Politics
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Troy Jackson’s war chest has swelled to $1 million for his U.S. Senate campaign.
The man from Allagash is poised to walk away with the Maine Democratic Party’s nomination to replace Graham Platner, whose own campaign collapsed this month after an ex-girlfriend accused him of rape, on November’s ballot.
More than half of that money ($613,000) was raised since Sunday, with nearly 27,300 contributions from more than 24,600 individuals, his campaign announced Wednesday.
“I’m damn grateful to every person who has chipped in five, ten, or twenty dollars because they believe working people deserve a senator who will fight for them,” Jackson said in a statement. “This campaign is powered by people who are sick of watching billionaires and corporations buy influence while working families get screwed. Together, we’re building the grassroots movement it will take to defeat Susan Collins and give Maine a senator who answers to working people.”
During this past weekend’s county nomination meetings, Jackson flexed his organizing muscle to secure pledges from more than 450 of the 500 delegates nominated for this Saturday’s unprecedented party convention at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, where 601 delegates will pick Platner’s replacement.
Already Jackson’s biggest rivals, 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, have bowed out of the race. He will still face two other contenders — David Costello and Saundra Pelletier — this weekend.
Party members lining up behind Jackson see him as a natural heir to Platner, whose outsider campaign and working-class-style politics ignited the Democratic base. Jackson has a track record of winning races in the St. John Valley, a former Democratic stronghold that’s now deep red, and a history of fighting for pro-labor policies.
A University of New Hampshire poll released Tuesday gave Jackson a slight edge over U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in a theoretical matchup, with 2% of voters still undecided.
It will be an uphill battle for Democrats to unseat Collins, who officially announced her historic bid for a sixth term in February. The Republican has handily beaten back challengers, including in 2020 when she defied polls and expectations to secure a fifth term in the Senate. But Collins, who has been ranked the country’s most bipartisan senator, has seen her popularity slump since Republican President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.
If Collins is successful in winning a sixth term, she would be Maine’s longest-serving U.S. senator.