Troy Jackson, unlike Graham Platner, is staying laser-focused on Susan Collins
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/26/troy-jackson-susan-collins-messaging-platner-01012178
Troy Jackson, unlike Graham Platner, is staying laser-focused on Susan Collins
The Maine progressive former state senator is quickly trying to contrast himself with his GOP rival.
07/26/2026 07:00 AM EDT
BANGOR, Maine — Democrats’ new Maine Senate nominee entered the general election with a very different focus than the man he’s replacing — one solely about Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Troy Jackson, a progressive fifth-generation logger from the northern woods of Allagash, spent almost the entirety of his 20-minute nomination acceptance speech on Saturday afternoon hammering Collins, from her 1990s pledge to only serve two terms to her history of voting with President Donald Trump “96 percent of the time.”
“Susan Collins and I both come from Aroostook County. But that is where the similarities end,” Jackson told the crowd of Democrats who voted for him to replace Platner on Saturday morning. “I know now, and I’ll know tomorrow, exactly who I work for. After 30 years in Washington, she definitely seems to have forgotten. For 30 years, she has told us she is concerned. But look, concern is not courage; and what she says in Maine does not erase what she does down in Washington.”
His approach is a welcome change for Democrats in Washington, who had complained that in the early days of Graham Platner’s general election campaign he spent too much time attacking both parties instead of remaining focused on attacking a Republican in a state that Vice President Kamala Harris won handily in 2024.
While Platner spent plenty of airtime focused on contrasting his beliefs with Collins’,
he dedicated significant energy to hitting the whole political
establishment, including members of his own party. Even some of his
attacks against Collins — after he’d already won the Democratic primary — came with needling of Democrats.
“She has worked in politics longer than Joe Biden,” Platner said of Collins during his June primary victory speech, just before launching his first ad of the general election, which was focused on Jeffrey Epstein.
“It seems the only thing the party establishments can agree on is a love of Jeffrey Epstein, and a hatred of me,” Platner said in the ad.
Jackson believes in many of the same populist ideas that Platner did — he helped run both of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential bids in Maine. But they also come from very different backgrounds. Platner, a veteran and oyster farmer, was plucked from obscurity by New York City-based consultants who wanted an anti-establishment fighter ready to take on Washington. Jackon, meanwhile, has spent decades sparring with the establishment flank of his party from within the ranks of public service, culminating in his time as state Senate president, where he often butted heads with Gov. Janet Mills.
Platner and Jackson campaigned closely together in the primary, where Platner endorsed Jackson and two other Democrats in a ranked-choice slate to serve in the Blaine House.
But as Jackson takes over on the Senate ticket, it’s clear that where Platner relished in taking on his party, Jackson is eager to mend fences and is still at his core a true Democrat. That background as a long-running member of the party is informing his approach to the campaign against the electoral powerhouse that Collins has become.
“We definitely have the right message,” Jackson told reporters after he officially won the nomination. “Senator Collins has nothing. I mean, except going for wealthy people, you know, giving us ICE, doing 96 percent of what Trump wants. People in Maine and people in this country don’t want that.”
Platner is a much more commanding speaker than Jackson, and drew thousands at rallies throughout the state as he built a notable grassroots movement. But Jackson is more focused.
Republicans are looking to make Jackson and Platner synonymous, and they are already mocking his approach.
“Troy Jackson is all the baggage without the ‘rizz,” James Blair, a top Trump adviser who has the keys to his well-funded super PAC, MAGA Inc., said on X.
But Jackson is eager to emphasize his differences from Platner, even as he works to harness the movement the former nominee channeled.
“I know that there’s differences,” Jackson said of Platner. “I mean, you know, I’m not a show horse. I’m a workhorse, and I have a record to back that up.”
That focus comes as welcome news to Democrats both in Maine and D.C. who — after many failed attempts — just want to finally defeat Collins, who has held on in the blue-leaning state for three decades.
“This campaign will be a referendum on Susan Collins’ failures and corruption,” said a statement from Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French. “And we will win it on behalf of working Mainers who deserve better.”
“Our eye has never once left the ball,” said Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson, talking about the rapid-pace process to replace Platner on the ballot. “And that North Star is to beat Susan Collins in November.”
Democrats in Bangor on Saturday came sporting “no more concerns” signs, a mockery of Collins’ willingness to say she is “concerned” with some of Trump’s actions. They appreciated Jackson’s disciplined messaging, and said it will help him win in November by keeping moderate and independent voters on his side.
“He’s going to pull in the independents and undecideds who are going to want to get rid of Susan Collins, especially since the shooting in Biddeford,” said Jackson-supporting delegate Rachel Randall, referencing the recent killing of legal immigrant Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero by an ICE officer in the York County city.
But he’ll have to move quickly to tell voters who he is, acknowledging last weekend during county caucuses that he isn’t well known in the southern part of the state, as he rushes to mount a 101-day campaign against a 30-year incumbent whose last name is synonymous with the state.
Collins, like Jackson,
may not command an audience, but her powerful position as the chair of
the Appropriations Committee has helped her bring gobs of money back to
the Pine Tree State, and she’s worked to distance herself enough from
Trump to maintain a moderate reputation in the state. Most recently, she once again bucked Trump on his threat to levy a 50 percent tariff on many Canadian goods.
And to deliver his anti-Collins message to voters, Jackson will need cash, and a lot of it. Collins has $11 million in her campaign account, another $8 million in a super PAC, and Republicans’ top Senate-focused groups have already reserved more than $60 million on advertising for the race.
Within seconds of Jackson being nominated on Saturday, the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund immediately put out a six-figure ad buy with photos of Platner and Jackson campaigning together while highlighting reports on Jackson’s temper and slamming his “decades as a political insider.”
Democratic-aligned groups, meanwhile, have only pledged $24 million on TV, and Jackson has raised about $1 million with no clear picture of how much is in the bank.
It’s a disparity Jackson is aware of.
“Well, not now,” Jackson said, half-jokingly, when asked if had enough money to win the race. “But I hope we get it.”
Irie Sentner contributed to this report.
