Troy Jackson secures Democratic nomination for Maine Senate seat after chaotic primary race

Progressive former state senate president gains nomination after Graham Platner dropped out over sexual assault allegations

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. “If you’ve ever been ignored, underestimated, pushed around or told that you have to wait your turn while the rich cut the line, I’m asking you to stand with us in this campaign.”

Jackson’s 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 before the official vote. “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, who finished third in the ranked‑choice gubernatorial primary, won the snap convention by a vote of 566-5 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 before 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 30 years, she’s told us that she’s ‘concerned’. But look, concern is not courage,” Jackson said on Saturday, as supporters waved “Retire Susan” placards in the audience. “What she says in Maine does not erase what she does down in 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’s fundraising lead and the momentum Platner built after months of statewide travel, town halls and a grassroots surge strong enough to force the term‑limited 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 without naming Platner.

“Today we turn the page. Today this becomes a general election campaign, and today we begin the work of defeating Susan Collins in November,” Jackson said.

A number of delegates said that Jackson’s proximity to Platner’s messaging shouldn’t be off-putting. “It never was about the person, but about the policies,” said Lydia Stone, 31, who lives in North Yarmouth and works for a company that sells forestry supplies. “I think what Graham said he was, I think Troy Jackson actually is.”

Many people in Bangor noted that it was crucial for Jackson to be meeting voters as much as possible in the 101 days until the election.

“It’s going to be difficult because there’s a short window window of time, but I would say to get out there as much as he can into especially those rural communities like where he’s from, and actually be there,” said Lisa Marin, 69, who lives in Jonesport and chairs the Washington county Democratic committee.

Marin added: “That was one of the things in the Platner campaign that I think was really helpful for Graham – he was out there and really meeting people where they are. And I know Troy wants to do that, and as much as he can, I feel like that’s what he needs to do.”