Sarah Millard

The Right Honourable Sarah Millard
Prime Minister of Scalizagasti
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 August 2016
President	Paul Kruig
Preceded by	Gary Biyende
Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 August 2016
Prime Minister	Herself
Preceded by	David Mestakos
Leader of the Social Democratic Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 January 2020
Preceded by	Laura Hannasuya (interim)
Member of Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 August 2012
Constituency	Bewundal East
Personal details
Born	(1981-02-12) 12 February 1981 Garor City, Torlonia, Scalizagasti
Political party	SDP (1997 - present)
Domestic partner	Marc Millard
Children	1
Alma mater	University of Torlonia, Bewundal University

Sarah Millard (born 12 February 1981) is a Scalizagastian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Scalizagasti since 2016 and the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Scalizagasti since 2015. She has also served as the Member of Parliament for Bewundal East since 2012. She is Scalizagasti's youngest Prime Minister, elected at the age of 35.

She was born in Garor City, where she attended the Oparle District High School. While studying at the University of Torlonia, she was elected president of the University of Torlonia Social Democrats. After graduating from university, she began her professional political career as a policy advisor to Bewundal mayor John Ammoth.

Millard became the second-youngest leader of the Social Democrats at 33, only behind 32 year old Max Sormann. She won the 2015 leadership race on the second ballot with 51% of the vote. As leader, she led her party to second place in the 2016 election, winning 154 seats. This was the best electoral result for the SDP in over a decade since the corruption scandals that plagued the party in the mid-2000s. The SDP was able to form a coalition government instead of the first-place Revolutionary Republican Party (who had 160 seats), which some attribute to Millard's excellent leadership and cooperative skills. In the 2020 election, she led the SDP to win 255 seats, one of the largest victories for a party in Scalizagasti's history and only four seats short of an absolute majority.

Ideologically, Millard has been described as a social democrat and a progressive. She supports investments into public transit, universal postsecondary education, social housing, and other similar policies.

Early life, education, and family

Sarah Millard was born on 12 February 1981 in Garor City, Torlonia. She is the daughter of Lisa (née Elron), a secretary, and Gustav Millard, a high school teacher. Her mother was born in Garor City and her father was born in Tilmington, a town in northern Ostrawijan, both of ethnic Scalizagastian descent. Her two times maternal great-grandfather, Jean Marcier, was the mayor of Garor City. Millard was born in the Garor City Hospital and grew up in the Oparle neighbourhood, an area of Garor City that had a mixed Torlu and Scalizagastian ethnic population. Millard has one brother, Robert, who is a practicing dentist in Masfassen.

Millard went to Oparle District High School, graduating in 1999. After high school, she studied at the University of Torlonia in downtown Garor City for her degree in economics, graduating in 2003. She moved to Bewundal, the capital of Scalizagasti, in 2004 while pursuing her master's degree in public policy at Bewundal University. After graduating in 2005 with a degree in public policy, she got a job with the municipal government and served as a policy advisor for mayor John Ammoth. Notably, she spearheaded the movement to improve and revitalize the public transportation of Bewundal to make commuting easier and reduce the emissions of the city.

Millard has been married to her partner Marc (né Teskey) since 12 November 2013. The Millards have one daughter, Laurel Millard, who was born in 2014. While her family was Auldenist growing up, Millard has said that she and her husband are not "not actively religious." They also own a dog, Jimbo, which was adopted in 2011 while the Millards were still dating.

Early Political Career

Youth activism

Millard was a supporter of the Social Democrats from a young age. While still a high school student, she joined the Social Democratic Youth Association during the 1997 election. She eventually became a promiment figure within the youth organization due to her outspoken nature and optimism for the party's future. At age 18, two years after joining the youth association, the then-president of the association described her as a "rising star within the party."

While studying for her bachelor's in economics at the University of Torlonia, she became president of the University of Torlonia Social Democrats. She was an active community organizer and an advocate for affordable public transportation and labour rights. During the 2000 SDP leadership convention, Millard was a staffer for SDP MP Herbert Tenare's campaign. Although Tenare would lose to eventual Prime Minister Blaine Blaikie, Millard described the experience as "generally informative and also quite enjoyable."

Bewundal policy advisor

After getting her master's degree from Bewundal University in 2005, Millard worked in public policy with the municipality of Bewundal. She remained an advocate for labour rights and public transportation, and would serve as a key advisor to mayor John Ammoth during the Bewundal Transit infrastructure upgrades in 2009-2011.

Entrance into Parliament

Ammoth, a member of the SDP himself, pushed Millard to run for office. As a prominent member of the community with strong connections to both the municipal government and the public, she received numerous high-profile endorsements when seeking the nomination for her constituency. Millard was nominated 2nd in the SDP party list for Bewundal East in preparation for the 2012 Scalizagastian federal election. For a newcomer to federal politics, this was a very high placement, especially since Bewundal East is a traditional SDP stronghold. Despite the weak perfomance of the SDP federally and the surprising second-place finish by the Greens, she managed to win her seat.

