Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins dismissed her new presumptive Democratic opponent as a “Bernie Bro.”
The Caribou Republican made her comments about Troy Jackson, a former logger from Allagash, during a brief interview Wednesday with Manu Raju, CNN’s chief congressional correspondent. Raju was asking Collins about her past statements linking Jackson with the Democratic Party’s socialist wing.
“Well, he really is. You can tell, read his statements. He was Senator Sanders’ — lead for Senator Sanders’ presidential campaign in Maine. He’s a Bernie bro,” Collins told CNN at the U.S. Capitol.
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.
Party members lining up behind Jackson see him as a natural heir to Graham Platner, whose outsider campaign and working-class-style politics ignited the Democratic base before his Senate bid sank after an ex-girlfriend accused him of rape. 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 Collins in a theoretical matchup, with 2% of voters still undecided. He raised about $613,000 in the first three days after the weekend county nomination meetings, bringing his campaign war chest to $1 million.
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.