{"id":15961,"date":"2026-07-24T18:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15961"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:30:26","slug":"troy-jackson-cruises-towards-maine-senate-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15961","title":{"rendered":"Troy Jackson Cruises Towards Maine Senate Nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n\r\n<br><div id=\"article-content\">\n            \n\n\n\n\n<p>Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson is on track to become the official Democratic Senate nominee as the Saturday convention will cap a surprisingly smooth process to replace Graham Platner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>A fifth-generation logger, Jackson\u2019s deep labor ties and union support helped him dominate the delegate nominating contests. His performance was so impressive that the other serious Maine Senate contenders \u2014 including former director of Maine\u2019s Center for Disease Control and Prevention Nirav Shah, who placed ahead of Jackson in the gubernatorial primary they both ran in this cycle \u2014\u00a0dropped out of the race. A planned debate was cancelled, and Saturday\u2019s nominating convention has turned into more of a Jackson campaign party.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The must-win race looked dire for Democrats until just a few weeks ago, with Platner incrementally sinking under the weight of his collective scandals until a rape allegation ended his campaign. After his <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/graham-platner-primary-maine-senate\" target=\"_blank\">resounding win<\/a> in the primary, many in the party thought they were stuck with Platner, though increasingly wary of yet-undiscovered skeletons in his closet.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>When Platner dropped out, Maine Democrats had only a few weeks to pick his replacement. Dangers abounded: In a fiercely anti-establishment atmosphere, the state party could not be seen as anointing a favored successor. The pool of options mostly consisted of uninspiring also-rans who failed to secure the Democratic nomination in other races. And a lightning-fast timeline meant less time to vet the candidate, a frightening proposition to those who just watched Platner\u2019s star fall.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Jackson allayed some of those fears. Having campaigned with Platner, he shared the former Senate candidate\u2019s progressive policies, and was a natural home for many Platner supporters. Still, he\u2019s been in Maine politics since 2000 and was chosen to lead the state Senate in 2018 after many years in leadership roles, making him less of an unknown. He has a track record of winning races in deep red parts of Maine, making him a compelling pick in a race where the Democrat will need to pick off voters who have pulled the lever for Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in the past.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>But he\u2019s not without weaknesses. As evidenced by his lackluster third place finish in the gubernatorial primary, he turned in a disappointing campaign as recently as a month ago. He\u2019ll likely have an easier time raising money in this race, with the national spigot turned on for him, though he only has just over three months to fill his coffers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>And while he seems to lack Platner\u2019s baggage, he also lacks his charisma. He\u2019s not a gifted public speaker, and his recent debate performance was wooden and awkward. He began his political career as a Republican and was <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/the-race-to-unseat-susan-collins-is-resetting-around-abortion\" target=\"_blank\">slow to evolve on abortion rights<\/a> and same-sex marriage \u2014 though in-state Democrats forgave his heterodoxy, especially given his ability to flip and hold his state Senate district even amid the 2010 Republican wave that gave the GOP its first trifecta in Maine since 1963.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Collins has defied political gravity so far, and remains a formidable candidate. Still, there\u2019s at least a couple early hopeful signs for Jackson: A University of New Hampshire <a href=\"https:\/\/scholars.unh.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1980&amp;context=survey_center_polls\" target=\"_blank\">poll<\/a> released Tuesday already has him up three points on the longtime senator, 49% to Collins\u2019 46, and he\u2019s already raked in <a href=\"https:\/\/us.list-manage.com\/kNWsP51sBZR?e=3f001ac460&amp;c2id=a466b256208e980db000439737ca94b9&amp;m=t1EwRR05mtJLNxMeS1Wfzaq6xMsOwJE6O4z-WDTvv9aEvMsapU2T7AudqF3_\" target=\"_blank\">$1 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->          <\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n        appId: \"101800829865996\",\n        xfbml: true,\n        version: ' v2.6'\n      });\n      window.fbAsyncInit.__didInit = true;\n    };\n    (function(d, s, id) {\n      var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n      if (d.getElementById(id)) {\n        return;\n      }\n      js = d.createElement(s);\n      js.id = id;\n      js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n      fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n  <\/script>\r\n<br><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson is on track to become the official Democratic Senate nominee as the Saturday convention will cap a surprisingly smooth process to replace Graham Platner. A fifth-generation logger, Jackson\u2019s deep labor ties and union support helped him dominate the delegate nominating contests. His performance was so impressive that the other&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-450436462.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}