The Democrats’ Maine nightmare is starting to look a lot like 2024, and that bodes poorly for their new Senate nominee, Troy Jackson.
In the span of a few days, Jackson went from a failed gubernatorial candidate to the Democrats’ sudden Senate nominee after Graham Platner’s campaign fully imploded. Despite Platner’s historically high vote count in the primary, and his success in forcing Gov. Janet Mills (D., Maine) into early retirement, Democrats wanted him out of the race once it became clear that he was unlikely to beat Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) in November.
The problem was that Platner had already clinched the nomination. However, Democrats had an escape valve they immediately activated, and Platner withdrew just hours before it was too late to replace him.
Following several hastily-organized debates that gave Republicans even more ad fodder, Jackson became the prohibitive favorite to win the several hundred votes needed to replace Platner in November.
Enter Vice President Kamala Harris, who found herself in similar terrain after Democrats jettisoned President Joe Biden in 2024 and replaced him with her on the ballot. In endorsing Jackson, Harris noted that she “know[s] what it is like to step up to the plate with a short runway to Election Day. Troy will have just 101 days between his nomination for Senate and when voters in Maine will cast their ballots.”
While Harris — who is gradually reemerging onto the political scene following her trouncing by President Donald Trump in 2024 — views her experience as an asset for Jackson, Republicans aren’t so sure. “She knows exactly what he’s going through,” Blake Kernen, a Collins spokeswoman, told the Washington Reporter.
In 2024, Harris beat Trump in Maine, Trump carried one of the state’s two congressional districts, and Collins has proven impossible for Democrats to oust. In 2020, Biden beat Trump in Maine, but Collins beat her Democratic opponent by almost ten percent.
