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.
Troy Jackson has raised about $2 million for his U.S. Senate bid since securing the Democratic nomination.
Jackson, who got the official nod over the weekend during an unprecedented party convention in Bangor, was buoyed by 30,000 new donors, his campaign announced Monday morning.
To date, more than 58,000 individuals have donated to Jackson’s campaign.
“I’m humbled beyond words by the tens of thousands of people who have stepped up to become part of this campaign,” Jackson said in a statement.
Jackson is vying to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a fellow Aroostook County native, who he criticized Monday for her record of supporting President Donald Trump’s policies, including her votes to confirm Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Defeating her won’t be easy, and we’ll need everyone in this fight. But this response proves that people across Maine and the country are ready to come together and finish the job,” the former logger from Allagash said.
Party members who lined 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 a rape allegation sank his campaign this month. 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 last week gave Jackson a slight edge over 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 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.