U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is heading to Maine next weekend for three rallies with Democrat Troy Jackson, marking a boost from a national progressive ally just three weeks before Jackson faces Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
The Vermont independent and two-time presidential candidate will join Jackson on stage in Bangor on Saturday, Oct. 10, along with two more get-out-the-vote rallies in Lewiston and Biddeford the following Sunday.
“We’re excited to welcome Bernie Sanders to Maine to rally with Troy Jackson,” Jackson campaign spokesman Dan Gottlieb said in a statement. “Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them.”
The rallies with Sanders come ahead of an increasingly heated and tight race under the national spotlight as Democrats aim to deny Collins a historic sixth term and take back the Senate. Jackson has narrowly led most polls since he became the Democrats’ nominee in July. But Collins has led some, continuing to show strength among Democratic and independent voters who have helped her outperform Republicans and carry her to victories in the past.
The visit will be Sanders’ first public appearance in the state since he rallied in July in Bar Harbor with the man Jackson replaced on the ballot, Graham Platner, whose campaign collapsed after an ex-girlfriend accused him of rape.
Jackson, who was running for governor at the time, fired up the Bar Harbor crowd ahead of Sanders and Platner, who were also joined on stage by U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, and State Auditor Matt Dunlap, who faces former Gov. Paul LePage in the 2nd Congressional District matchup.
Jackson has been a longtime supporter of the Vermont progressive. The former Maine Senate president served as political director for Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign in Maine, and voted for him over Hillary Clinton as a superdelegate in that year’s Democratic National Convention.
Sanders, who had backed Platner before he was accused of sexual assault, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in August that he’d endorse Jackson if he asked for it.
“You want a working-class voice in Washington, D.C., Troy is certainly that voice,” he said. “I have seen his platform. It is a strong platform, standing up for working families, taking on the oligarchs, fighting for Medicare for All.”
Sanders in May 2025 was one of Jackson’s first prominent endorsers in what became his third-place gubernatorial run this year. He appeared at multiple rallies with Jackson and Platner across the state. Collins recently received an endorsement from former independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Next weekend’s rallies will come on the heels of the first two televised debates between Jackson and Collins, set for Tuesday and Thursday.
Jackson led Collins by 3 points in the latest AARP poll released Thursday. But no Republican in the group’s battleground Senate surveys is performing better with voters who split their tickets than Collins, who trailed every poll in 2020 before defeating former Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon by nearly 9 points.
Blake Kernen, a Collins campaign spokesperson, suggested the announcement of Sanders’ visit could be a bad sign for Jackson.
“If Troy Jackson needs help from one of the most partisan members of the Senate three weeks before Election Day, that’s a clear indication that Democrats don’t think they even have their base locked in,” she said.