BANGOR, Maine - Maine Democrats on Saturday quickly coronated Troy Jackson as their party's Senate nominee — following this month's spectacular implosion of ex-candidate Graham Platner — in the high-stakes Senate showdown with longtime Republican Sen.Susan Collins.Jackson, a former state Senate president, was elected in a landslide at the Maine Democratic Party's nominating convention in Bangor.
He was on a glide path to the nomination after winning the vast majority of the voting delegates chosen last weekend by Democrats in the northern New England state's 16 counties.Jackson's top rivals in the race to replace Platner backed him after dropping out of the race the past few days, leaving only one long-shot candidate for delegates to also consider at the convention.He defeated Saundra Pelletier, a pharmaceutical company CEO, by a 566-5 margin in Saturday's vote.The Senate race in Maine, where Collins is the only GOP incumbent running for re-election in a state President Donald Trump lost in the 2024 election, is one of roughly a dozen midterm showdowns across the country that will determine if Republicans hold onto their slim majority or if the Democrats win back control of the chamber.WHO'S UP AND WHO'S DOWN: CHECK OUT THE FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS ON THE MIDTERM ELECTIONSFormer Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, arrives at the state Democratic Party's Senate nominating convention, in Bangor, Maine on July 25, 2026 (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News )"Are you ready to defeat Susan Collins? Well, then let's unite this party.
Let's build the largest working class movement Maine has ever seen.And let's win this fight," Jackson, a fifth-generation logger from the remote northern tip of Maine and a one-time conservative Republican who became a Democrat over two decades ago, said in convention speech just ahead of the delegate vote.While Jackson quickly raised over $1 million for his burgeoning Senate campaign and coalesced party support, there are some potential warning...