PRESS RELEASE
Over Labor Day Weekend, Jackson Barnstormed Maine With 13 Campaign Events, Standing With Workers
MAINE — Fifth-generation logger, former Maine Senate President, and Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Troy Jackson spent Labor Day weekend crisscrossing Maine, driving more than 850 miles to attend 13 campaign and community events and meet with workers, union members, and voters across the state.
A longtime union member who first entered politics after organizing loggers in northern Maine, Jackson spent much of the weekend at labor-focused events and gatherings with working Mainers.
Jackson’s Labor Day weekend swing drew coverage from local and national media. See highlights below:
But inside the union hall of the United Steelworkers Local 9, Jackson needed no introduction. Arriving for a cookout last Sunday, he seemingly knew everyone wearing the shirt or hat of their union as he shared hamburgers and inside jokes. That’s because while Platner earned the support of the labor movement, Jackson has lived it.
His ties with organized labor in Maine span decades, beginning when he was a pre-teen in the remote north woods of Allagash, watching his logger father participate in a strike. “That really was the beginning for me of understanding more about working class issues and how we get left behind,” Jackson told the Globe in Skowhegan.
After becoming a logger himself, he experienced firsthand what he believed were unfair actions by big conglomerates that wanted to use cheaper Canadian labor over Maine workers — and then ran for office out of outrage. Along the way, he joined five unions; he currently is a dues-paying member of three, the biggest national unions representing engineers, machinists, and painters.
“For him, it’s not a transactional relationship,” Francis Eanes, the executive director of the Maine Labor Climate Council, said at a Lewiston brewery where supporters sang karaoke to Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.” “He’ll leave the campaign trail and come to our organizing events. He’ll be the first one on the picket line, even at 5 a.m., before the camera people show up.”
Jackson’s diagnosis of Democrats’ recent woes with the working class is simple: “Overall, we quit talking about economics,” he said. He acknowledged that some voters fled the party in favor of the GOP over perceptions that Democrats had gone too far on social issues […] “But we kind of quit talking about everyday working class issues, and that’s where the problem is.”
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He spoke of his upbringing in the logging industry, his struggles of working long hours and still feeling like he couldn’t provide for his family and how he entered the labor movement and politics to fight for the working class. He drew applause by promising to push back on the Iran war, ICE and President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.
…His weekend itinerary included a dozen public events, from Kittery at the southern tip of the state, to Orono, roughly 150 miles north and home to the University of Maine — and focused on tying Collins to Trump and framing the election as a choice between the working people and the billionaire class.
“What I know is that people across the state want to change. And it isn’t me. It isn’t because of Troy Jackson, they want change,” he said. “And I’m very excited to be just part of this, because this movement is happening.”
AP: Midterm elections head into the home stretch as candidates hit Labor Day events
Troy Jackson was a longtime labor activist and logger before he unexpectedly became the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine. On Monday, he returned to a union hall to tell workers they need to go to the polls this fall — to raise the minimum wage, expand family medical leave and show support for one another.
“Labor Day has never been just another holiday,” Jackson told several hundred union members at a Southern Maine Labor Council event Monday in Portland. “Today, here with the people I’ve fought alongside for years, I want to make a pledge about exactly what I’m going to do in the United States Senate.”
During his two decades in the Maine State Legislature, Troy Jackson was state senate president for six years, from 2019-2024, when he shepherded laws providing paid family and medical leave, stipends for child care workers, and free school breakfast and lunch for all students regardless of financial need. Jackson said, “It’s time we have someone who’s going to think big for working people.”
His platform now includes advocating for Medicare for all, a $20 an hour federal minimum wage, and paid vacation time for full time workers. He said, “Every full-time worker in America should have guaranteed paid time off in addition to paid sick leave and family leave. We passed paid family medical leave in Maine, and there’s no damn reason workers in every other state shouldn’t have the same basic dignity.”
Jackson attacked the voting record of his opponent, Republican Senator Susan Collins. “You can’t vote for Donald Trump 96% of the time and then turn around and claim to care about working class families,” he said. “It’s not just that she votes with Trump. It’s that she votes against us.”
Portland Press Herald: Troy Jackson takes on affordable housing issue at mobile home park in Wells
“When we come together, we can do great things — you’ve shown it right here,” Jackson told a few dozen residents, who gathered Saturday morning in Diane Whiteside’s backyard, sitting in fold-out lawn chairs and drinking Dunkin’ coffee.
On the federal level, Jackson said “I will lend my voice every day,” and he told resident Lynzy Kosmes that he is “one hundred percent” willing to go after the out-of-state companies buying and running Maine’s parks.
[Troy Jackson] told reporters later that he looks forward to the upcoming debates, and that he plans to ask Collins “why she votes with Donald Trump 96% of the time, why we’re in Iran wasting money there while we don’t have a health care system,” and “why she’s not willing to use her powers as chair of appropriations to pushback on ICE, to push back on tariffs.”
WGME: Inclusive welding school in South Portland draws Troy Jackson during Labor Day tour
Labor Day honors workers across the U.S. and pays tribute to the labor movement. It's a point of passion for Troy Jackson. This Labor Day weekend, Jackson is making his way across the state to meet working Mainers.
On Saturday, Jackson spent time with "People's Inclusive Welding," a hands-on inclusive welding training facility in South Portland. "Making people feel included is how we are going to do a lot better across this state and country," Jackson said.
Portland Press Herald: Jackson, Pingree appeal to workers at Labor Day breakfast
[Troy Jackson] highlighted some of his campaign priorities at Monday’s event, including bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, strengthening Social Security and raising the minimum wage to $20.
“I learned a long time ago that working people can win fights that nobody expects us to win when we stand together and when the people we elect remember whose side they’re supposed to be on,” Jackson said. “We’re with you, Troy,” a man in the audience shouted in response.
News Center Maine: Collins, Jackson focus on Maine workers during Labor Day weekend campaign stops
Jackson argued Maine needs higher-paying, more secure jobs and blamed the Trump administration's policies for labor industries facing struggles in the state. “You know, we don't really have an administration that supports union jobs, which is part of the reason why so many workers are leaving Maine,” Jackson said.
Jackson later visited Blueberry Ridge Mobile Home Park in Wells, where residents raised concerns about rising rents and drinking water…“This is a major issue, the greed that's happening right now in this county, that people like you in these mobile parks are facing,” Jackson said.
Jackson also criticized Collins, arguing she has not done enough as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee to challenge the Trump administration. "She's afraid to go up against Donald Trump and Elon Musk and those scumbags because they're helping pump so much money into her campaign," Jackson said.
WVII (FOX Bangor): Troy Jackson and His U.S. Senate Campaign's Latest Visit Was in Orono
"I didn't want to see people feel like the government was broke, people was trying to railroad the movement, and that's why I jumped in. Because more than anything I want this to continue, because it's been something I've been waiting a long time for."
"I think we all know who he stands with and who he's trying to fight against. It's not so much people as it is systems, institutions, and money," said Maine Rep. Amy Roeder (D - Bangor). "We've seen unions get taken out by greedy companies that throw money at union-busting workers. People who have been working their whole lives just to get ahead know Troy Jackson. And if they don't, they will."
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Jackson, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, advocated for better health care access as well as housing and union jobs. He also stressed the importance of conversations with Maine voters to promote their policies ahead of the November election.
“This is where a lot of the work that changed people’s lives are going to happen, because either we’re going to have to wait two more years, or to get Republicans to join us and actually understand that this world is not working for everyday people. I think in November they’re going to find that out, that their policies have not been making sure that voters in their states are going to be out there,” said Jackson.
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