Former Maine state Sen. Troy Jackson handily won the state Democratic party’s support in a last-minute party convention vote on Saturday. He will take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
Former candidate Graham Platner dropped out of the race on July 8 after facing allegations of sexual assault. A dozen candidates quickly launched campaigns after Platner’s announcement, though the field had whittled itself down to Jackson and Saundra Pelletier by Friday after a televised debate last week.
The state Democratic party backed Jackson nearly unanimously via hundreds of delegates who were selected through a series of county meetings July 18-19. The deadline to submit the new nominee’s name is Monday.
“The easy solution would have been to task a party committee with making that choice,” Democratic State Committee Chair Charles Dingman said in his opening remarks, prompting lighthearted groans from the audience. “Instead, we responded to the growing grassroots movement in our state to build power for ordinary working people.”
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Now, Jackson will have just under 100 days to mount an entirely new campaign against Collins after having rallied with Platner several times during his gubernatorial run earlier this year. The incumbent senator has already characterized Jackson as a “Bernie bro” and a socialist.
Before the nomination vote, Jackson acknowledged that many people had likely already supported “different candidates” before Saturday’s convention kicked off — declining, as all speakers had throughout the event, to say Platner’s name. He said the hope Democrats had built during the primaries does not belong to “any one campaign,” but rather a list of progressive ideals. His speech concentrated on praising the organizing power of working-class people and bashing votes Collins had made on Medicaid cuts or boosting spending on federal immigration agents.
“For nearly 30 years, Collins has told Maine that she is ‘concerned,’” Jackson said in his opening remarks, addressing a room full of attendees with “Troy Jackson for Maine” signs and state flags.
“But concern does not lower the cost of groceries or gas,” he said. “Concern does not restore all of the rights she’s taken away. Maine does not need another six years of concern.”
The first challenger to form an exploratory committee, Jackson emerged as the clear favorite throughout the replacement process after he dominated the initial delegate voting process. As it became clear that he would be the nominee, other prominent candidates like Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former gubernatorial candidate Nirav Shah and former congressional candidate Jordan Wood dropped out of the running. Shah and Wood both endorsed Jackson.
The only one to not drop out of the race ahead of Saturday was little-known candidate Pelletier, a biopharmaceuticals executive originally from Caribou. She garnered five delegate votes.
Jackson is a progressive Democrat and a fifth-generation logger who initially entered politics as a Republican before being elected to the state House as an independent in 2002. He switched to the Democratic Party two years later, eventually becoming the state Senate president from 2018 to 2024.
Jackson’s campaign announced this week that the candidate has raised more than $1 million since entering the race. But he will still have to contend with Collins’ $11 million war chest.
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