if it wasn’t for music.”

Chandler wants to help the state party produce strong candidates for state office. After graduate school, he also would like to either seek local office or make another run for the Legislature. He saved the signs and campaign literature from his 2014 run, which was impacted by the loss of a family member.

A major challenge for the Greens is gaining acceptance in a nation long attached to the two-party system, he said. “It’s a battle to convince people that a third party is a viable option.” So is breaking free of the spoiler label that gets applied, sometimes inaccurately, in three-way races, he said.

“People should vote their conscience.”