(CNN) — Troy Jackson is on the verge of replacing Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine after harnessing the enthusiasm of former Platner supporters who were galvanized by the oyster farmer’s insurgent campaign.
There’s just one thing: Jackson is no political outsider.
The former Maine Senate Democratic leader has spent over two decades working in state politics, a resume that sets him apart even as Jackson embraces a similar progressive platform and openly appeals to former Platner supporters. Jackson’s allies see the best of both worlds, especially after Maine Democrats took a risk on an outsider in Platner – and were sorely disappointed as his campaign imploded amid an allegation of rape that Platner denies.
“Troy’s been around,” said Jason Shedlock, a longtime labor leader in Maine. “If you don’t know him, you know somebody who does. And if you don’t know somebody who does, the person standing next to them has been impacted by him. That’s the difference.”
But if Jackson has more political experience than Platner did, he doesn’t have the same oratorical skills and comes with a history of socially conservative stances early in his career, including opposing abortion, that could be uncomfortable for Democrats today.
Jackson is also facing fresh questions about his temperament after CNN reported this week that he has been accused of having angry outbursts with state lawmakers.
Yet after dominating the delegate hunt this weekend and forcing all his major opponents out of the race, Jackson is closer than ever to replacing Platner. It would be a capstone on a long political career that began in earnest in 2000, when Jackson ran for office as a Republican fed up with the corporate exploitation of loggers like himself.
“Ultimately he’s a chameleon, he’s a political chameleon,” said Trey Stewart, the top Republican in the Maine Senate, noting his grandfather supported Jackson in his 2000 run. Since then, Stewart added, Jackson has been “all over the place” on issues.
Jackson’s campaign said his political transformation stands in contrast with Collins.
“Troy has listened, learned and changed his position on some issues, and unlike Collins, he has been honest about where he stands. And he has never changed who he fights for,” Jackson adviser BJ McCollister said in a statement, adding that Jackson has “consistently stood with working people.”
To his supporters, Jackson reflects the unorthodox politics of Maine.
“He’s a progressive champion, but he was Senate president, so … that tells you a lot about Maine,” said Drew Gattine, a state representative and former state Democratic Party chair. “I don’t think these labels like ‘insider,’ ‘outsider,’ really fit.”
A labor protest sparks a political career
Jackson and his allies trace his entry into politics to a 1998 logging blockade along the Canadian border in northern Maine. He helped lead the weeklong blockade in protest of landowners hiring Canadian workers, driving down pay for US workers.
“Troy’s origin story into politics is really important,” said Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO. “He worked in one of the most exploitative industries in our state.”
“There are those who call the shots and those who do the work,” Schlobohm added. “The people working physically the hardest are really struggling just to survive.”
A group of Maine politicians — including Collins, then in her first term – eventually agreed to meet with the loggers, according to Jackson’s campaign, but Jackson felt they didn’t take the underlying labor issues seriously enough. For Jackson, it was a revealing early brush with Collins, a fellow native of Aroostook County, which covers the rural northern tip of the state.
Two years later, Jackson ran for office as a Republican. He sought his local state House seat but lost to a Democrat, Marc Michaud. Jackson ran as an independent in the next election and defeated Michaud in an upset. He joined the Democratic Party in 2004 and continued rising politically, winning a state Senate seat four years later.
Jackson, who was raised Catholic, now says he was wrong on abortion and same-sex marriage and has built a voting record in recent years that is more aligned with national party positions. Still, his ideological past has continued to haunt him in some races, including this year’s primary for governor.
“Mainers just can’t trust Troy Jackson on abortion,” said one TV ad from 314 Action, a national group that supported rival Nirav Shah, who also challenged Jackson for the Senate nomination before ending his bid.
It remains to be seen how Jackson’s previous views could come up in a Senate race where Democrats are eager to highlight Collins’ vote to confirm several justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. Asked about his past stances on abortion, the abortion rights advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All provided a statement that did not mention Jackson but criticized Collins’ record and promised the issue would be “front and center” in the race.
Schlobohm said Jackson’s ideological evolution is not unheard of among union members, who may enter politics motivated more by economic issues than social issues, and change their views on the latter as they get more involved.
“It’s a story that a lot of people understand,” Schlobohm said.
In the state Senate
Jackson’s political ascent continued in 2018 when Democrats captured the majority in the Maine Senate and picked him as their leader.
He presided over legislative initiatives such as providing free school meals to all public K-12 students in Maine. He backed efforts to protect abortion access after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
However, some supporters say one of the most revealing chapters was how he dealt with the state’s growing offshore wind industry. They say his unique relationships within the state allowed him to bring together a wide range of interests — unions, environmentalists, fisheries and developers — to get a long-term plan for the industry’s growth across the finish line in 2023.
“That requires an insane level of trust,” Schlobohm said.
The issue sometimes put him at odds with a fellow Democratic state leader, Gov. Janet Mills, who vetoed another offshore wind bill over labor standards that Jackson supported.
Stewart, the Maine Senate Republican leader, had nothing positive to say about Jackson’s tenure. He said Jackson oversaw a decline in bipartisanship in the chamber, passing “majority budgets” that did not need GOP support.
Jackson largely steered clear of national politics as he led the state Senate. But in 2016, as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention, he voted for Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton, an early show of commitment to the economic populism that is undergirding his Senate run.
Appealing to Platner’s supporters
By 2024, Jackson was set to leave the state Senate due to term limits and looking for his next political move. He thought about running for the state’s battleground 2nd Congressional District but instead joined the crowded primary to succeed Mills.
His campaign for governor was a long-awaited moment for his progressive and labor allies. But it underwhelmed, placing third in first-round primary votes.
One thing that did stand out from Jackson’s campaign, though, was how closely he tied himself to Platner. They both had the support of Sanders, they campaigned together multiple times, and Platner said he would rank Jackson as his first choice in the primary for governor.
Jackson stood by Platner through a number of controversies but called on him to drop out after the rape allegation. He said Platner had “lied” to him about whether there was anything more concerning in his past.
Republicans are already plotting to make an issue out of Jackson’s ties to Platner as well as to Sanders.
“He’s a Bernie bro,” Collins told CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday.
But for now, Jackson’s embrace of Platner’s movement and Sanders’ politics seems to have paid off, giving him access to an enthusiastic voting base that, combined with his deep relationships in Maine politics and labor, make him a formidable contender for the nomination.
“Troy has spent his entire political career fighting for these same policies and platforms (that Platner did) within the state of Maine,” said Crystale Lapham, a volunteer organizer with Maine People Powered, a grassroots group that grew out of Platner’s campaign.
The group had hoped to host a forum with the candidates for the nomination but called it off after Jackson effectively wrapped up the nomination Sunday. He still met privately with the group a day later.
But even before this week, delegates were struck by the dedication of Jackson’s organizing effort. His campaign said it ended up contacting over 11,000 Democrats in a week, aided by nearly 100 volunteers and 26 “caucus captains.”
One Jackson delegate, Steven Fritzsche, said the campaign emailed his supporters for governor on July 9, a day before Platner formally ended his campaign, to start recruiting delegates. The campaign continued to stay in touch, including with a pre-debate call on July 16, and kept reaching out over the weekend to make sure delegates had everything they needed to stick together and dominate at the county meetings.
“I thought we’d do well,” Fritzsche said. “I didn’t think it would be as resounding.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
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