As cinemagoers flock to The Odyssey, Democrats in Maine are hoping that their long and perilous quest for a political hero ends in Troy.
They are set to nominate lumberjack Troy Jackson this weekend as their candidate to challenge Susan Collins, a veteran Republican in the US Senate, after the implosion of the party’s original candidate left them scrambling for a replacement less than four months before the midterm elections.
Jackson, a former president of the Democratic-controlled Maine senate, is widely expected to secure the nomination at a special party convention in Bangor on Saturday. He would inherit a race transformed by the abrupt withdrawal of the primary winner, Graham Platner, following allegations of sexual assault made by a former girlfriend, accusations he has denied.
While Kamala Harris infamously had only ۱۰۷ days to build a presidential campaign in ۲۰۲۴, Jackson would have even less time for a battle that could decide control of the ۱۰۰-member Senate. The fifth-generation logger from Aroostook county in northern Maine combines an unusual political biography with an unapologetically progressive platform.
He first came to prominence in the late ۱۹۹۰s when he led a week-long blockade by Maine loggers protesting the employment of Canadian workers, whom they accused of depressing wages. The demonstration ended with police escorting him away but established his reputation as a champion of rural workers, which would continue into his time as a legislator.
Jackson initially ran as a Republican in ۲۰۰۰ when he sought a seat in Maine’s house of representatives. He lost but won two years later when he ran as an independent. He switched to the Democratic party in ۲۰۰۴ and went on to serve three terms in the house before being elected to the state senate, where he was president from ۲۰۱۸ until ۲۰۲۴.
In contrast to Platner, the biggest scandal attached to him so far is that he displayed flashes of temper such as cursing, shouting and throwing a water bottle in a meeting when he could not persuade someone to vote his way, according to a Washington Post report based on interviews with more than two dozen people.
Jackson’s political views have shifted significantly over the years. Earlier in his career he opposed abortion rights and same-sex marriage, positions he has since abandoned. He has emerged as one of Maine’s leading progressives, backing policies such as Medicare for All and calling for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
For those seeking an economic populist and working-class champion, he appears to fit the bill. Tim Fullerton, a Democratic strategist from the southern part of the state, recently spent time with him and came away impressed.
“Troy is as Maine as they come, Maine through and through,” he said. “He shoots from the hip. He says what he thinks which in this particular case, running against a very calculated and polished politician, is a striking difference because if you just were to meet him you wouldn’t think that he was a politician at all.
“He also has the best Maine accent of any of them by far, which is nice. He’s salt of the earth. I feel like I know ۵۰ guys who are just like him.”
Fullerton distinguished Jackson’s approach from the slicker, poll-tested aesthetics typical of modern political campaigns. “I don’t think he could fake it if he wanted to, to be honest. I’ve only met him once but he told me right off the bat what he thought about everything, which was quite refreshing compared to a lot of these people. They’ve been in DC for a million years and learn a certain language that doesn’t always translate at home.”
Still, Jackson’s ties to the left extend beyond Maine. He chaired Bernie Sanders’ successful ۲۰۱۶ presidential caucus campaign in the state and remains a close political ally of the Vermont independent senator.
Yet the sudden pivot from Platner, who survived various scandals including a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol until finally stepping down, to Jackson brings plenty of anxieties. The oysterman was a charismatic firebrand capable of whipping up crowds and capturing more than ۱۵۰,۰۰۰ votes in the primary. Jackson, by his own admission, is a more plain-spoken and less polished orator.
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive organisation Our Revolution – which backed Platner and has now thrown its weight behind Jackson – dismisses the notion that a lack of traditional charisma is a fatal flaw.
“He strikes me as a regular working class person, a regular dude,” he said. “That’s my gut-check vibe on him, having numerous interactions with him over the years. Does Graham Platner have a certain dynamism and charisma? Yes, but I think Troy counters that with a true authenticity, and that is reflected in his background and should not be discounted.”
