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Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor and columnist for 41 years. His biography of Gov. Ken Curtis,“Transformational,” is now available. He welcomes comment at [email protected].

Well, that was quick.

In an impressive and decisive show of resolve, the Maine Democratic Party united behind a new U.S. Senate candidate just 10 days after its previous nominee, Graham Platner, was driven out of the race by an allegation of sexual assault.

Troy Jackson emerged as Platner’s replacement on the first day of county caucuses, and the next day all his key rivals, two of whom had competed against him in the governor’s race, withdrew. This was wholly unexpected. The ready explanations — great organizing and policy positions similar to Platner’s — are unconvincing.

Jackson finished third behind both the first round leader, Nirav Shah, and the ranked-choice winner, Hannah Pingree, and probably did that well because Platner ranked Jackson first on his own ballot. By the time the caucuses were held, all the top candidates had matched Platner’s platform, plank for plank.

What actually happened is more mysterious. Democrats, usually more fractious than Republicans, were eager, even desperate to find someone to defeat Susan Collins. They spontaneously gravitated toward a candidate who seemed most like Platner in demeanor  and life story. And there was likely involvement from national labor figures — an impressive bunch — who convinced Platner to run just a year ago.

Whatever your theory, and there are many, the convention in Bangor on Saturday will feature no floor fights, but a show of unanimity rare among Democrats in any era, let alone this one. Jackson will need all hands on deck.

There are also obvious differences between Platner and Jackson. Platner captivated audiences as few Maine politicians have. With his story of recovery from his shattered condition after service in America’s “endless wars,” he seemed to be speaking truth to power in a way tens of thousands of Mainers could identify with. That it all came crashing down is no reason to think it wasn’t real, although feelings about Platner now also run the gamut.

Jackson does not have Platner’s charisma. He’s been an elected official for more than 20 years, so he’s not the outsider Platner was. Yet in an important sense, Jackson is every bit as much outside our standard political framing.

As a logger in northernmost Maine, he did hard, physical labor every day until he suffered a serious back injury — one reason he decided to run for the Legislature, to represent constituents who even back then felt disenfranchised. 

It’s gotten worse. After Jackson left the Senate in 2024, there’s not a single Democrat from Aroostook County in either the House or Senate — a striking parallel to Susan Collins’ place in New England, the only remaining Republican among 12 senators and 21 representatives.

Coming from a region essentially written off by his fellow Democrats, Jackson presents intriguing possibilities for scrambling the assumption that the state’s 2nd Congressional District is forever “red,” with the 1st District ever-increasingly “blue.”

The good news for Democrats is that they’ve found a candidate they can agree on. Whatever else you might say about him, Jackson’s commitment and authenticity cannot be questioned. But he starts late, far past the time most successful runs begin, as national Democrats well know from Joe Biden’s July withdrawal as president in 2024.

Although Jackson won’t have quite the same volume and repetition of the Collins media blitz, it may not matter. As evidenced by record Maine Democratic primary turnout and results in other states, Jackson’s could be a Bernie Sanders-endorsed Senate candidate who actually wins. His strengths may fit national issues better than his campaign for governor. 

Susan Collins has an obstacle to reelection different from any of her five previous Senate campaigns: a Republican president who in his second  term violates almost every legal and constitutional norm there is, and who’s focused on punishing Maine ever since his set-to with Gov. Janet Mills last year. His creation of a “forever war” all on his own will weigh down every Republican campaign, as will the ICE shooting in Biddeford, for which Collins has no answers.

Collins’ hole card, that as Appropriations chair she can uniquely benefit Maine, pales in comparison with massive healthcare cuts in President Trump’s budget that will hurt providers and leave thousands of Mainers uninsured. That doesn’t include future economic damage from Trump’s unilateral actions to cancel offshore wind leases that may represent Maine’s best hope for a survivable climate future.

The height of the anti-Trump wave is something that can’t now be predicted, and that will determine more than anything else who represents Maine in the U.S. Senate. Those betting against Troy Jackson may lose their wager.