Even as Republicans mocked Maine’s “chaotic” process to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic Senate nominee, hundreds of local activists were lining up behind Troy Jackson. Rival candidates for the nomination dropped out over the weekend as the former Maine Senate president and Platner ally seemed certain to win over the delegates selected by Maine Democrats for a statewide convention on July 25.
Every registered Democrat in Maine was eligible to vote for those delegates in what came to resemble a second primary – and could cast their votes from home. As the process unfolded, observers in Maine agreed that Jackson had pulled together an organizing effort, built on Platner’s base and his support in the state’s labor movement, that no other candidate could match.
Although Jackson was clearly Platner’s choice, he carries none of the heavy baggage that ultimately ended the charismatic oysterman’s campaign amid charges of sexual assault. As a fifth-generation logger from the state’s northern counties, he entered public life in 1998 leading protests against the exploitation of his fellow lumbermen, won a state assembly race in 2002, and spent the next two decades rising in the legislature to lead the Maine Senate from 2018-2024. He ran third in the Democratic gubernatorial primary this year.
Platner’s voters chose Jackson over a throng of candidates, most prominently Nirav Shah, a former public health official known for guiding Maine through the Covid-19 pandemic, and Shenna Bellows, the Maine secretary of state, who withdrew from the contest to focus on her role overseeing midterm elections. Jackson presented a platform that echoed many of Platner’s positions, including Medicare for All, taxing billionaires, restricting aid to Israel, and improving access to jobs, housing and education.
Not surprisingly, the Republican oppo against Jackson is already surfacing – with hypocrisy no obstacle as usual. The principal lines of attack concern his earlier positions on issues such as abortion rights and same-sex marriage. His objections to both, which date back more than two decades, were hardly surprising for a rural politician raised in the Catholic Church. But his views shifted markedly more than 15 years ago, and his legislative record has won him strong endorsements from pro-choice and gay rights organizations in Maine.
Most recent polls show Jackson running within the margin of error against Collins, who appears vulnerable in a state that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 and where Trump remains deeply unpopular. A poll taken a few weeks ago by Platner’s own committee showed Jackson beating Collins by five points.
Maine Democrats pointed to Jackson’s intense organizing effort in the post-Platner process and his previous electoral victories in more conservative, Republican-leaning counties as indications that he can indeed defeat Collins in November. Her campaign has collected big donations from over 100 out-of-state billionaires, while Jackson can rely on the massive grassroots funding that boosted Platner.
And as frustrated Maine voters suffer the depredations of ICE and the slashing of Medicaid – Trump policies that Collins has enabled – it will be Jackson’s turn as the voice of change.
Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism (St. Martin's Press, 2024). The paperback version, with a new Afterword, is now available wherever books are sold.
