July 28th , 2026 Len’s Political Note #827 Troy Jackson Maine US Senate
2026 General Election
Let’s give Troy Jackson a big push. We want him to defeat Incumbent Susan Collins. We need him to defeat Susan Collins to move the US Senate to a Democratic majority.
Maine Democrats created a rapid and public process to select a new nominee for the Senate after Graham Platner withdrew. A rape accusation by an ex-girlfriend proved to be the final straw after a barrage of critical stories about him,
Troy Jackson, with the help of unions in Maine, conducted a master class of organizing for that convention. Lining up delegates in county after county, the former State Senate President and the third-place finisher in the primary for Governor, had 90% of the delegates before the convention began. His organization was so effective his major opponents for the nomination withdrew from the race immediately after convention delegates were elected.
Fifty-eight years old, with an Associate’s Degree from the University of Maine at Fort Kent, Troy Jackson was born to 16 year-old Colleen McBraeity in Fort Kent. You can find a You Tube conversation of the two of them about parenthood in rural Maine, economics and education, and, before he came in third, the governor’s race.
With a population of 4,000, a fair number of whom are French speakers, Fort Kent is at the very northern tip of the State of Maine. Troy Jackson ives in Allagash where he went to high school. According to the 2020 the town’s population was 237, a decline of 2 from the 2010 census. About 50 of the residents were French speakers in this tiny town south of the bigger small town Fort Kent.
Northern Maine is Republican country. Like his dad; like most people in the area, Troy Jackson grew up a Republican. Even so, he was schooled in the relationship between workers and the corporations they worked for. The Portland Press Herald reports about 12 year old Troy Jackson with his dad (around the time that his still young parents got divorced) and other loggers getting ready to speak to Jim Irving of the Irving Conglomerate.
The loggers were on strike, seeking higher wagers and opposing the mechanical harvesting of trees that would reduce the required number of loggers. Jim Irving drove up, got out of his care and told the loggers: “go back to your jobs at your current wages or else I’m going to replace you with Canadians in the morning.”
The loggers went back to work. Troy Jackson recalls ithe loss is not just a matter of wages, after a confrontation like that: “You lose your sense of pride, your sense of dignity.”
Years later, 1998, in his late 20s and a logger himself, Troy Jackson, faced the actuality of the logging companies hiring Canadians at lower wages. He also came to appreciate the importance of effective organizing. Among the leaders of a group that conducted a week-long blockade to keep Canadian loggers from entering the United States and bringing down their pay, they planned on ninety American loggers to help with the blockade. Fifteen showed up.
The loggers met with Senators Collins and Snowe and their Congressman to no effect. When they returned to the blockade, they were stopped. Troy Jackson would try politics next.
In 2000, he ran for State Rep as a Republican. Now he recalls that he chose Republican because of the Bushes and their ties to Maine. Maybe. But Maine’s history had been as a Republican state. And the incumbent State Rep was a Democrat.
Troy Jackson lost the race in 2000. He ran again in 2002 as an independent and defeated the incumbent. In 2004, he switched parties and joined the Democrats. He was convinced because the Democrats supported allowing loggers and truckers to bargain collectively with owners of the land whose trees they would log.
Troy Jackson progressed politically in Maine – moving to the Senate in 2008, becoming President of the Senate in 2018. His views on cultural issues changed. Initially, anti-abortion, by 2012 he was supporting abortion rights. Initially endorsed by the NRA for his gun rights position, his gradual transition to a supporter of gun safety legislation became complete after the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine in 2023.
The core of his politics, however, has not changed. His focus has been and still is economic support for workers. As Senate President, he saw himself as dragging Governor Janet Mills toward limiting pharmaceutical price increases (She vetoed a bill he had gotten passed), to finally adopting a 2% additional tax on income above one million dollars (adopted in her final budget when Troy Jackson advocated a 4% tax and elimination of higher income tax rate cuts passed under the former governor and now congressional candidate Paul LePage).
Troy Jackson had campaigned with Graham Platner until the withdrawal. Troy Jackson makes no claims to the charisma that was part of Platner’s persona. Nor is Troy Jackson a polished speaker in the way that Platner was. But Troy Jackson does find a touch of Trumpian rhetoric. His plan described in the Governor’s race to purchase American goods, preferably good manufactured in Maine was called: “Buy American, Build Maine.”
Troy Jackson has put together a website for his US Senate run quickly. A Boston Globe reader has described the political platform outlined in the website in a statement below. He explained, in reply to those who claim Troy Jackson is a radical, his own reaction as a more conventional Democratic liberal and his comfort with Jackson’s positions.
