Democrats poised to nominate Troy Jackson in must-win Maine Senate race
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Hundreds of Democrats are gathering in Bangor on Saturday morning for a state convention to pick their Senate nominee after the primary winner, Graham Platner, ended his campaign earlier this month after a sexual assault allegation, which he denied.
Jackson is facing pharmaceutical executive Saundra Pelletier in his bid for the nomination at the convention. But Jackson, a veteran legislator, is expected to win the nod after delegate candidates supporting him dominated at county meetings last weekend and all of his major opponents dropped out.
The rapid series of events has shaken the Maine contest, where longtime Sen. Susan Collins, the only Republican representing a state President Donald Trump lost in 2024, is seeking a sixth term. Democrats are looking to net four seats and take control of the Senate this fall, and Maine represents one of their best opportunities to notch a win, at least on paper. If Democrats do not defeat Collins, they’ll have to pick up another seat in a state Trump carried by double digits.
Jackson previewed his case against the senator at rallies last weekend.
“In nearly 30 years, Susan Collins has told Mainers that she is concerned. She’s told us that she is troubled,” Jackson told his supporters at a Sanford rally, prompting one of his backers to remark, “She should be now.”
“Too often she’s stood with Donald Trump and the corporations that already have too much power,” Jackson later added, saying the senator voted for “tax giveaways to billionaires and corporations” and supported the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who then voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that had guaranteed a federal right to abortion.
“She stood by while the administration attacks federal workers, unions, immigrants, healthcare and the basic rights of Maine people,” Jackson said. “Maine does not need another six years of concern. We need courage. We need a fighter, and we need someone who remembers exactly who sent them to Washington.”
Asked to respond to Jackson’s attacks, the Collins campaign compared him to Platner.
“Troy Jackson is showing us the low-energy version of the Graham Platner campaign,” Collins spokeswoman Blake Kernen told NBC News. “He lies about the facts and makes empty promises without plans. That is why he came in third in the Democratic primary for governor a month ago.”
Add NBC News to Google Maine Democratic Senate candidates discuss which of Platner's ideas they would use 04:29 As his focus turns to Collins, Jackson must confront several daunting tasks, and with no time to spare.
He has to not only build a statewide campaign. He has to raise millions of dollars to compete on the airwaves.
Most of all, he has to convince huge numbers of Mainers who have repeatedly backed Collins for decades that it’s time for her to go.
Many Democrats backed Jackson’s bid because they saw him as the candidate with the best chance of defeating Collins in November.
Supporters of Jackson, a former logger and longtime legislator from Allagash, a tiny town at the northern tip of the state, believe he will have unique appeal to working-class voters and cut into Collins’ margins in rural Maine. It’s the first time Collins, from Aroostook County, will be facing an opponent who also hails from the same sprawling area.
“The working class has been left behind and forgotten about,” said Shelly Mountain, a former Aroostook County Democratic Committee chairwoman and a pro-Jackson delegate at the convention.
“He is definitely working class and always — has always,” she emphasized again, “been a champion for the working class.”
A Democratic strategist with experience in Maine races, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the race and Jackson’s potential challenges, noted that a Democratic statewide win against Collins involves narrowing a likely loss in the rural 2nd Congressional District to high single digits.
“Being from Aroostook County and having shown a pretty significant overperformance in his state Senate races, [Jackson] is well-suited to do that,” the strategist said, later adding: “Of course, Sen. Collins is not a pushover. She’s done very well over the state but also particularly the 2nd District.”
Other Democrats noted that Jackson mainly has to run up the score in traditionally Democratic strongholds of Portland and other cities.
“There’s a path without expanding the map,” said David Farmer, a Maine Democratic strategist. He noted that Collins’ 2020 opponent, former state House Speaker Sara Gideon, underperformed the Democratic presidential ticket in Portland and other blue areas, due in part to a third-party candidate.
Farmer was optimistic that this year, Democrats would stay united.
“The reactions to Trump, to the ICE killing in Biddeford , to high prices, to the war [with Iran] — that solidifies Democrats so they’re less likely to drift than in 2020,” Farmer said.
But the Democratic strategist noted that when Jackson ran in the party’s primary for governor earlier this year, he struggled in more affluent parts of the state where Collins has performed well, even as they have shifted away from the GOP in the Trump era.
“He’ll need to do better in the greater Portland suburbs,” the strategist said.
The 2020 election provides some clues about Jackson’s challenges ahead. That year, Collins won re-election nearly 9 points even as Joe Biden carried the state by the same margin.
Exit polls show that Collins overperformed with independents, moderates and women. Independents who voted for Biden by 24 points also voted for Collins by 3 points. Self-identified moderates swung 24 points for Biden, but they voted for Collins by 7 points.
Women, who have long been key to Collins’ victories , broke for Biden by 23 points, but they voted for Collins by 3 points. Collins overperformed among women who didn’t go to college and limited the margin of defeat among white…
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