Was Troy Jackson actually a logger?

"I saw my first labor strike when I was in 7th grade," Troy wrote on February 13, 2026. "I watched my dad and his fellow loggers stand together to fight back against a rich man's greed in hopes of something better."

In an interview on The Weeknight, shared August 7, 2026, he said: "You know, as far as working hard, as fifth-generation logger, I'm pretty used to that. That's been in my DNA."

In Fort Kent, his good friend and fellow logger Hilton Hafford rallied dozens of loggers with a question: "I'm going to the border. How many of you are willing to come?" On October 19, 1998, they decided to block the border with Canada.

"In '98, my fellow loggers and I blocked the Canadian border to fight back against billionaire landowners trying to depress our wages," Troy wrote on July 28, 2026.

Later, he added: "Twenty-eight years later, the fire in my belly hasn't faded one bit."

Four years after the blockade, he was elected to the Maine Legislature. As Senate President, he passed a law giving Maine's loggers and haulers the same right to bargain collectively as potato farmers and lobstermen (LD 1459).