Politics
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In less than two weeks, Troy Jackson went from an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate resigned to helping his party behind the scenes and enjoying prime fishing in his native Allagash, to the Democrats’ presumptive U.S. Senate nominee.
The former state Senate president is poised to replace scandal-plagued Graham Platner on the ballot against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November. After rallying a strong majority of delegates ahead of a 600-member convention on Saturday, Jackson and his allies are pushing to keep the momentum going, capitalizing on strong ties to labor and progressive organizers while pressing for much-needed support from national Democrats.
“The size of [Jackson’s] campaign is going to go up tenfold,” David Farmer, a Democratic consultant, said. “The other side has such an enormous amount of money. The secret for Troy will be to hang on to the attention he’s getting.”
While Republicans have said Democrats are likely to level the playing field, the GOP has a significant head start on Jackson. He was the only Democrat in the gubernatorial primary who relied on outside funding for TV ads. Now he has only a little more than three months to wage a campaign under the national spotlight with control of the Senate on the line.
Standing beside a red pickup truck decked out in Jackson signs before he rallied supporters in Sanford on Sunday who helped him out-organize other contenders who dropped out later that day, the longtime logger reflected on his high-stakes political environment. He said he’s ready for criticism on the campaign trail but has concerns about the toll on his family.
“The opportunity to win this seat that’s so important is really daunting,” he said in an interview. “I don’t want to let people down.”
He said that his campaign has a growing army of organizers continuing to make calls on his behalf and a progressive message, including support for universal health care, that has already bested a popular opponent in former public health chief Nirav Shah, who “was on TV for 18 months straight and had way more name recognition than us.”
In a Monday memo, Jackson’s campaign said its “full focus” was on defeating Collins. His team noted it quickly mobilized almost 100 volunteers, contacted more than 11,000 Democrats and received contributions from 10,000 individual donors after first announcing the Senate bid less than two weeks ago.
Collins and Republican-aligned groups have already spent or booked more than $112 million to help her keep the seat in a midterm year strategists expect to be tough for Republicans nationwide, according to AdImpact tracking data. That’s compared to less than $57 million for Democrats. Of that, $13 million was already invested in Platner, whose state and national support vanished after Politico reported an ex-girlfriend’s rape allegation earlier this month.
AdImpact said Monday that the upheaval in the race had not forced any revisions to its June projection that Maine could host the fourth-most expensive Senate race in the country. A battleground lost three times by President Donald Trump and won by Collins for five terms, Maine could see almost $400 million in ad spending in the contest.
After national Democrats threatened to pull investment from the state if Platner remained on the ballot, they appeared to be on board with Jackson, who was the preferred choice among Platner’s progressive base.
The Democrats’ Senate campaign arm says it’s fully committed to winning the state. The group immediately launched a nominee fund after Platner’s exit. Following Saturday’s convention, it said that fund will be transferred directly to the nominee’s campaign.
The Republican National Committee showed its opening strategy in defining Jackson on Monday, calling the Maine Democrats’ process as a “backroom deal” to crown “socialist king.” Noting Jackson’s history as a Republican and independent in his earliest runs for political office more than 20 years ago, Christopher Nicholas, a Pennsylvania GOP consultant who’s worked on Senate campaigns, called that “an ingenious way to try to be all things to all people.”
“Kamala Harris had more days to run as a replacement candidate and we saw how that worked out for her,” he said in a reference to the former vice president’s 2024 replacement of then-President Joe Biden on the party’s ticket.
But Jackson’s supporters say their ground game gives them a leg up. Labor groups long enthusiastic about the former lawmaker are just getting started, Jason Shedlock, the president of the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council, said. Rallies like the one in Sanford Sunday morning are a fun “break for us,” he said, but he and other Jackson allies are still busy working the phones and ramping up outreach to volunteers, donors and organizers.
“It comes down to just talking to people,” Lori Poland, a postal worker and Jackson delegate from Windham, said.. “Troy’s going to have the most people on the ground and has support from organizations that are really good at reaching a lot of people. Door to door, every day, that’s the work.”