Troy Jackson Poised to Replace Graham Platner as Maine Senate Nominee

After the implosion of Graham Platner, many Maine Democrats feared they were lost in the wilderness.

On Monday, it was clear: Troy Jackson is the man they believe will lead them out.

Jackson ended the weekend with the committed support of roughly two-thirds of the delegates in the state who are set to gather this coming weekend and formally nominate a replacement for Platner, whose Senate campaign ended after his support dissolved in the wake of a sexual assault allegation from an ex-girlfriend, which he denied. Three of his rivals for the nomination have already dropped out of the race.

Barring a major shake-up, he’s poised to walk into that convention as the overwhelming favorite.

Now, he has to win the general election against incumbent and Republican Susan Collins - and if he does it could help flip control of the entire Senate to Democrats.

Jackson’s apparent victory was cheered on by members of the left-wing faction that has challenged numerous Democratic incumbents this cycle and sought to push the party towards a more aggressive populist, working-class centric platform: The Democratic Socialists of America. The DSA, which counts new Democratic primary victors Melat Kiros and Darializa Avila Chevalier among its members, endorsed Jackson as he ran for governor this year in a ranked-choice Democratic primary.

Jackson was defeated in that race, but with the rumors around Platner already swirling by the June primary, one of his supporters presciently suggested on Twitter: “I now want Troy Jackson to not win the governor race and finish 2nd so he’ll most likely be the backup Senate nominee if Platner drops out.”

A DSA-endorsed progressive and former state director for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign in 2016, Jackson’s victory represents a major coup for a progressive left wing that took a rhetorical battering in the press after Platner’s withdrawal.

Accusations of poor vetting and an insufficient focus on the voices of women in the party were leveled at not just Platner but his senior advisers and wider campaign staff, many of whom rallied behind Jackson after the collapse of the Platner bid.

Many of those same progressives were adamant, in the face of that criticism, that Maine voters had spoken clearly and chosen a progressive over the party establishment’s hand-picked candidate, incumbent Maine Gov. Janet Mills, to represent the party in November against Collins.

Many of Platner’s supporters argued that winning the seat in November would be an impossible and fruitless goal should national Democratic Party figures be allowed to select a candidate to run in his stead.

Barring something major happening, Jackson has seemingly lined up overwhelming support within the state part for his bid. His campaign is now well-positioned to scoop up the existing infrastructure already in place powering Platner’s impressive victory over Mills last month. The question is: Can he recapture the same voter enthusiasm that accompanied Platner’s win?

On paper, Jackson checks all the boxes. As his endorsements (which also included Bernie Sanders in his gubernatorial bid, and the Maine AFL-CIO) would suggest, Jackson is a dyed-in-the-wool progressive, supporting Medicare for All, the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and an end to American support of Israel’s assault on Gaza, which he’s referred to as a genocide.

Like Platner, he also hails from a working-class background, having previously worked as a logger before joining Maine’s state senate, and later serving as its majority leader.

Whether Jackson can translate his similarities into the same momentum against Collins is an open question, though, as he came in third place in the Maine gubernatorial primary this year despite his list of powerful endorsements. Supporters argued that he built an impressive ground game and fared well against politicians with better name recognition, but some are still skeptical about his path forward.

Some fans of Platner and other Democratic observers questioned whether Jackson had the same charisma that led Platner to pack town hall events to capacity for months ahead of his primary victory in June.

Collins, meanwhile, has nearly faded into the background amid her onetime opponent’s self-destruction.

Much as the Trump campaign did in 2024, Collins’s campaign has largely stayed out of the fray as Democrats rushed to replace Platner — the incumbent senator, 73, is taking a more passive approach to campaigning as she holds on to advantages in name recognition, her reputation as a moderate in the Senate and a massive war chest supported by Senate GOP leadership which is waiting to flood the airwaves with more than $100 million in reserved advertising space through November.

The reality for Jackson is stark: His quick collection of the delegates necessary to win the Senate nomination was only the first battle he’ll face, with a much tougher one coming down the pipes.

He’s stepping into a race where the comparisons to Kamala Harris’s doomed 2024 bid are widely apparent, banking on the notion that a unified Democratic Party and dissatisfaction for the Trump administration and the Republican Congress will be enough to take a jump-started campaign over the finish line against potentially the hardest target for Democrats to beat of this entire cycle.