Troy Jackson (Maine politician)

Troy Jackson grew up in Aroostook County in northern Maine and is a fifth-generation logger; his father and his father’s father were loggers. In seventh grade he saw his first strike, when his father and fellow loggers stood up to a large landowner, and a few years later he became a logger himself, running equipment, driving trucks and cutting wood.⁠[1][2]

He attended Allagash Consolidated Community High School and received an associate degree from the University of Maine at Fort Kent in 2000.⁠[2][1]

In 1998 Jackson took part in a loggers’ blockade on the border between Maine and Canada over landowners cutting wages; the protest led him into politics.⁠[2][1]

Jackson first ran for the Maine House of Representatives as a Republican in 2000 and lost; two years later he won a House seat as an independent, and he joined the Democratic Party in 2004.⁠[3]

From January 2013, during his third term in the Maine Senate, Jackson served as assistant majority leader. On July 10, 2013, after Majority Leader Seth Goodall resigned, Senate Democrats unanimously elected him majority leader. He said: “I will do my best to lead by example and serve the Senate and my caucus.”⁠[4]

In 2016 Jackson ran the Maine operations of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.⁠[3]

In November 2018, after Democrats won the majority in the Maine Senate, the chamber’s Democrats chose Jackson, of Allagash, as Senate President. He said he was “humbled” to serve.⁠[5]

In December 2022 the 131st Maine Senate unanimously re-elected him to a third consecutive term as Senate President, and Governor Janet T. Mills swore in the senators. He was the sixth Senate President from Aroostook County. He said: “All Maine’s families are asking is that we fight for them, that we represent them.”⁠[2]

Jackson left the Legislature in 2024 after about twenty years there, six of them as Senate President.⁠[3][1]

Jackson ran in Maine’s 2026 Democratic primary for governor. In unofficial election-night AP results he placed third with 21.1% of first-choice votes, behind Hannah PingreeHannah PingreeHannah Pingree is an American Democratic politician, a former Speaker of the Maine House and chief adviser to Governor Janet Mills, who was elected governor of Maine in November 2026.Open the full entry (23.3%); in the ranked-choice tabulation he was eliminated after Angus King III and Shenna Bellows, and Pingree won the nomination.⁠[6]

Graham Platner, who had won the Democratic Senate primary in June 2026, withdrew on July 10, and Maine law gave the state party the authority to choose a replacement. At a nominating convention in Bangor on July 25, Jackson won 566 of the 571 delegate votes cast and became the Democratic nominee against Republican Senator Susan Collins.⁠[3]

At the convention he said: “We’re not from the left, we’re not from the right. We’re from the bottom, and we are rising.”⁠[3]

In Maine’s U.S. Senate election on November 3, 2026, Jackson led Susan Collins by more than five percentage points with about two-thirds of precincts reporting. Early on November 4 Collins conceded in a statement, saying she had called Jackson to congratulate him; the Associated Press called the race for Jackson at 1:02 a.m. on November 4, after she had conceded.⁠[7][8]

In his election-night remarks Jackson said: “I’m a union member tonight and I’ll be a union member when I walk into that Senate chamber.”⁠[7]

Troy Jackson for Maine: Official website: https://www.jacksonformaine.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

X: Public account: https://x.com/troyjackson207 (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@troyjacksonformaine (opens in a new window).⁠[9]