Geevarghese dismissed sniping that Democratic consultants were merely ticking demographic boxes, deliberately swapping an oyster farmer for a lumberjack to simulate working-class appeal. “He represents who we are and want to be as a party,” he insisted. “He is not somebody that was designed by a marketing agency or created by political consultants. Troy Jackson is the real deal, and there’s nothing manufactured here. This is what the electorate wants and why not give it to them?”
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, echoed this sentiment, arguing that Jackson embodies the rural working-class man challenging both the political and corporate establishment.
He said: “My prediction is that if he comes across on a debate stage as a normal working-class dude who happens to be stepping up to run for political office, that reinforces his core message as opposed to taking away from his power as a messenger.
“Running someone who’s a little less polished, but having that actually accentuate his biggest strength, which is that he’s a rural working class guy is not a bad thing, especially when up against an establishment insider and corporate ally like Susan Collins.”
Nevertheless, the contest against Collins is sure to be hard fought. Both politicians hail from Aroostook county – called simply “the county” within the state – a sparsely populated, heavily Republican region best known for its potato farming and strong support for Donald Trump in recent presidential elections.
Financially, Collins, who has held the seat for three decades, begins the race with a commanding advantage. Federal campaign filings show she has raised more than $۱۶m, while Jackson’s campaign says it has brought in just over $۱m.
Jackson has framed Collins – viewed as one of her party’s most vulnerable figures in the ۲۰۲۶ cycle – as an enabler of Trump, accusing her of siding with Republicans and corporate interests at decisive moments, including over Trump’s war in Iran.
Collins has sought to portray Jackson as an ideological extremist. Speaking to the Associated Press this week, she described his political evolution as that of a “Bernie bro”, arguing that his record placed him firmly on the socialist wing of American politics.
Republicans have also attacked the circumstances of Jackson’s expected nomination. Jim Deyermond, chair of the Maine Republican party, criticised Democrats for selecting a long-serving political insider after insisting the replacement process would be open following Platner’s withdrawal.
The Platner saga left Democrats pointing fingers at each other and tarnished the party’s brand. But they cling to the hope that, with inflation and the Iran war driving down Trump’s approval rating, Collins could be swept aside in a blue wave. And a lot can happen between now and November.
Earlier this month, for example, a ۲۶-year-old Colombian national, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, was shot dead by an ICE officer in Biddeford, Maine. The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Guerrero was fleeing and threatened “public safety”. Jackson condemned ICE as a “rogue agency that goes around doing things that they’re being told to on high”.
Fullerton, who is also cofounder and chief executive of Find Out Media, commented: “The situation with ICE and Biddeford has changed the game for Mainers. You heard from Susan Collins: oh, they need to be reformed, and she was pretty mealy about it. Troy and the rest of the Democrats were rightly angry and very direct. External factors are going to weigh more heavily into that than Graham leaving and Troy stepping in.”
Corbin Trent, a cofounder of Justice Democrats and former communications director for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, praised Jackson’s unflinching stance on the issue. “He gets that ICE cannot exist in its current form,” he said. “That’s the kind of candidate people are looking for: one that says things that are quite clear, quite obvious, but also not the easiest thing to convince people of. That moral clarity is something that’s going to carry forward.”
There is also an optimistic sense among progressives that the movement built over the past year is entirely separate from the flawed man who previously led it. Trent frames it very differently from the rightwing populism of the Republican party.
“Whether it’s reforming our entire immigration system and getting rid of a paramilitary force like ICE, whether it’s Medicare for all, whether its building millions of houses across this country and hundreds of thousands across Maine, I don’t think these ideas died with finding out that we had a shitty candidate,” he said.
“In fact, these ideas are still very popular, there’s still passion behind doing the job and that’s what people are excited about. Luckily, we’re not building a cult of personality like Maga, one where you wonder, how does this go beyond Trump? It’s a great asset that we’re building around ideas and not individuals.”
