Former Maine Senate president and Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson upset the status quo in Washington on Tuesday when he unseated the five-term incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
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Sen. Collins was first elected to serve in the U.S. Senate in 1996 and retained her seat until Tuesday, when Maine voters, many driven by animosity towards President Donald Trump, voted in favor of her left-wing opponent, Jackson.
Jackson has spent decades entrenched in Maine state politics while maintaining an outward demeanour of a rugged logger from Aroostook.
Jackson pulled ahead despite the chaos of the Democratic Party’s nomination process. Voters chose Graham Platner to be the Democratic Senate nominee, but, after a series of scandals culminating in credible rape allegations, Platner stepped down, and Jackson was selected as his successor by Democratic party delegates rather than voters.
Jackson began his political career as a moderate, but abandoned that to inherit many of Platner’s more radical positions, including universal Medicaid coverage and increased taxes for the wealthy.
Maine’s newest Senate nominee’s campaign was not without its own scandals, including reports that he shifted his moderate position on gun control as the lobbying firm that employed his son pushed for harsher firearm restrictions, allegations of mortgage fraud, and the revelation that he has been in a long-term relationship with his second cousin.
Collins serves on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the Select Committee on Intelligence, and numerous subcommittees, including the Subcommittee on Defense, and holds the powerful position as chair of the Appropriations Committee.
It remains to be seen what committee appointments Maine’s new freshman senator-elect will receive.
With the Jackson victory, Democrats will gain control of the U.S. Senate and will win at least 51 seats. Democrats flipped senate seats in Iowa North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Kansas, Texas, Iowa and now Maine.
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