Troy Jackson secures delegate lead in Maine Senate race vs. Collins

Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson appears to have locked up enough delegates to win the shortened race to replace former candidate Graham Platner as the Democratic Senate candidate in a major showdown to face longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

During the two-day delegate election for next weekend’s nominating meeting in 16 counties in Maine, the majority of the 500 quotas to be won on Saturday and Sunday were won by delegates aligned with Jackson. Jackson’s two biggest rivals for the nomination, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former top public health official Nirav Shah, dropped out of the race on Sunday.

“In November, Mainers will defeat Susan Collins and we will take back our Senate seat from the billionaires and corporations who think it belongs to them,” Jackson said in a social media post Sunday evening.

While delegates on Jackson’s slate are not required to support him at next weekend’s convention, he is in an extremely strong position to secure the nomination and face Collins in the midterm elections. It’s expected to be a combative and expensive ballot box battle, among a dozen nationwide, that will determine whether Democrats can regain the Senate majority. The GOP currently holds 53-47 of the chamber.

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Jackson, a fifth-generation logger and onetime conservative Republican who became a Democrat more than two decades ago, finished third in Maine’s Democratic gubernatorial primary last month.

On Saturday, in the race to replace Platner, delegates backed by Jackson won more than 90% of the slots, including all 149 in Cumberland County, Maine’s most populous county and home to the state’s largest city, Portland.

“Yesterday was an incredibly big step, but we’re not done yet, if anything,” Jackson said Sunday morning. And the pro-Jackson delegates’ winning streak continued throughout the day.

More than 470 of the 500 delegates elected this weekend were on Jackson’s ticket. The selected delegates will join 101 other automatic delegates from the Democratic State Committee. All 601 people will officially vote for the Senate candidate at the convention next Saturday in Bangor, Maine.

Bellows, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor, dropped out of the Senate race Sunday morning.

“Donald Trump’s attacks on our democracy are accelerating, and the best way I can serve our state and our country right now is to focus solely on my role as Secretary of State,” Bellows said in his statement, which did not mention Jackson. he said.

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From left to right, U.S. Senate candidates Shenna Bellows, Troy Jackson, Dr. Nirav Shah and Jordan Wood prepare for their televised debate at the WCSH-6 studio on Thursday, July 16, 2026 in Portland, Maine. ( )

Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention from 2019 to 2023 who later served as deputy director of the federal CDC during President Joe Biden’s administration and who finished second in the Democratic gubernatorial primary last month, dropped out Sunday evening and endorsed Jackson.

“To Maine Democrats: Susan Collins cannot be defeated without a united Democratic Party. And we cannot unite without treating each other with respect,” Shah said in a statement. he wrote. “No matter who you support in this race, I urge us all to remember that in the coming weeks.”

In his social media post, Jackson thanked Shah and called: “Now is the time for all of us to come together, build the broadest coalition possible, and defeat Susan Collins. Let’s get to work.”

Jordan Wood was a former congressional staffer for the then-House of Representatives. California’s Katie Porter, who is running for the Senate and Democratic nomination this cycle in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, also withdrew from the race on Sunday. Another Senate candidate, Maine Beer Company co-founder Dan Kleban, also announced the suspension of the campaign on Sunday.

MAINE DEMOCRATS Rally BEHIND PLATNER’S PLATFORM IN SPRINT TO REPLACE PLATNER

ORONO, MAINE – MAY 24: Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stands with Maine Governor candidate Troy Jackson (L) and U.S. Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner during the “Oligarchic Struggle” tour at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus on May 24, 2026 in Orono, Maine. Platner is the presumptive Democratic nominee and will face incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for the Maine U.S. Senate seat in the general election. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

In addition to Platner, Jackson was running for governor while progressive champion Sen. It has also received the support of Bernie Sanders and is currently backed by the ‘Our Revolution’ group, which was born from Sanders’ first presidential campaign in 2016.

Like Platner, Jackson is running on a progressive and populist platform targeting working-class voters. He supports raising taxes on billionaires, a universal healthcare system known as “Medicare for All” that would eliminate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and opposes military aid to Israel at a time when Democrats are increasingly divided over support for America’s longtime Middle East ally.

Platner, a former combat oyster farmer who was backed by Sanders shortly after he launched his bid last August, quickly saw his campaign catch fire. Longtime Democratic Senate leader Sen. Two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who was heavily recruited by Chuck Schumer to run for the Senate, suspended her campaign this spring after falling behind Platner in fundraising and polls.

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Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine tours a food bank on May 5, 2026, in Harrison, Maine. The food bank was able to expand thanks to federal funding the senator helped obtain. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

But even as Platner crushed the Democratic Party and crushed the competition to win the nomination last month, he had already been forced to go on the defensive following a series of scandals.

Platner left the race earlier this month amid calls from top Democrats in Maine and across the country to immediately withdraw from the race following an explosive report alleging the rape of a woman he had previously dated. Platner denied the report but stepped aside.

While Jackson was among those who called on Platner to immediately end his bid following the rape allegation, he had previously campaigned with Platner and revealed that he was the best candidate to continue the fight for the progressive and populist agenda.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and Troy Jackson stand together during the “Oligarchic Struggle” tour at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus on May 24, 2026 in Orono, Maine. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“This movement has always been bigger than one person. It’s about taking on a system that’s rigged against working people, fighting for ‘Medicare for All,’ strong unions, higher wages, reproductive freedom, and an economy where billionaires and corporations finally pay their fair share,” Jackson said as he gestured to Platner supporters at our Revolution virtual town hall last week.

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At the first debate among the alternate candidates last week, Jackson pointed to Platner and said, “This is what Graham does best: he talked about fighting against the healthcare industry and the prescription drug industry to make sure that people in this state and this country have affordable, quality health care.”