By Matt Underwood Troy Jackson has effectively secured the Maine Senate Democratic nomination, and honestly, I couldn’t be more relieved. There was so much anxiety leading up to this, with everyone convinced that the process would devolve into something messy, fractious, and deeply dramatic. People were bracing for the kind of internal party warfare that leaves everyone exhausted before the general election even truly begins. But instead, it unfolded with a sense of order and purpose that felt almost refreshing. It’s a genuine credit to the state committee that they managed to facilitate such an open process under what were undeniably tight time constraints. I’ll admit I was one of the skeptics who feared the party might just try to anoint someone behind closed doors, and I am incredibly happy to be proven wrong.
Troy Jackson is exactly the kind of candidate we need to go up against Susan Collins. He’s a progressive who brings real, tangible experience to the table, and he’s largely inoffensive to the broader tent of the party, which is exactly the strategic balance we need to flip this seat. I’ve heard some people refer to him as a “younger” Democrat, and while that’s a relative term—he’s 58, which is hardly a spring chicken—the fact that 58 is considered youthful in our current political climate is a pretty damning indictment of how geriatric our leadership has become. It’s wild to look at figures like Chuck Grassley, who has been in office since the Eisenhower administration, and realize that if he had been elected the day he was born, he would have hit retirement age years ago. Compared to that, Jackson feels like a breath of fresh air.
The naysayers who spent weeks insisting that “the establishment” would inevitably force a centrist down our throats must be feeling pretty confused right now. I spent so much time reading predictions from armchair experts claiming the convention would be rigged to install some Mitt Romney-adjacent candidate, and it’s satisfying to see that narrative fall apart so completely. When you actually give the process some room to breathe, the party often trends in the direction the voters want, and that’s exactly what happened here. I’m glad we avoided the absurdity of having to deal with someone like Graham Platner on the ballot; the idea of someone with such wildly conflicting ideological baggage was a disaster waiting to happen. Thankfully, Jackson is a serious politician who has been serving in the Maine House and Senate since 2002. He’s been vetted by the simple passage of time and years of public service, which is exactly what you want when you’re looking to mount a serious challenge to an incumbent.
I keep thinking back to why he wasn’t the obvious choice from the very start. Some of my peers have asked why we didn’t go this route earlier, but the reality is that he was previously focused on his run for governor. He didn’t secure that primary, and it’s fair to acknowledge that he didn’t exactly cruise to victory in that race, but that’s just how the cycle goes. Politics isn’t a straight line. The important thing is that he is the right person for this specific moment, and even those of us who might lean a little more center-left are ready to get behind him. I’m not a die-hard progressive, but I recognize that this is the ideology that energized the base and secured the nomination. Any attempt to override that would have been a massive, deserved disaster for the party.
There’s a real sense of optimism that maybe, just maybe, Susan Collins is finally going to be put on her back foot. It’s been a long time coming. For years, we’ve watched these processes and worried about the party’s internal coordination—I’ve seen people compare it to the sudden transition from Biden to Kamala, wondering if the Democrats could actually stay “in array.” But seeing Jackson lock this down so cleanly gives me a glimmer of hope that the party is actually capable of rallying around a sensible, qualified candidate without burning the house down first.
I’m wishing Jackson nothing but the best success. It’s time for us to stop worrying about the internal drama and start focusing entirely on the goal of taking out an entrenched incumbent. The committee did their job, the voters—or at least the delegates representing them—made their choice, and now we have a clear path forward. If the goal is to win, this is the way to do it: with a seasoned legislator who knows the state, knows the issues, and has the backing of a party that has finally, mercifully, managed to avoid tripping over its own feet. Let’s go.