BANGOR, Maine — Former state lawmaker and logger Troy Jackson secured the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Maine on Saturday and will face longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins in November in a race that could decide which party controls the chamber.
Jackson replaces Graham Platner, who won the Democratic primary in June but withdrew from the race this month following an allegation of sexual assault that Platner has denied. Maine Democrats met Saturday to choose a new nominee to face Collins.
Support coalesced around Jackson, a former Maine Senate president and fifth-generation logger from rural northern Maine who campaigned alongside Platner during a failed bid for governor and was a favorite among progressives to replace him.
“When the people in power refuse to listen, you have to organize, you have to stand in solidarity, together. And you have to make them listen,” Jackson said during a speech at the last-minute nominating convention held Saturday.
Democrats view Maine as the party’s best opportunity to flip a Senate seat this year because it is a competitive race in a state that Donald Trump lost in 2024. But defeating Collins won’t be easy. The five-term incumbent holds a fundraising advantage, while the new Democratic nominee will have less than four months to sell himself to voters.
Republicans immediately launched an ad campaign against Jackson, accusing him of having a volatile temper and linking him to Platner. The Senate Leadership Fund, Republicans’ super PAC, said it is committed to spending more than $42 million against Jackson.
Midterm messages
Jackson, 58, will need to convince the state’s large independent voting bloc that it’s time to replace Collins, 73. Republicans have called Jackson too extreme for Maine voters, and Collins said this week that she knows Jackson well and that his positions are “clearly” in line with socialism.
“Troy Jackson will attempt to sell Mainers a multitrillion-dollar bill of goods based on rhetoric that will make everything sound free, but in reality would be paid for by middle- and lower-income workers,” said Collins’ campaign spokesperson, Shawn Roderick.
Both Jackson and Collins are from northern Maine, where traditional industries such as potato farming and timber harvesting are vital parts of the economy. Both will make the case over the coming months that they are the right leader to protect those industries, along with lobster fishing and tourism.
Collins noted that Jackson ran U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ first presidential campaign in Maine, adding, “He’s a Bernie Bro.”
Asked by reporters about that description tying him to his party’s progressive wing, Jackson said, “I don’t really care. What I am is a guy from northern Maine that’s a logger.”
He said he would attack Collins on what he described as her record of supporting tax cuts for the wealthy and failing to protect healthcare.
Jackson needs to scramble to make up a fundraising gulf against the incumbent, who has been raising money for months. Federal filings show she has raised more than $16 million so far. Jackson’s campaign this week said he raised more than $1 million since jumping into the Senate race.
Key to Democrats’ Senate path
Democrats have a narrow path to take back the Senate in November, and it’s unlikely they can do it without a win in Maine. In addition, they need victories in most other competitive races — including in North Carolina, Alaska, Ohio and Texas — and they need to hang on to the seats they already have. That includes open Senate seats in Michigan and Minnesota, where Democratic incumbents are retiring.
Maine’s Democratic primary was one of the early contests where progressives took on establishment-backed Democrats. While Platner faced several controversies during his campaign, he easily outlasted Gov. Janet Mills, who was backed by Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer of New York but dropped out before the June 9 primary.
Platner had backing from Sanders as well as Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. That support disintegrated after the sexual assault allegation surfaced this month.
Republicans began making the case Saturday that Jackson is too close to Platner. Jackson is “a Platner apologist, a radical Bernie Bro, and a walking red flag displaying all the warning signs of the early days of the Platner campaign,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Kristen Cianci said in a statement.
Jackson told reporters Saturday that he has not been in touch with Platner and is building a new movement. He didn’t mention Platner from the stage during his two addresses to Democratic delegates Saturday, but said the campaign was “bigger than any one person.”
Jackson overwhelmingly won delegates’ support
The Maine Democratic Party scrambled to choose a new nominee after Platner was accused by a former girlfriend of sexually assaulting her in 2021. Platner denies the allegation, but quit the race after key supporters called on him to withdraw.
Maine law gave the state party authority to choose a replacement and required a new nominee to be named by Monday — 99 days before the Nov. 3 election.
Maine Democrats’ never-before-used process of voting on a new nominee involved hundreds of Democratic delegates gathering in Bangor, about 130 miles north of Portland. The delegates were elected at county party meetings last weekend, and Jackson scored an easy victory over just one opponent.
He first ran for office as a Republican in 2000 when he sought a seat in Maine’s House of Representatives. He lost, but won two years later when he ran as an independent. He switched to the Democratic Party in 2004 and eventually became the Maine Senate president before leaving the statehouse in 2024.
He came in third while running for governor in this year’s Democratic primary election, but had the backing of Platner and Our Revolution, the political organization founded by Sanders. Once Platner dropped out July 10, Jackson and a flood of other former gubernatorial candidates and others jumped in to try to take Platner’s place. But by July 19, most had abandoned their bids, with Jackson emerging as the clear favorite.
Jackson received early support from progressives who had backed Platner before he dropped out. Our Revolution initially backed Jackson for governor and Platner for Senate. When Platner left the race, the group rallied behind Jackson.
Jackson previously ran Maine operations for Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid. This election cycle, Sanders endorsed Jackson for governor and Platner for Senate, though he withdrew his support for Platner after the sexual assault allegation. He said he didn’t plan to weigh in on which Democrat should replace Platner.
Jackson has supported progressive positions such as Medicare for all. He also has called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose presence in Maine has been hotly debated since an agent fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, near his home in Biddeford, Maine.
Jackson acknowledged the disappointment of Platner’s supporters and the need to win them over for the general election.
“I agree there are people that are still very frustrated and angry what happened. I understand that,” he said to reporters. “All I’m trying to do is explain to them that his campaign was about the issues.”
Whittle and Kruesi write for the Associated Press. AP writer Joey Cappelletti and videojournalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report.
