Troy Jackson launches his first general election ad in Maine Senate race, criticizing Susan Collins

Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson is launching his first general election ad, highlighting his own background as a labor organizer and going after Republican Sen. Susan Collins .

The 30-second spot, narrated by Jackson, is backed by a seven-figure buy slated to begin airing statewide next week, his campaign told NBC News on Saturday.

“I’m a fifth-generation logger and the son of a public school teacher. My dad would work 16-hour days, and that still wasn’t enough. So when they tried to replace us with foreign labor, I led a blockade of the border,” Jackson says in the ad. “Susan Collins didn’t help us then, and she’s certainly not helping us now. We’re all getting crushed out here. Healthcare, housing, heat.”

“We’ve gotta fight back. We’re all hungry for it. Maine is ready for a change,” Jackson concludes.

The new ad points to Jackson’s strategy against Collins: paint her as a part of an establishment that is failing struggling Mainers.

It comes one week after Jackson accepted his party’s nomination for the seat at a convention in Bangor, replacing Graham Platner, who won the June primary but dropped out after a former girlfriend’s allegation of sexual assault, which he denied.

Collins, who was first elected in 1996, is running for a sixth term. She is campaigning as a moderate who brings money home to Maine, pointing to her chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee, and as someone who’s sometimes willing to break with President Donald Trump and her party’s leaders.

Maine, a blue-leaning state, represents one of the best pickup opportunities for Democrats, who need a net gain of four seats to capture control of the Senate.