AUGUSTA, Maine — Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson locked down public support from a majority of the 601 people who will select the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate on Sunday, all but assuring he will be the party’s pick against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
The looming general election will pit two Aroostook County natives against each other. Jackson, 58, of Allagash represented the St. John Valley in the Maine Legislature for years, while Collins, 73, was born and raised in Caribou, which is at the end of Jackson’s old state Senate district.
Jackson won at least 367 of the 403 delegates awarded through Sunday afternoon. Going into the day, he needed just 11 more to cross the threshold. He nearly swept York, the first to vote on Sunday, winning 77 of the county’s 84 delegates. The other seven delegates were uncommitted to any candidate, according to a Bangor Daily News analysis.
Jackson, a longtime logger, built his career as Maine’s most identifiable labor Democrat, leading a border blockade against Canadian competition in 1998 before rising from a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat state representative to Senate president. The race against Collins will be a massive step up to one of the nation’s biggest campaigns.
He is the closest thing to a one-to-one successor to Graham Platner, whose insurgent Senate campaign collapsed this month after a sexual assault allegation. Platner ranked Jackson his No. 1 choice in this year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, and the two men campaigned often together alongside Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a longtime Jackson ally.
Delegates are not formally bound to vote for Jackson at the July 25 convention under rules quickly devised by the Maine Democratic Party. But the delegates counted in Jackson’s tally are ones who appeared on his campaign’s published slate or otherwise publicly declared their support, giving him a claim to their votes heading into next weekend.
His home turf carries its own contradictions. The St. John Valley is ancestrally Democratic but has shifted sharply toward President Donald Trump and Republicans in both national and local races. Yet in 2023, he lost a race for Allagash selectman following a recount.
His voting record has shifted over time as well. Early in his career as a lawmaker, he backed abortion restrictions and opposed gun control measures in accordance with his socially conservative and heavily Catholic region. In recent years, he has championed abortion rights and gun control legislation.
Jackson’s path here wasn’t obvious months ago. He trailed for most of the governor’s race, raising relatively little money and finishing in third place. But he mobilized former Platner volunteers and his top allies in organized labor to run the best delegate operation ahead of the weekend county caucuses.
The polling picture is tight. One poll released early this month had him trailing Collins by a point. A SurveyUSA poll taken last week found him a point ahead. Sabato’s Crystal Ball is holding the race at a toss-up rating, writing that the Democratic caucuses were likely to help them land a “less damaged” nominee than Platner — “although that is a low bar.”
Money remains lopsided. Republican-aligned groups have spent or reserved $112.4 million so far, against $56.7 million on the Democratic side, according to AdImpact tracking data. Jackson said he isn’t worried yet with outside help likely rushing in from national Democrats. He also said his message won’t change against Collins.
“I’m just going to be talking about the things I’ve been talking about ever since I was on the border in ’98,” citing healthcare, prescription drug costs and childcare.
Jackson has weathered scrutiny as a top bogeyman for Republicans. In 2020, he sent Bath Iron Works a letter suggesting the Legislature could reconsider a $45 million tax break over hiring practices while being paid by the parent office of the shipyard’s union. A 2023 ethics complaint over his Augusta home was dismissed by a state regulator.
As Jackson closed out the caucuses Saturday, Collins was campaigning at the Maine Potato Blossom Festival in Fort Fairfield, which is also in Jackson’s old district.
“I was born in Caribou, and once a County Girl, always a County Girl,” she wrote on social media.