- Pass Medicare for all (I’d prefer a public option, but ok to reach for the stars)
• Lower the cost of prescription drugs (Yes, but it will be very difficult)
• Tax billionaires more and make sure corporations don’t avoid taxes (Yes)
• Deliver tax cuts for the working class (Maybe a little)
• Dismantle and abolish ICE (and transfer its functions to other agencies, sure)
• Pass a federal right to abortion (no brainer)
• End the genocide in Gaza, no U.S. tax dollars to Israel’s military (also a no brainer)
• Protect the right to vote and organize for every American (no brainer)
• Pass comprehensive civil rights legislation protecting LGBTQ+ (shouldn’t even be necessary)
• Ban members of Congress from trading stock (no brainer)
• Overturn Citizens United and get dark money out of politics (no brainer)
I have said little about the incumbent, Susan Collins, who Troy Jackson is opposing. Collins has made a career about appearing to be moderate by voting for moderate positions when her vote did not affect the outcome. The people of Maine and people in the rest of the country seem to have figured out that when her vote was needed, to confirm the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, for instance, her vote was there for the conservatives and for Donald Trump.
This new clarity has made Susan Collins vulnerable. Notwithstanding her extraordinary financial resources. – she began July with more than $11 million in the bank while Troy Jackson had spent most of his campaign money running for governor – she is behind in the only poll since Graham Platner withdrew. Troy Jackson led Susan Collins in a University of New Hampshire poll by 49-46. That poll, to the extent it is predictive of November 3, which it is not, is within a short reach of putting Troy Jackson over the majority in a race in which only 5% of the population has not made up its mind.
Help Troy Jackson win over that 5%.d DONATE to his campaign.
Other Maine Races
Governor: Former State House Speaker Hannah Pingree, served as head of the Office of Innovation under Governor Janet Mills. As Speaker, she was effective in building coalitions, in the Office of Innovation, she led a plan to install more than 100,000 heat pumps against the opposition of the heating oil industry. She has double digit lead percent leads in June and July polls over for US Assistant Secretary of State Bobby Charles. DONATE if you want to confirm your support.
Maine 02. Matt Dunlap is a former four term state rep in a state where the legislature elects the State Treasurer and State Auditor, positions to which Matt Dunlap has been elected. A pro-labor, pro-Medicare for All, pro-choice, and anti-Trump candidate he is running in Maine’s conservative Congressional district against former Maine governor Paul LePage who describes himself as Donald Trump before there was a Donald Trump. After gaining the nomination, a Dunlap funded poll gave him a 1 point lead over LePage. That will not do him any good without resources. On June 30, LePage had $1.7 million to spend; Matt Dunlap had only $200,000. DONATE to help narrow the gap.
Other Northern New England Contests
New Hampshire: US Senator Chris Pappas is a former Congressman, known as a political moderate, scion of a restaurant-owning, political family who is married to a man. Except for a Republican funded poll in which he led former US Senator John Sununu by a point, he has led by as much as 12 and 14 points, by as little as 3 and 6 points in polls in June. He is winning the financial race as well. On June 30, Chris Pappas reported having $5.2 million available to John Sununu’s $2.7 million. DONATE. Help Chris Pappas. This race is not done, by any means, but Chris Pappas is definitely ahead.
New Hampshire. Governor. Former Executive Councilor Cinde Warrington will not have a primary opponent and will face former US Senator and incumbent Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte. Earlier polls had Ayotte leading by double digits. Polls in June reduced the lead to between 5 and 8 points. Ayotte leads the financial race by more. She has raised a total of $3.7 million to Cinde Warrington’s $600,000. DONATE to Cinde Warrington’s campaign. In an election year with Chris Pappas at the head of the ticket and distaste for Donald Trump extends into northern New England, Cinde Warrington could have a chance to win.
Vermont governor. Economist Amanda Janoo or Medical School Board Chair Aly Richards are competing for the chance to take on Republican Phil Scott who is running for his 6th two year term as Governor of a state which has otherwise become overwhelmingly Democratic. Would either of these Democrats appeal sufficiently to those same Vermonters who have elected Bernie Sanders four times as their US Senator? Born and raised in Vermont, Janoo is something of an international figure who has urged universal health care and construction of more housing all funded through innovative taxes on the wealthy and out of staters. Richards has been involved in Vermont politics for decades, leading in the development of the state’s childcare system. If you were looking for someone with practical Vermont experience, you might DONATE to Aly Richards. It will be a challenge, though, to prevent Scott from gaining his sixth term.
