PRESS RELEASE
Read All About It: Troy Jackson, The Right Candidate For Maine All Along
PORTLAND, ME — Lifelong Mainer, 5th-generation logger, and former President of the Maine Senate Troy Jackson is gaining national attention for his rapid grassroots momentum and success in the polls just over a week after securing the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Maine. Across the state and the nation, folks are taking note of Jackson as “the right candidate for Maine all along."
See what they’re saying:
Maine Public: Troy Jackson wins the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Susan Collins
Hundreds of Democratic delegates from across Maine chose Jackson — a logger and former Maine Senate president — to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins this fall in a pivotal race that both parties regard as key to control of the Senate.
Jackson pledged to work toward universal health care, to defend workers' rights and reproductive rights, and to stand up to the Trump administration and to what he says is a "billionaire class" that is getting wealthier and wealthier on the backs of lower- and middle-class Americans.
A fifth-generation logger, Jackson represented far northern Maine for 20 years in the Maine House and Senate, winning term after term as a Democrat even as the region turned increasingly Republican. He served as Senate president for six of those years.
USA Today: Troy Jackson was the right candidate for Maine all along
Jackson, a fifth-generation logger from the northern part of the state, is as progressive as Platner, has political experience as the state’s former Senate president and has zeroed in on defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
Not only is Jackson a true working-class man, but he’s also a bona fide progressive. A member of the 2016 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, Jackson is calling for Medicare for all, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and ending the war in Gaza.
Jackson is clearly a candidate with experience and progressive values.
He wants to get dark money out of politics and keep members of Congress from trading stock. He clearly has a vision of what the Democratic Party could be.
Maine Morning Star: Troy Jackson officially clinches Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nomination
Momentum behind Jackson’s campaign was also underscored earlier this week by the more than $1 million his campaign says it has raised since launching his Senate bid.
As president of the Maine Senate…Jackson voted for several bills to expand abortion access — earning 100% ratings from Planned Parenthood’s Maine chapter and the LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Maine.
As a legislator, Jackson also championed bills to reduce drug prices, expand child care, provide free school meals and strengthen labor standards, including providing loggers and haulers the right to bargain together, among others. He has also claimed to hold the state record for most bills vetoed, which he touts as evidence of fighting for progressive policies despite pushback.
NPR: Democrats in Maine formally nominate Troy Jackson as their new U.S. Senate candidate
Jackson, a fifth-generation logger from northern Maine, is running on an economic populist message… rejecting the Democratic establishment and focusing on affordability concerns, backing policies like Medicare for All and raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy and large corporations.
Portland Press Herald: Troy Jackson has the stuff to bridge Maine’s geographic, cultural divides
But Jackson’s political identity offers a rare bridge across Maine’s geographic and cultural divide. By cutting into deep rural deficits, winning over coastal split-ticket voters and holding the southern suburban base, he might just represent a path to victory built not on dividing Maine, but on unifying it.
NBC News: Democrats nominate Troy Jackson to replace Graham Platner in must-win Maine Senate race
Supporters of Jackson, a former logger and longtime legislator from Allagash, a tiny town at the northern tip of the state, believe he will have unique appeal to working-class voters and cut into Collins’ margins in rural Maine.
MS NOW: Troy Jackson shows strong small-dollar numbers in first day as Senate nominee
Troy Jackson, the newly minted Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, raised roughly $2 million from about 30,000 donors in the first 24 hours after his nomination Saturday, according to figures his campaign shared Sunday night. It’s an early surge of small-dollar cash for a candidate many in his own party had dismissed as a lackluster fundraiser.
Financial Times: Can Democrats win over the working class?
Maine Democrats rallied around Troy Jackson, a gruff, fifth-generation logger without a four-year university degree, as Platner’s replacement. A longtime acolyte of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, Jackson embraces a populist economic platform that includes Medicare for All and taxing billionaires.
New York Times: In Maine, Democrats Pick Troy Jackson to Replace Platner in Senate Race
Mr. Jackson carries much of the progressive politics that powered the movement that lifted Mr. Platner from political obscurity. A former logger who entered politics in the late 1990s organizing against Canadian workers crossing the border to work for lower wages than Americans…
As the State Senate president, Mr. Jackson ushered through one of the nation’s most permissive abortion laws, allowing the procedure at any point in a woman’s pregnancy with a physician’s consent.
Bangor Daily News: Troy Jackson has raised $2M for his US Senate bid
Jackson has a track record of winning races in the St. John Valley, a former Democratic stronghold that’s now deep red, and a history of fighting for pro-labor policies.
A University of New Hampshire poll released last week gave Jackson a slight edge over Collins in a theoretical matchup, with 2% of voters still undecided.
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