BANGOR, Maine - Maine Democrats on Saturday quickly coronated Troy Jackson as their party's Senate nominee — following this month's spectacular implosion of ex-candidate Graham Platner — in the high-stakes Senate showdown with longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Jackson, a former state Senate president, was elected in a landslide at the Maine Democratic Party's nominating convention in Bangor. He was on a glide path to the nomination after winning the vast majority of the voting delegates chosen last weekend by Democrats in the northern New England state's 16 counties.
Jackson's top rivals in the race to replace Platner backed him after dropping out of the race the past few days, leaving only one long-shot candidate for delegates to also consider at the convention. He defeated Saundra Pelletier, a pharmaceutical company CEO, by a 566-5 margin in Saturday's vote.
The Senate race in Maine, where Collins is the only GOP incumbent running for re-election in a state President Donald Trump lost in the 2024 election, is one of roughly a dozen midterm showdowns across the country that will determine if Republicans hold onto their slim majority or if the Democrats win back control of the chamber.
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"Are you ready to defeat Susan Collins? Well, then let's unite this party. Let's build the largest working class movement Maine has ever seen. And let's win this fight," Jackson, a fifth-generation logger from the remote northern tip of Maine and a one-time conservative Republican who became a Democrat over two decades ago, said in convention speech just ahead of the delegate vote.
While Jackson quickly raised over $1 million for his burgeoning Senate campaign and coalesced party support, there are some potential warning signs.
Following reports this past week digging into Jackson's alleged temper and workplace conduct, reported claims of mortgage improprieties as well as other potential liabilities including his past strict anti-abortion stance, there are concerns by some in the party that following the Platner implosion, Democrats have landed another unvetted nominee.
"This is a bit of a rocket vetting process," a Democratic strategist who works on Senate races, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital. "Maine Democrats have seemingly made their choice and they're just going to have to ride with it."
A veteran Democratic consultant who also asked for anonymity said that "it's very clear that Democrats should not be looking to Maine to flip the Senate."
"The good news is that we have upset opportunities in places like Texas, Iowa, and Alaska," added the consultant, who works with centrist Democratic Senate candidates.
Asked by Fox News Digital about any vetting concerns, Jackson said, "I think a lot of this obviously is Sen. Collins trying to make sure she can the election on a really bad record. But for me, I’ve been in the legislature for 20 years. I do believe I’ve been vetted, I’ve been tested. People know exactly what I’m fighting for. I have their back. And they know they can trust me."
Platner, a military combat veteran and oyster farmer who was backed by progressive champion and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont soon after he launched his bid last August, saw his campaign quickly catch fire. Two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who was heavily recruited by longtime Democratic Senate leader Sen. Chuck Schumer to run for the Senate, suspended her campaign this spring after trailing Platner in fundraising and in the polls.
But even as Platner steamrolled the Democratic establishment and crushed the competition last month in Maine's primary to capture the nomination, he had already been forced on defense in the wake of a slew of scandals.
Platner dropped out earlier this month, amid calls from top Democrats in Maine and across the country to immediately exit the race following an explosive report containing an allegation of rape from a woman he previously dated. Platner denied the report but stepped aside.
Jackson, who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, campaigned alongside Platner during the primary. And he quickly made the case that he was the best equipped candidate to grab the mantle of the progressive and populist movement that had backed Platner.
Similar to Platner, Jackson is running on a platform aimed at working-class voters. He backs raising taxes on billionaires, the universal healthcare system known as "Medicare-for-all," abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and he opposes military aid to Israel at a time that Democrats are increasingly divided on support for America's longtime Middle East ally.
After winning the nomination, Jackson urged Democrats to unite behind his bid, saying "there is a place in this campaign for all of you. There is work for you in this movement. And I will spend every day now through November earning that trust."
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Jackson, who also had Sanders' support as he ran for governor, is currently backed in his Senate campaign by Our Revolution, the group born in 2016 out of Sanders' first presidential campaign.
Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a leading progressive in the House and a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, was a top Platner backer. Khanna quickly moved his support to Jackson in this month's sprint to succeed Platner.
And Jackson enjoys strong support from labor unions in Maine. The labor backing, along with support from Platner’s former allies, helped Jackson capture the overwhelming majority of county-selected delegates last weekend.
The 500 delegates chosen last weekend, along with 101 selected by the state party, voted in Saturday's convention.
Republicans argued that Democrats stacked the deck to back Jackson as Platner's replacement.
"This coronation is proof that Democrats are willing to shove socialism down the throats of Maine voters, even if it means spitting in the face of Democracy to do it. Troy Jackson is a Platner apologist, a radical Bernie Bro, and a walking red flag displaying all the warning signs of the early days of the Platner campaign," Republican National Committee spokesperson Kristen Cianci charged in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Cianci called Collins "a proven leader with unimpeachable character."
The senator's re-election campaign took aim at the process, and at Jackson.
"In a process concocted by the Maine Democratic Party establishment, a 24-year Augusta insider was appointed to run for the Senate by fewer than three-tenths of one percent of its primary voters," the campaign argued in a social media post. "Troy Jackson will attempt to sell Mainers a multi-trillion-dollar bill of goods based on rhetoric that will make everything sound free, but in reality, would be paid for by middle- and lower-income workers hurting our schools and making life less affordable for families across the state."
Collins, as she runs for a sixth six-year term in the Senate, is facing a rough political climate for Republicans, amid GOP President Donald Trump's underwater approval ratings, persistent inflation and what polls indicate is an unpopular war with Iran.
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The senator, known as a moderate Republican who at times has voted against Trump, last month received bipartisan praise after reaching a milestone by casting her 10,000th consecutive Senate vote.
But Democrats are taking aim at Collins over her comments that she didn't regret her 2018 vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, despite his crucial vote four years later to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.
And following the fatal shooting in Maine earlier this month involving federal immigration agents, Democrats heavily criticized the Senate Appropriations Committee chair for her support for ICE funding.
But Collins has a history of defeating the Democrats' efforts to oust her from the Senate.
Six years ago, she trailed Democratic challenger Sara Gideon, the then-Maine House speaker, but the senator ended up winning re-election by nearly 9 points .
The Senate showdown in Maine is expected to be competitive, combustible, and expensive, with outside groups on both sides spending big bucks to run ads.
The first Fox News Power Rankings of the 2026 midterms, which gauge the competitiveness of elections using data, reporting and analysis, were released this week. And they rank the showdown in Maine as a toss-up.
Meanwhile, a Pine Tree Poll conducted in recent days by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center indicated Jackson with a slight three-point edge over Collins, right at the edge of the margin of error, among likely general election voters in Maine.
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