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Happy Monday morning! It’s a great day to get outside if you can; temperatures will peak in the high 70s, with sunny skies and a breezy wind. But the next couple days will be cloudy, and there’s a good chance for rain Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Inside Troy Jackson’s delegate sweep, and the undecided voters it rolled over

Troy Jackson shakes hands with a voter entering the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on June 9, 2026. Credit: Linda Coan O'Kresik / BDN

Troy Jackson is poised to clinch the Democratic nomination to replace Graham Platner as his party’s champion to face off with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins this November.

Jackson flexed his organizing muscle over the weekend, securing pledges from more than 450 of the 500 delegates nominated during county party meetings. That leaves roughly 150 delegates in play ahead of the unprecedented convention this coming Sunday to nominate Platner’s replacement.

Already other big-name contenders have bowed out of the race, including Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former Maine public health chief Nirav Shah, Maine Beer Co. co-founder Dan Kleban and former 2nd Congressional District candidate Jordan Wood.

Democrats are scrambling to put Platner behind them as the party faces a shorter window to campaign against the Republican incumbent. Supporters see Jackson, who comes from the former Democratic stronghold of the St. John Valley, now deep red, as a strong candidate to take on Collins.

“Troy has a history of winning in deep red districts. I think that just makes him the most likely candidate to win,” 31-year-old software engineer Ethan Standel said.

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