Troy Jackson Garners Attention Nationwide Campaigning To Bring A Working Class Voice To U.S. Senate

PORTLAND, ME — Throughout the week, fifth-generation logger, former Maine Senate President, and Democratic Nominee for U.S. Senate Troy Jackson has been spreading his message of a more affordable Maine to all who will listen including town hall audiences of hundreds of Mainers. While Susan Collins, the No-Show Senator, continues to hide from voters and avoid accountability for her 30-year record selling out Mainers, Troy is making his values known — he answers to the people, not to billionaires.

Last night, with over 400 Mainers in attendance, Jackson engaged with voters, took questions, and called out Susan Collins for selling Maine out – from advancing Trump’s health care cuts and confirming Brett Kavanaugh to backing the war in Iran and voting with Trump 96% of the time. Check out the local coverage below: 

NewsCenter Maine: Maine Democrat Troy Jackson holds second town hall in his U.S. Senate campaign

• “I always knew that I was going to be standing up for working class people that needed someone to have their back, that would give them a voice,” Jackson said in his remarks. “We have a lot of power when we come together.”

• “People from one end of the state to the other are coming out, demanding a change in government, you know, standing up when it’s so hard to stand up,” Jackson said. “Because people in this state know the government has to change.”

• “These two [town halls] are two more than Susan Collins has done in the last 25 years,” Jackson said. “Everyday people should be able to stand in front of their elected officials and get their questions answered and make their thoughts known.” 

WGME/FOX 23: Maine Senate race stays hot ahead of midterms

• "The price of everything is high. There are two things I think we can do to lower them. The federal government needs to get more involved to help overall and we need to get out of Iran," Jackson said.

• Jackson spoke about abolishing ICE, universal healthcare, and his opponent Senator Susan Collins. "In my mind, Susan Collins has failed us and failed that family. ICE has to be eliminated," Jackson said.

Troy Jackson joined MS NOW’s Jen Psaki and brought down the hammer on Susan Collins’ wretched record siding with billionaires over Mainers. Watch the full interview here or see the highlights below: 

• “[Susan Collins] is more than happy to stand with them in D.C. fighting for tax cuts for Elon Musk, taking away our health care, doing tariffs, doing the Iran war, giving $70 billion dollars to ICE and putting people like Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court to take away Roe v. Wade — But when it comes time for Mainers to actually see who she does stand with, she doesn't want to come to Maine. I mean, that's not just the worst. That's the biggest hypocrite I've ever seen in my life.”

• “She's all bought in on the extreme right wing of this party. She's showing it now consistently with her votes, and that's why Mainers know that she's with Trump 96% of the time, and are sick of her acting like she's a moderate when everything she does is a right wing extremist.”

• “When we were struggling loggers back when I was 29 years old, Collins was in her first term, and we were on the other side of billionaire landowners, and she stood with the billionaire landowners. She always stands with the billionaires. So anything she says about me is no shock to me because again, she fights for wealthy people, and I fight for everyday people.”

Troy joined The Contrarian, to talk about his background as a logger who has experienced firsthand the disenfranchisement of the working class in this state, and his demand for a government that works for everyday Mainers. Watch the full interview here or see the highlights below: 

• “I watched a lot during my life growing up how people with a lot of power in the logging industry held people back, held communities back, and when I started working the industry myself, same thing I watched happen…that's really where my eyes, at 29 years old, got open to the fact that government doesn't work for people that don't have the bigger checkbooks. Ever since then I've been trying to change that, to be the voice for everyday people.”

• “We are in crisis here in Maine with health care, and what you're seeing with the tariffs, what you're seeing with the Iran War, all these things are how she caters to Donald Trump and the wealthy. I've known her most of my life. She's not someone that stands up for everyday working class people, and I know that firsthand.”

• “Too many of us are struggling with healthcare, don't have healthcare at all, and I think this would be an awesome way to make people's lives better. So I'm going to fight hard for it.”

Troy hopped on “The Lever” with David Sirota to discuss his plan to make the government work for everyday people, not the billionaires that Susan Collins answers to. Watch the full podcast here, or see below for the highlights:

•  “I really believe I'm gonna win this election, and it's not because it's Troy Jackson, not because they got a better candidate in the past or anything like that. It's because people are sick of the government…They want change. And I'm excited to be part of this moment to get the things that I care about…this is something way bigger than I've ever seen.”

• “[Trump] has made it so much worse. So in two short years, people do have buyer remorse, and, and you see it across the state that, people are sorry they voted for him. They don't believe in him.”

• “When you look at my background these are the things I've been fighting for. I mean, I've been pushing back against billionaires since I was an 11-year-old kid, standing up for everyday working-class people that didn't believe they could do it on their own and I was willing to do that.”

Earlier this week, Troy published an Op Ed on his journey to becoming one of the strongest reproductive rights advocates in Maine by listening to the women around him. Read the full story here or see highlights below: 

Troy Jackson: What Listening to Women Taught Me About Reproductive Freedom

• I listened to women in my life and women I represented. I listened to health care providers. I listened to colleagues in the legislature. And the more I listened, the clearer something became to me: abortion is health care. And the decision about whether and when to have a child belongs to a woman — not to me, and not to any man, judge, or politician sitting hundreds of miles away.

• And when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we didn’t wait around to see what would happen next. As Senate President, I helped lead the fight to ensure Maine remained a place where reproductive freedom would be protected. I sponsored one of the strongest abortion protection laws in the country, which stripped away criminal penalties targeting abortion care and protected the ability of doctors to provide care based on their medical judgment — not the judgment of politicians.

• Susan Collins was recently asked whether, knowing everything that happened after Kavanaugh's confirmation, she regrets her vote. She said she does not. I keep coming back to that answer. Because there's a profound difference between saying, “I was wrong, I listened, I learned, and I changed,” and looking at the consequences of a decision that helped strip millions of women of a fundamental freedom and saying you would not change a thing. I know which kind of leader I want to be.

###