Benoit served as a Republican State Senator from Maine's 19th District, representing part of Sagadahoc County, including the population centers of Bath and Topsham from 2006 to 2008.
[1] As a State Senator, Benoit helped lead the charge for changing Maine's adoption law to allow adoptees to see their original birth certificates.
After this law went into effect Benoit, herself an adoptee, viewed her original birth certificate and discovered two of her colleagues in the legislature – State Senator Bruce Bryant and State Representative Mark Bryant – were her nephews.
[4] In 2013, Goodall resigned after his appointment to a federal post and Benoit announced she would seek the Republican nomination for the special election.
[6] In 2011, Benoit wrote a children's book, Baxter in the Blaine House, about the Jack Russell Terrier mix of Maine Gov.