BANGOR, Maine — Maine Democrats selected former state Senate President Troy Jackson on Saturday as their replacement nominee to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, completing an emergency nomination process triggered by the withdrawal of Democratic primary winner Graham Platner.
Jackson received 566 of the 571 votes cast at the party’s nominating convention in Bangor. Saundra Pelletier, a women’s-health biotechnology executive and the only other remaining candidate, received five votes.
The party faced a July 27 deadline to place a replacement nominee on the November ballot.
Platner formally withdrew July 10 after a former girlfriend accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021. Platner has categorically denied the allegation. His withdrawal followed the loss of support from prominent Democratic officials and organizations that had previously backed his campaign.
Platner, an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran, had overwhelmingly won Maine’s June Democratic primary after Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign before Election Day. His victory had been viewed as a significant win for progressive and anti-establishment activists seeking to defeat Collins.
His withdrawal forced the Maine Democratic Party to use a replacement process it had never previously employed.
More than 600 delegates were selected to participate in the convention, primarily through county-level meetings held the previous weekend. Jackson’s supporters dominated those meetings, giving him a commanding delegate advantage before the convention began. Most of his leading competitors—including Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah, Jordan Wood and Dan Kleban—withdrew after Jackson’s delegate strength became clear.
The party initially certified four candidates for the convention ballot: Jackson, Pelletier, David Costello and Kleban. By Saturday, the contest had effectively narrowed to Jackson and Pelletier.
From Allagash to the Senate Nomination
Jackson, 58, is a fifth-generation logger from Allagash, a small community near the Canadian border in northern Maine.
He spent more than two decades in the Maine Legislature and served as president of the Maine Senate before leaving because of term limits in 2024. Jackson initially entered politics as a Republican, later ran as an independent and joined the Democratic Party in 2004.
Jackson has developed close ties to organized labor and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. He ran Bernie Sanders’ Maine operation during the 2016 presidential campaign and currently supports policies including Medicare for All and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Those positions are expected to become central to Republican efforts to portray him as too far to the left for Maine. Collins has already characterized Jackson as a “Bernie Bro” whose positions align with socialism.
A Race With National Consequences
Republicans currently hold a 53-47 advantage in the United States Senate. Democrats would likely need to gain four seats to take control while a Republican occupies the White House, making Maine one of the party’s most important offensive opportunities.
Collins is the only Republican senator seeking reelection in a state Donald Trump lost in 2024. She has served in the Senate since 1997 and has built a reputation as a moderate Republican who emphasizes constituent services, federal appropriations and occasional breaks with her party.
She also begins the general-election campaign with a substantial financial advantage.
Federal Election Commission records show that Collins raised approximately $16.2 million during the 2025-26 election cycle and had roughly $11 million in cash available as of June 30. Jackson’s campaign said it raised more than $1 million shortly after he entered the Senate race, but he must construct a statewide federal campaign with fewer than four months remaining before Election Day.
An University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll conducted July 15-20 showed Jackson receiving 49% support among likely voters, compared with 46% for Collins. The result falls within the survey’s 2.9-point margin of error, placing the candidates in a statistical tie.
The general election is scheduled for Nov. 3.
Maine Democrats Replaced Their Candidate. They Still Have to Repair the Campaign.
Maine Democrats accomplished their most immediate task Saturday.
They selected a legally eligible nominee before the deadline, avoided a divided convention and preserved their ability to compete in one of the few states where the party has a realistic opportunity to defeat a Republican incumbent.
But choosing Troy Jackson does not erase the circumstances that made the emergency convention necessary. The party now has a replacement candidate. It does not yet have a fully repaired campaign.
Jackson’s greatest immediate advantage is that he can inherit much of the political coalition Platner assembled. Both men campaigned as economically progressive, anti-establishment advocates focused on labor, healthcare and corporate power. Jackson was also closely aligned with Platner during the primary season, and many activists who supported Platner moved quickly into Jackson’s delegate operation following the withdrawal. That transfer of support helped Jackson dominate the abbreviated nomination process.
It also creates his first strategic problem.
Jackson must persuade Platner’s voters that their movement continues while convincing the broader electorate that his candidacy is independent of Platner’s conduct and the party’s failure to identify or adequately address warning signs before the primary.
Republicans will attempt to make the relationship inseparable. They can point to Jackson campaigning with Platner, accepting his endorsement and defending the broader political movement that elevated him.
Jackson’s response will probably be that the policies never belonged to one candidate.
That may satisfy progressive activists. Whether it satisfies independent voters will be a more difficult test.
Organizing Delegates Is Not the Same as Winning Maine
Jackson’s delegate victory demonstrated impressive organizational strength.
His campaign activated former supporters, labor relationships and a statewide network built during his unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign. Within days, Jackson transformed an open competition into a nearly unanimous convention result. But a party convention rewards a different political skill set than a general election.
Delegates are disproportionately engaged party activists. Maine’s November electorate includes a large number of independents, moderate Democrats and voters who have repeatedly supported Collins even while choosing Democratic presidential candidates.
Collins demonstrated that distinction in 2020. Polls frequently showed her trailing Democrat Sara Gideon, but Collins ultimately won reelection by nearly nine percentage points while Maine supported Joe Biden for president by a similar margin.
Jackson cannot assume that Maine’s federal partisanship will automatically carry him.
He must demonstrate that his appeal extends beyond the activists who controlled the convention.
The Financial and Institutional Race
Jackson also begins with two disadvantages that organizing alone cannot immediately solve: time and money.
Collins has spent years building a national donor network and occupies a powerful position in the Senate as chair of the Appropriations Committee. Jackson has approximately 100 days to introduce himself as a federal candidate, construct campaign infrastructure and respond to what will likely become one of the country’s most expensive Senate races.
National Democratic organizations now face their own decision.
Jackson emerged from the progressive wing rather than from the party establishment. He has criticized Senate Democratic leadership and built his reputation around challenging corporate and institutional power. But defeating Collins will almost certainly require substantial outside support from the same national organizations Jackson has criticized. His campaign must decide how to accept that assistance without undermining the political identity that allowed him to inherit Platner’s voters.
The emergency process demonstrated that the Maine Democratic Party could react quickly under pressure.
It created a delegate system, conducted county meetings, certified candidates and selected a replacement before the statutory deadline. The process prevented the collapse of the party’s most important Senate opportunity.
What it could not do was recreate the primary.
More than 150,000 voters selected Platner. Several hundred delegates selected Jackson after Platner withdrew. That procedure may have been legally necessary and operationally successful, but the two forms of legitimacy are not identical.
Jackson therefore enters the general election with an unusual burden.
He must function simultaneously as:
- the successor to a grassroots movement;
- the replacement for a disgraced nominee;
- the unifying candidate of a divided party;
- and a credible alternative to a senator Maine voters have returned to office five times.
Saturday’s convention answered who will oppose Susan Collins.
The next 100 days will determine whether Maine Democrats merely saved their place on the ballot or genuinely saved their opportunity to change control of the United States Senate.