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AUGUSTA, Maine — Democrat Jordan Wood said he raised $1 million less than two months into a 2026 campaign against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a large sum for a little-known candidate struggling to prove himself to his party.
Wood’s campaign publicized the topline figure on Wednesday but did not answer follow-up questions on how much of that money it had spent after the 35-year-old political operative and first-time candidate from Bristol joined the race in April.
It was an attempt to prove viability while national Democrats try to recruit other candidates to face off against Collins, who won her fifth term in a 2020 race that saw a record-smashing $200 million in campaign and outside spending. Behind the scenes, operatives in Wood’s party think he has little chance to win the primary and less of one to beat Collins next year.
Speculation on the Democratic side has focused on Gov. Janet Mills, but the 77-year-old has said she has no plans to run for another office when she leaves the Blaine House next year. Other potential candidates include Maine Beer Co. co-owner Dan Kleban, former state Sen. Cathy Breen of Falmouth and House Speaker Ryan Fecteau of Biddeford.
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Wood, a Lewiston native who returned to Maine from Washington, D.C., in 2021, and served as chief of staff to former California Rep. Katie Porter, was the first politically connected Democrat to enter the race against Collins. He was joined in the field by David Costello of Brunswick, who was the longshot Democratic nominee against independent U.S. Sen. Angus King in 2024.
More than 30,000 donors have given to Wood with an average donation of $22, according to his campaign. His total includes none of his own money, spokesperson Sarah McCarthy said. The campaign has been running an aggressive social media ad campaign in search of small donors, and Wood has kept a busy schedule of town hall meetings in the early part of his race.
The $1 million total in roughly seven weeks is more than Collins raised in the first three months of the year. But the incumbent still has a significant head start on Wood and any other challengers with $3.2 million in the bank at the end of March. She filed to run for a sixth term the day after her 2020 win.
Despite failing then, national Democrats see an opportunity to oust Collins after most Mainers disapproved of her in a poll released in April. But the centrist Republican was running 13 points ahead of President Donald Trump in a recent Pan Atlantic Research survey of Maine, indicating that people here still separate her somewhat from her party.
Instead of running for Senate, many well-known Democrats are gravitating to the wide-open 2026 race to replace Mills. Former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson and Angus King III, the son of the junior senator, are already in the Democratic primary.