Troy Jackson, a logger turned longtime state representative in Maine, declared victory early Wednesday over Republican Sen. Susan Collins, apparently ousting a 30-year veteran and delivering Democrats one of their most sought-after wins of the midterm cycle.
The Associated Press has not yet called the race but reported that Collins had conceded.
Jackson, 58, became the stand-in nominee after oysterman Graham Platner dropped out of the race in midsummer amid allegations of sexual assault, which Platner dismissed as ““categorically untrue.” Whereas Platner became a brief political celebrity, grabbing the national spotlight for his charisma and grassroots following, Jackson, who is from rural northern Maine, ran as the understated everyman, decrying a lagging economy that he blamed on unpopular Republican policies.
He ran a truncated race, which he made all about tying Collins to her party and President Donald Trump and calling for policies that would make life more affordable. Jackson, who lives in tiny rural Allagash, where the population is about 230, also leaned on his personal story of growing up poor and becoming president of the state Senate.
It proved to be a winning recipe.
“The throughline with Troy has always been fighting for the working class,” says Toby McGrath, a Democratic consultant who ran Barack Obama’s two statewide campaigns in Maine. “He’s always been a labor guy and he understands the shift in all those parts of Maine where the mills are gone, the unions are gone, people are moving out.”
While Collins tried to remind voters of the money and projects she’d delivered to the state as chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, Jackson argued such benefits didn’t outweigh the economic strain caused by Republican policies that Collins had supported.
The race got fiery in its final weeks as polls showed a neck-and-neck contest. Jackson became the subject of some criticism after telling Collins to “shut up” at a debate after she accused a protester of being a supporter of his campaign. And a super PAC aligned with Senate Republicans released a radio ad calling Jackson a “freak” and a “creep” over his relationship with his second cousin, with whom he has two sons. Collins distanced herself from the ad and called for its removal.
Jackson comes from three generations of lumberjacks and started logging when he was 19 years old. He got his start in politics when Canadian loggers started crossing into Maine and picking up work ordinarily done by locals. He helped lead a blockade at the border to halt temporary workers from coming into the state and then, a few years later, decided to run for office. He was elected to the state Legislature in 2002, eventually becoming Senate president. Since the logging blockade, he’s been a fierce advocate for workers unions.
On other issues, like abortion and LGBTQ rights, his opinions have evolved. In his bid for the U.S. Senate, he embraced progressive ideas like abolishing ICE and supporting Medicare for All, though he struggled in an interview with CNN to articulate how the government would pay for a universal plan.
Collins, the longest-serving female Republican Senator and the longest-serving member of Congress from Maine, had defied political headwinds before this year. She was re-elected by nine percentage points in 2020, even as former President Joe Biden carried the state by the same margin. Many prognosticators on both sides of the aisle thought the independent-minded electorate would give her another term.
But voters who had backed her in the past said they felt she’d become less independent than when she started in office and that the desire to shift control of Congress away from Republicans outweighed their goodwill toward her for the things she’s brought back home.
Mike Staggs, a 55-year-old museum worker from Mount Desert Island, says that when he first moved to Maine 37 years ago, Collins “was a lot more moderate.”
“In the last couple Administrations, she’s seemed less interested in Maine and more about moving up the ladder,” he tells TIME.
Marla O’Byrne, 70, an independent voter from Southwest Harbor who retired from working with nonprofits last year, also voted for Jackson. O’Byrne was CEO of Friends of Acadia, which raised funds for Acadia National Park. She calls Collins, whom she had voted for in the past, an engaged supporter of the organization but says that ultimately didn’t outweigh her desire for Democrats to take control of Congress.
“There are times where being middle of the road, being a moderate may be the best way to go but I don’t think that’s where we are,” O’Byrne says.
“I think we’re looking at more than what Maine needs,” she adds. “We’re facing an existential crisis as a democracy.”
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