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In a race defined by scandal, withdrawals and a frantic hunt for a replacement candidate, Maine Democrats hit reset on their chaotic Senate primary on Saturday as Troy Jackson officially secured the party’s nomination.
He took the stage at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor to rapturous applause, a standing ovation and Noah Kahan’s Northern Attitude blaring over the speakers. “This is the absolute honor of my life,” Jackson said.
His win amounted to a coronation for the progressive fifth‑generation logger and former state senate president, who faced no real opposition at the special convention after every major rival stepped aside. Their exits cleared the path for Jackson to replace Graham Platner – the oysterman and marine veteran who ended his campaign amid mounting controversies that culminated in a sexual assault allegation he has denied.
Platner dropped out days after Politico reported that a woman he dated five years ago said he forced her to have sex despite repeated objections. His withdrawal triggered a breakneck scramble inside the Maine Democratic party to devise a process for selecting a new nominee before the state’s 27 July deadline to select a replacement for the general‑election ballot.
“I know many of you poured your hearts into building this movement way before I ever entered this race,” Jackson said on Saturday. “But the hope that you built never belonged to anyone campaigning. It belongs to every Mainer who knows that healthcare is a human right, belongs to every worker fighting for a union, a living wage and a dignified environment.”
Jackson, 58, finished third in the ranked‑choice gubernatorial primary, won the support of 566 delegates out of the almost 600 present on Saturday. But his victory was all but assured once a majority of Mainers who won county‑level delegate elections last weekend pledged to back him ahead of the convention. The remaining delegates come from the state party committee.
By Sunday, as Jackson’s nomination became inevitable, all of his major challengers bowed out of the hastily assembled contest. That included fellow gubernatorial contenders – former Maine CDC director Nirav Shah and the Maine secretary of state, Shenna Bellows – as well as Jordan Wood, the former congressional candidate who ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for Maine’s second district.
“The easy solution”, said the Maine Democratic party chair, Charlie Dingman, would be to let the state committee select the new nominee. “Instead, we responded to the growing grassroots movement in our state to build power for ordinary working people,” he said.
However, some Democratic voters said the convention process was still not representative of the more than 200,000 voters who turned out in the primary to elect Platner in June.
Jackson will now face the five‑term Republican incumbent, Susan Collins, in one of the most closely watched races of the midterm cycle – for a seat Democrats view as central to their audacious plan to retake the Senate. They need four pickups nationwide in November, and Maine is integral to that strategy. Collins is also the only Republican in the upper chamber seeking re-election in a state that Kamala Harris won in 2024.
“For nearly 30 years, Collins has told me that she is concerned,” Jackson said on Saturday as supporters waved ‘Retire Susan’ placards in the audience. “Maine does not need another six years of concern … We need a fighter who remembers exactly who sent them to Washington.”
Preliminary polling from the University of New Hampshire shows Jackson with a slight edge over Collins, a moderate GOP senator who has been politically untouchable for the past three decades. And while Jackson is well known in Maine political circles, his nascent campaign will have to accelerate quickly to match Collins’ fundraising lead and the momentum Platner built after months of statewide travel, town halls and a grassroots surge strong enough to force term‑limited the governor, Janet Mills, out of the Democratic primary in April.
Jackson, who began his political career as a Republican and once opposed abortion and gay marriage, is now staunchly progressive and campaigned alongside Platner’s economic‑populist platform, even earning Platner’s endorsement during his own unsuccessful run for governor. Both points are likely to feature prominently in the efforts by Collins and conservative groups to undermine his political acumen in the months ahead.
Shortly after Platner exited the race, Jackson tried to distance himself from the turmoil – telling MS Now that Platner assured him there was “nothing in his past that I had to worry about”.
“He lied to me. And he lied to a lot of us,” Jackson said in an interview after Platner posted an 11‑minute video announcing his withdrawal. In Bangor on Saturday, the new nominee insisted the chaos that has consumed the Democratic race was in the rearview mirror.
English (US) ·