Maine Democrats Turn to Troy Jackson After Platner Campaign Implodes
The former state Senate president will challenge Sen. Susan Collins after a rival candidate's bid collapsed in scandal.
By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
Maine Democrats have settled on their challenger to Sen. Susan Collins: Troy Jackson, a former state senator, according to NBC News. His selection follows the collapse of Graham Platner's campaign, which NBC reported fell apart amid scandal — though the network's reporting available here does not detail the specific allegations that sank it.
Collins, a Republican who has held her seat for more than two decades, has built a reputation as one of the Senate's more independent-minded Republicans, occasionally breaking from her party on high-profile votes. That history has made her both a target and a survivor in a state that otherwise leans Democratic in federal races — Maine has backed Democratic presidential nominees in every election since 1992.
Jackson, who led the state Senate before term limits pushed him out, now inherits a campaign timeline compressed by his predecessor's exit. NBC's Julie Tsirkin reported the development Saturday; further specifics on Jackson's platform or the circumstances of Platner's withdrawal were not included in available reporting, and readers should treat that absence as a gap, not a settled account.
The race is expected to be among the most closely watched Senate contests of the cycle, testing whether Collins's brand of institutional Republicanism still holds in a state increasingly polarized like the rest of the country.
Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by NBC News.
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