In Parliament, she was made SDP Critic for Youth Affairs due to her work in the Social Democratic Youth Association, where she often feuded with Minister of Youth Affairs Joshua So. She co-sponsored a bill in 2013 that would cover 80% of public transportation fees for youth, students, and the elderly. The proposal was defeated 234-257, with support from most parties except for the governing NSP and LCA. In 2014, she was a vocal opponent of education cuts that would slash the federal budget for clubs and extracurriculars, calling them "ridiculous austerity measures by a nearsighted government who were a disgrace to all students." Her Parliamentary debate criticizing the cuts went viral online and she gained national notoriety and popularity.

SDP Leadership

2015 leadership election

Main article: 2015 Social Democratic Party of Scalizagasti leadership election

Following the sudden death of SDP leader David Keyes in 2014, the party scrambled to find a replacement in time for the next election in 2016. There was speculation among her supporters online that she would replace Keyes because she was one of the better-known federal MPs from the nearly-defunct party. Although she rarely spoke of matters such as foreign affairs or defense, her policies on education, transportation, and infrastructure were a highlight of her career before and after becoming a politician.

On 1 August 2014, she confirmed these rumours with a rally in Bewundal declaring her intent to run for leadership of the party. Her main competitor was Marcel Nystrom, the former mayor and MP for Hesmaron City who had declared candidacy a week earlier. Her campaign team was composed of political allies with whom she had worked before. These included her senior advisor, Frank Slipp, whom she met while working for Bewundal mayor John Ammoth, and her campaign manager, Kaitlyn Gerome, who was a fellow volunteer on Herbert Tenare's leadership campaign 14 years prior.

In the beginning, her campaign was small and she was trailing Nystrom in support. A poll released on 10 October 2014 had her at 15% support (33% among decided voters), seven poins behind Nystrom at 22%. However, her fortunes turned around following the first two leadership debates, taking a 4 point lead over Nystrom with 33% support (43% among decided voters). She received endorsements from numerous high-profile party members, including former leader Max Sormann, former candidate and cabinet minister Don Winters, Bewundal mayor John Ammoth, Governor Kieran Ashwath of Torlonia, and 20 out of 31 sitting SDP MPs.

Millard would become leader of the party on 22 January 2015, winning 51.3% of the vote on the second ballot.

2016 federal election

Main article: 2016 Scalizagastian federal election

On August 22, 2016, Millard led the Social Democrats into a strong second-place finish. With 154 out of 516 seats and 26.0% of the vote, they were only six seats behind the Revolutionary Republican Party. Under Millard's leadership, the Social Democrats gained 123 seats, reversing the twelve years of decay faced by the party since 2004.

The party did best in Central and South Scalizagasti. In Nohachewa, they won 17 out of 48 seats, and in Bewundal they won 13 out of 32 seats. The party, alongside the RRP, made gains in every single riding. This massive growth came at the expense of the New Scalizagasti Party and Liberal-Conservative Alliance who formed a coalition government after the 2012 election, as well as the Greens who formed Official Opposition. The three parties lost a collective 214 seats, while the RRP and SDP gained 230.

While the SDP did not win the most seats, their miraculous recovery was the subject of Millard's victory speech. Millard immediately began negotiations with the other parties in Parliament, forming a four party centre-left government with the Greens, Progressive People's Party, and Labour and Socialist Party. Millard promised to reverse the unpopular austerity measures of the previous government as a part of her economic rebuilding plan. After the coalition was announced, RRP leader Michel Garon conceded the election and was proclaimed Leader of the Opposition. Prime Minister Gary Biyende and Deputy Prime Minister Ernest Fennel both resigned as leaders of the NSP and LCA respectively due to their defeat.

Electoral Record

Bewundal East, 2020

Party		Popular Vote		Seats
		%	Change	Total	Change
	Social Democratic Party (SDP)	46.0	+10.0	5	+1
	Green Party (GRN)	20.2	-4.9	2	0
	Revolutionary Republican Party (RRP)	13.5	-2.8	1	-1
	New Scalizagasti Party (NSP)	7.0	-0.2	1	0
	Labour and Socialist Party (LSP)	6.5	-2.2	1	0
	Patriotic Defense Movement (PDM)	1.5	-0.1	0	0
	Liberal-Conservative Alliance (LCA)	1.4	-0.5	0	0
	Aulden Democratic Party (ADP)	0.6	0.0	0	0
	Progressive People's Party (PPP)	0.4	0.0	0	0
	Others/Independent	2.9	+0.7	0	0
Total		100.0	–	10	–

Bewundal East, 2020

Party		Popular Vote		Seats
		%	Change	Total	Change
	Social Democratic Party (SDP)	36.0	+6.6	4	+1
	Green Party (GRN)	25.1	+8.8	2	0
	Revolutionary Republican Party (RRP)	16.3	+12.4	2	+2
	Labour and Socialist Party (LSP)	8.7	+2.5	1	0
	New Scalizagasti Party (NSP)	7.2	-20.3	1	-2
	Patriotic Defense Movement (PDM)	1.6	-0.4	0	0
	Liberal-Conservative Alliance (LCA)	1.9	-9.2	0	-1
	Aulden Democratic Party (ADP)	0.6	+0.2	0	0
	Progressive People's Party (PPP)	0.4	-0.1	0	0
	Others/Independent	2.2	-0.5	0	0
Total		100.0	–	10	–