Troy Jackson: the Maine lumberjack Democrats believe can beat Susan Collins
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Troy Jackson at an event in Portland, Maine, in May. Jackson is set to be nominated at a special convention on Saturday. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Troy Jackson at an event in Portland, Maine, in May. Jackson is set to be nominated at a special convention on Saturday. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images Democrats Profile Troy Jackson: the Maine lumberjack Democrats believe can beat Susan Collins Jackson, a prominent workers’ rights advocate and a leading progressive voice, replaces the scandal-plagued Graham Platner
Prefer the Guardian on Google As cinemagoers flock to The Odyssey , Democrats in Maine are hoping that their long and perilous quest for a political hero ends in Troy.
They have nominated lumberjack Troy Jackson this weekend as their candidate to challenge Susan Collins, a veteran Republican in the US Senate, after the implosion of the party’s original candidate left them scrambling for a replacement less than four months before the midterm elections.
Jackson, a former president of the Democratic-controlled Maine senate, i secured the nomination at a special party convention in Bangor on Saturday. He inherits a race transformed by the abrupt withdrawal of the primary winner, Graham Platner , following allegations of sexual assault made by a former girlfriend, accusations he has denied.
While Kamala Harris infamously had only 107 days to build a presidential campaign in 2024, Jackson would have even less time for a battle that could decide control of the 100-member Senate. The fifth-generation logger from Aroostook county in northern Maine combines an unusual political biography with an unapologetically progressive platform.
He first came to prominence in the late 1990s when he led a week-long blockade by Maine loggers protesting the employment of Canadian workers, whom they accused of depressing wages. The demonstration ended with police escorting him away but established his reputation as a champion of rural workers, which would continue into his time as a legislator.
Jackson initially ran 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 went on to serve three terms in the house before being elected to the state senate, where he was president from 2018 until 2024.
View image in fullscreen Jackson with fellow loggers at a protest at the US-Canada border in October 1998. Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP In contrast to Platner, the biggest scandal attached to him so far is that he displayed flashes of temper such as cursing, shouting and throwing a water bottle in a meeting when he could not persuade someone to vote his way, according to a Washington Post report based on interviews with more than two dozen people.
Jackson’s political views have shifted significantly over the years. Earlier in his career he opposed abortion rights and same-sex marriage, positions he has since abandoned. He has emerged as one of Maine’s leading progressives, backing policies such as Medicare for All and calling for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) .
For those seeking an economic populist and working-class champion, he appears to fit the bill. Tim Fullerton , a Democratic strategist from the southern part of the state, recently spent time with him and came away impressed.
“Troy is as Maine as they come, Maine through and through,” he said. “He shoots from the hip. He says what he thinks which in this particular case, running against a very calculated and polished politician, is a striking difference because if you just were to meet him you wouldn’t think that he was a politician at all.
“He also has the best Maine accent of any of them by far, which is nice. He’s salt of the earth. I feel like I know 50 guys who are just like him. ”
Fullerton distinguished Jackson’s approach from the slicker, poll-tested aesthetics typical of modern political campaigns. “ I don’t think he could fake it if he wanted to, to be honest. I’ve only met him once but he told me right off the bat what he thought about everything, which was quite refreshing compared to a lot of these people. They’ve been in DC for a million years and learn a certain language that doesn’t always translate at home. ”
Still, Jackson’s ties to the left extend beyond Maine. He chaired Bernie Sanders’ successful 2016 presidential caucus campaign in the state and remains a close political ally of the Vermont independent senator.
View image in fullscreen Jackson outside the state capitol in Augusta in January 2004. Photograph: Pat Wellenbach/AP Yet the sudden pivot from Platner, who survived various scandals including a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol until finally stepping down, to Jackson brings plenty of anxieties. The oysterman was a charismatic firebrand capable of whipping up crowds and capturing more than 150,000 votes in the primary. Jackson, by his own admission, is a more plain-spoken and less polished orator.
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive organisation Our Revolution – which backed Platner and has now thrown its weight behind Jackson – dismisses the notion that a lack of traditional charisma is a fatal flaw.
“ He strikes me as a regular working class person, a regular dude,” he said. “That’s my gut-check vibe on him, having numerous interactions with him over the years. Does Graham Platner have a certain dynamism and charisma? Yes, but I think Troy counters that with a true authenticity, and that is reflected in his background and should not be discounted.”
Geevarghese dismissed sniping that Democratic consultants were merely ticking demographic boxes, deliberately swapping an oyster farmer for a lumberjack to simulate working-class appeal. “He represents who we are and want to be as a party,” he insisted. “He is not somebody that was designed by a marketing agency or created by political…
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