It’s official! Maine Democrats selected former State Senate President Troy Jackson as their new candidate to challenge Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins in November at a hastily organized party convention in Bangor on Saturday.
Jackson’s Campaign
As reported on Monday’s AM Update, the long-time state lawmaker and fifth-generation logger secured the nomination by a vote of 566 to five. Jackson is replacing former Democrat nominee Graham Platner, who withdrew from the race after earlier this month amid multiple sexual assault allegations that he denies.
Jackson now has just under 100 days to win over the grassroots activists who had rallied behind Platner’s lightning-rod campaign and gain the support needed to defeat Collins. The race is one of the country’s most closely watched Senate contests because Democrats view flipping the seat as critical to their chances of regaining the majority.
In his Saturday acceptance speech, Jackson outlined his platform:
“I am running to pass Medicare for All; to take on corporate price gouging and build housing that folks in this state can actually afford; and I’m running to protect Social Security and Medicare – they are not going to touch that – and give every worker the freedom to organize a union without intimidation or retaliation; and I will fight to restore abortion rights nationwide. I’m gonna stand shoulder to shoulder with our LGBTQ Mainers and stand up to Donald Trump and ICE when they attack our workers, terrorize our neighbors, and threaten the freedoms generations of us fought to secure.”
Political Evolution
Jackson appears to be campaigning on a conventional progressive platform despite facing years of criticism from the left over positions he held earlier in his political career. CNN uncovered candidate questionnaires from 2004 and 2010 that show Jackson once took a sweeping anti-abortion stance.
A then-42-year-old Jackson reportedly responded in a 2010 survey that abortion should never be legal, declining to select exceptions involving rape, incest, fetal disability, or protecting the mother’s health. In that same questionnaire, Jackson expressed support for requiring women seeking abortions to receive information about the procedure’s risks, available alternatives, fetal development, and fetal pain along with viewing a fetal monitor or ultrasound before proceeding.
But Jackson’s position shifted substantially over the following decade. He eventually got to the point of supporting the creation of a federal right to abortion and earned perfect ratings from Planned Parenthood beginning in 2017.
As Maine Senate president in 2023, Jackson co-sponsored one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country. The legislation allows the procedure after fetal viability whenever a physician determines it necessary.
Questions about the sincerity and timing of Jackson’s evolution surfaced earlier this year during his unsuccessful campaign for the Democrat nomination for governor. A 2022 profile in local outlet Maine Public reported that he had come fully around on same-sex marriage, while still acknowledging that he “admits to struggling with abortion.”
314 Action Fund, a Democrat PAC supporting his then-primary opponent, later used that admission to attack Jackson in TV ads. The then-gubernatorial hopeful denounced the ads as false, pointing to what he called his “sterling” abortion-rights record over the previous decade.
CNN noted Jackson’s positions during his first decade in elected office were substantially more restrictive than Sen. Collins’ stated views. The long-time GOP senator has identified as an abortion-rights supporter and backed bipartisan efforts to codify Roe v. Wade and called the decision overturn it “ill-considered.”
With the election now 99 days away, a University of New Hampshire poll from last week found Jackson held a slight lead at 49 percent compared to Collins’ 46 percent.
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