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‘Somewhere between a highwire act and a moonlanding’: Maine Democrats chose Troy Jackson in unprecedented U.S. Senate nomination
By Josh Keefe and Matt Junker
Maine Democrats used an unfamiliar process to choose a familiar face as their replacement nominee for one of the most closely watched races in the country.
A group of nearly 600 Democrats nominated former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson to be their U.S. Senate nominee in Bangor on Saturday, ending an unprecedented scramble to replace former nominee Graham Platner on November’s ballot just days before a state deadline.
Jackson won 566 votes of the 571 cast by party delegates at the Cross Insurance Center, defeating lone remaining challenger Saundra Pelletier, a biopharmaceutical executive and political newcomer. Jackson will now face Republican incumbent Susan Collins in November.
“This is the absolute honor of my life to accept the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate,” Jackson told the crowd in a speech after the results were announced, taking aim at Collins and styling himself as a fighter for working Mainers against corporate interests and the wealthy.
“If you’ve ever been ignored, underestimated, pushed around or told you have to wait your turn while the rich cut the line, I’m asking you to stand with us in this campaign,” he said. |
