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Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson seems to have locked up sufficient delegates to win the abbreviated race to exchange now ex-candidate Graham Platner because the Democratic Senate nominee within the high-stakes showdown to face off with longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Delegates aligned with Jackson gained the overwhelming majority of the five hundred slots that had been up for grabs on Saturday and Sunday as Maine’s 16 counties held two days of delegate choice for subsequent weekend’s nominating conference. And Jackson’s prime two rivals for the nomination, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah, a former prime public well being official, dropped out of the race on Sunday.
“In November, Mainers will defeat Susan Collins, and we are going to take again our Senate seat from the billionaires and companies who suppose they personal it,” Jackson mentioned in a social media submit Sunday night.
Whereas the delegates on Jackson’s slate usually are not required to help him at subsequent weekend conference, he’s in a particularly sturdy place to safe the nomination and face off within the midterm elections towards Collins in what’s anticipated to be a combative and costly poll field battle that is amongst a dozen nationwide which can decide if the Democrats can win again the Senate majority. The GOP at present holds the chamber 53-47.
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Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson is working for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination within the race to exchange former nominee Graham Platner. (Sophie Park / Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures)
A fifth-generation logger and a one-time conservative Republican who grew to become a Democrat over 20 years in the past, Jackson got here in third place final month in Maine’s Democratic gubernatorial main.
On Saturday, within the race to exchange Platner, Jackson-aligned delegates gained greater than 90% of the slots, together with all 149 in Cumberland County, Maine’s most populous county and residential to the state’s largest metropolis, Portland.
“Yesterday was an unbelievable large step, however our work shouldn’t be completed — not even shut,” Jackson mentioned Sunday morning. And the profitable streak of Jackson-aligned delegates continued all through the day.
Over 470 of the five hundred delegates elected this weekend had been on Jackson’s slate. The delegates chosen will be part of one other 101 coming routinely from the Democratic State Committee. All 601 will formally vote for the Senate nominee at subsequent Saturday’s conference in Bangor, Maine.
Bellows, who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, exited the Senate dash on Sunday morning.
“Donald Trump’s assaults on our democracy are solely accelerating, and the easiest way that I can serve our state and nation at this second is by focusing solely on my function as Secretary of State,” Bellows mentioned in an announcement that did not point out Jackson.
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From left, U.S. Senate hopefuls Shenna Bellows, Troy Jackson, Dr. Nirav Shah, and Jordan Wooden put together for his or her televised debate on the WCSH-6 studio Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Portland, Maine. ( )
Shah, a former director the Maine Heart for Illness Management and Prevention from 2019 to 2023 who later served as principal deputy director of the federal CDC throughout then-President Joe Biden’s administration, and who got here in second in final month’s Democratic gubernatorial main, dropped out Sunday night and backed Jackson.
“To Maine Democrats: Susan Collins won’t be defeated with no united Democratic Celebration. And we can not unite with out treating each other with respect,” Shah wrote in an announcement. “Regardless of whom you supported on this race, I urge us all to do not forget that within the weeks forward.”
Jackson, in a social media submit, thanked Shah and urged, “Now it is time for all of us to come back collectively, construct the broadest potential coalition, and defeat Susan Collins. Let’s get to work.”
Jordan Wooden, a former congressional staffer for then-Rep. Katie Porter of California who unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in addition to the Democratic nomination within the state’s 2nd Congressional District this cycle, additionally dropped out on Sunday. One other Senate candidate, Maine Beer Firm co-founder Dan Kleban, introduced a marketing campaign suspension on Sunday as properly..
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ORONO, MAINE – MAY 24: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stands with Troy Jackson (L), who’s working for Governor of Maine, and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner throughout a “Preventing Oligarchy” tour cease on the Collins Heart for the Arts on the College of Maine campus on Might 24, 2026 in Orono, Maine. Platner is the presumptive Democratic nominee and can face incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for Maine’s U.S. Senate seat within the normal election. (Joe Raedle / Getty Pictures)
Together with Platner, Jackson had the help of progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont as he ran for governor, and he’s at present backed by ‘Our Revolution,’ the group born in 2016 out of Sanders’ first presidential marketing campaign.
Jackson, much like Platner, is working on a progressive and populist platform aimed toward working-class voters. He backs elevating taxes on billionaires, the common healthcare system often called “Medicare-for-all,” abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he opposes navy help to Israel at a time that Democrats are more and more divided on help for America’s longtime Center East ally.
Platner, a fight veteran and oyster farmer who was backed by Sanders quickly after he launched his bid final August, noticed his marketing campaign shortly catch hearth. Two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who was closely recruited by longtime Democratic Senate chief Sen. Chuck Schumer to run for the Senate, suspended her marketing campaign this spring after trailing Platner in fundraising and within the polls.
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Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine excursions a meals financial institution in Harrison, Maine, on Might 5, 2026. The meals financial institution was in a position to increase due to federal funding that the senator helped acquire. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox Information)
However at the same time as Platner steamrolled the Democratic institution and crushed the competitors final month to seize the nomination, he had already been compelled on protection within the wake of a slew of scandals.
Platner dropped out earlier this month, amid calls from prime Democrats in Maine and throughout the nation to instantly exit the race following an explosive report containing an allegation of rape from a girl he beforehand dated. Platner denied the report however stepped apart.
Whereas Jackson was amongst those that shortly referred to as on Platner to finish his bid within the wake of the rape allegation, he had beforehand campaigned alongside Platner and made the case that he was the most effective candidate to proceed the struggle for the progressive and populist agenda.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and Troy Jackson stand collectively throughout a “Preventing Oligarchy” tour cease on the Collins Heart for the Arts on the College of Maine campus in Orono, Maine, on Might 24, 2026. (Joe Raedle/Getty Pictures)
“This motion has all the time been greater than one individual. It is about taking up a system rigged towards working folks, preventing for ‘Medicare-for-all,’ sturdy unions, greater wages, reproductive freedom, and an economic system the place billionaires and companies lastly pay their fair proportion,” Jackson mentioned final week throughout a Our Revolution digital city corridor, as he pointed to Platner supporters.
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Ultimately week’s first debate among the many alternative candidates, Jackson pointed to Platner and mentioned, “That is the factor that I believe Graham did the most effective: talked about preventing towards the well being care trade and the prescription drug trade to guarantee that folks on this state and this nation have reasonably priced, high quality well being care.”
