WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) spoke on the Senate floor to pay tribute to Kay Rand, his longtime chief of staff who will be leaving the Senator’s office in January. Rand, a native of Ashland, Maine, has served as Senator King’s chief of staff since he was sworn-in in 2013, and was King’s chief of staff during both of his terms as Maine’s governor. She also led both of Senator King’s gubernatorial campaigns and his 2012 Senate campaign. After six years of traveling between Washington, D.C. and Maine, Rand will return to Maine full-time at the beginning of 2019. 

“Anything I have achieved in my public life has been in many ways attributable to the work of Kay Rand,” said Senator King. “…She has made an enormous difference in my life and I believe in the life of the people of Maine. She's never lost her passion for public service, her deep affection and understanding for the people of Maine, and the responsibility that those of us who have been entrusted with the public charge, the public trust, with the responsibility we have to remember who sent us here, to remember what the values are, what the issues are, what we can do to represent the people of Maine. Kay Rand has always – always – reminded me of that because that's who she is. Facetiously, I've often said my standard for leadership can be summarized in one sentence: Hire good people and take credit for what they do. And I've been doing that for 25 years. Kay Rand is an extraordinarily able, devoted, and serious public servant. 

“She's leaving, well deserved… But I just want this Senate to know and the people of Maine to know that an important public servant is leaving us but has left us and left me with an everlasting legacy of leadership, integrity, character. She in many ways has taught me how to lead. I will miss her. I'll miss her as a friend. I'll miss her as a leader in my office. I'll miss her as a person who has made such a difference in my life, in my family's life, and the life of the people of Maine. Kay Rand is an extraordinary person. She has done an amazing job for the people of Maine, for the Senate, and for myself…Kay Rand is a very special person, as all of us who know her, can attest.”