Who is Troy Jackson? What to know about the Democrat poised to replace Graham Platner in Maine’s pivotal Senate race.

Democrats in Maine are poised to officially name Troy Jackson, a progressive former logger with two decades of experience in state politics, as their nominee to replace Graham Platner on the ballot in one of the country's most pivotal Senate races.

Platner abruptly suspended his campaign earlier this month after a former romantic partner publicly accused him of sexual assault — the latest in a series of scandals that had plagued his candidacy for months. Jackson was one of roughly a dozen Democrats who declared their interest in becoming the party's nominee to challenge longtime Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in the wake of Platner's withdrawal. 

Jackson can't become the nominee until the Maine Democratic Party holds an emergency nominating convention on Saturday, but his nomination is effectively secured. He has the support of about 80% of the delegates who will vote at the convention, and all of his main competitors have dropped out of the race. 

Here's what to know about Troy Jackson as he emerges as a key player in the battle for control of the Senate in November. 

Who is Troy Jackson?

Jackson, 58, was born and raised in Aroostook County on Maine's northern border with Canada. The son of a logger, Jackson has described his early life as being "a poor kid in a town full of poor kids." He grew up to become a logger himself. 

His first taste of politics came in 1998, when he helped lead a weeklong blockade along the Quebec border to stop Canadian loggers — whom large landowners had hired at lower wages than he and his coworkers were seeking — from entering the U.S. At one point, several elected officials, including Collins, tried to broker a resolution, but no agreement was reached. The standoff ended with Jackson and two other loggers being escorted away by police. 

"That was government basically just telling everyone that (we're) just scumbags," he told the Portland Press-Herald in April. 

The incident inspired him to run for public office. He launched his first campaign for the Maine House of Representatives as a Republican in 2000 but lost. He was elected for the first time two years later, this time running as an independent. In 2004, he switched his party affiliation again to become a Democrat. 

Jackson served in the Maine Legislature for more than 20 years, eventually becoming president of the Maine Senate before leaving at the end of his term in 2024. He ran for governor earlier this year, finishing third in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. 

What policies does he support?

Like Platner, Jackson's policy positions place him squarely in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. He supports Medicare for All, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raising taxes on billionaires, nationwide abortion rights, ending U.S. military support for Israel, and LGBTQ rights. Though he doesn't identify as a democratic socialist, the Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America endorsed him during his gubernatorial campaign. 

Jackson's current political stances are a far cry from the positions he took earlier in his career, when he represented a deeply conservative region of Maine in the state legislature. That shift is especially evident on some hot-button social issues. He was a staunch opponent of abortion for over a decade. In 2011, he was the only Democrat in the Maine Senate to vote in favor of a proposed "fetal personhood" law, which ultimately failed. A year later, he reportedly said in an online questionnaire that abortion should be illegal in most circumstances, even when the pregnant woman's life is in danger. 

He also opposed same-sex marriage earlier in his career and voted against legalizing it in Maine in 2009. 

Jackson has recently said he regrets those past positions. He told the New York Times on Tuesday that he had "made mistakes" in understanding the issue of abortion and called his vote against same-sex marriage "my worst vote ever." His evolution on those issues is reflected in his voting record in the state legislature over the past decade, during which he has consistently backed measures to expand and protect abortion and LGBTQ rights. 

One issue on which he has been consistent throughout his career is his support for workers. He has been endorsed by dozens of local unions and received a perfect voting score from the Maine AFL-CIO during his last year in the state legislature.

How did we get here?

Jackson's unlikely path to becoming a Democratic Senate nominee began last summer, when a group of Democratic strategists launched a sweeping search for a candidate who could finally unseat Collins after decades of failed attempts. Their search led them to Platner, an oyster fisherman with no political experience but the progressive views and everyman persona they believed could allow him to connect with Maine voters. 

At first, the gambit appeared to be a masterstroke. Platner quickly became a national political figure and built a commanding lead in the Democratic Senate primary. His only significant rival, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out of the race two months before the primary. 

But Platner's candidacy was plagued by a series of scandals throughout the primary, including the revelation that he had a tattoo of a well-known Nazi symbol, the resurfacing of controversial online statements that he'd made in the past and claims that he had sent sexual messages to dozens of women as recently as last year. 

It was the allegations involving women from his past that ultimately sank Platner's campaign. In June, several women told the New York Times about "unsettling behavior" they said they had experienced while dating Platner, including allegations of intimidation and physical threats. Then, in early July, Politico published a report in which one of those women alleged that Platner had raped her. 

Calls for Platner to leave the race began immediately. Though he has denied the allegations, Platner announced four days later that he was suspending his campaign. 

Platner's abrupt exit left Maine Democrats with just over three weeks to choose a new nominee — not nearly enough time to hold another primary. Instead, the party opted to hold an emergency nominating convention, where delegates from across the state would select the nominee. 

At first, there was no clear favorite as Jackson and several other high-profile Democrats, including Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and gubernatorial primary runner-up Nirav Shah, entered the race. Two weeks later, however, Jackson had secured the support of enough convention delegates to make his nomination all but inevitable.  

What's next?

With the scramble to find a new Democratic nominee essentially over, the Maine Senate race can now settle into something closer to a typical campaign. Jackson has already begun criticizing Collins's decades-long record in the Senate. He's focused particularly on her votes to confirm some of the Supreme Court justices who later helped overturn the abortion protections of Roe. v Wade, her support for budget bills that cut spending on social programs, and her vote to approve billions in additional funding for President Trump's immigration crackdown. 

Collins, meanwhile, has worked to paint Jackson as too far to the left for Maine voters, recently calling him a "Bernie bro" — a common term for supporters of democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Jackson has also faced scrutiny in the press over his past positions on key issues and his leadership style while in the state legislature.  

The first poll conducted since Jackson became the presumptive nominee showed him leading Collins by a narrow margin, 49% to 46%. That's a significantly smaller lead than Platner held in a poll by the same pollster in May, when he led Collins by 9 points. 

It's also worth noting that Collins has repeatedly defied expectations when polls suggested she was vulnerable to an upset. In the lead-up to the 2020 election, polls consistently showed Collins trailing her Democratic challenger, Sara Gideon. She went on to win the race comfortably. 

Early midterm voting in Maine begins on Oct. 5. Election Day is Nov. 3.