Platner ally Troy Jackson locks down delegates as top rivals for Democratic Senate nomination drop out
Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson appears to have locked up enough delegates to win the abbreviated race to replace now ex-candidate Graham Platner as the Democratic Senate nominee in...
By Fox News · Fox News
Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson appears to have locked up enough delegates to win the abbreviated race to replace now ex-candidate Graham Platner as the Democratic Senate nominee in the high-stakes showdown to face off with longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Delegates aligned with Jackson won the vast majority of the 500 slots that were up for grabs on Saturday and Sunday as Maine's 16 counties held two days of delegate selection for next weekend's nominating convention. And Jackson's top two rivals for the nomination, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah, a former top public health official, dropped out of the race on Sunday. "In November, Mainers will defeat Susan Collins, and we will take back our Senate seat from the billionaires and corporations who think they own it," Jackson said in a social media post Sunday evening. While the delegates on Jackson's slate are not required to support him at next weekend convention, he is in an extremely strong position to secure the nomination and face off in the midterm elections against Collins in what's expected to be a combative and expensive ballot box battle that's among a dozen nationwide which will determine if the Democrats can win back the Senate majority. The GOP currently holds the chamber 53-47. DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB A fifth-generation logger and a one-time conservative Republican who became a Democrat over two decades ago, Jackson came in third place last month in Maine's Democratic gubernatorial primary . On Saturday, in the race to replace Platner, Jackson-aligned delegates won more than 90% of the slots, including all 149 in Cumberland County, Maine's most populous county and home to the state's largest city, Portland. "Yesterday was an unbelievable huge step, but our work is not finished — not even close," Jackson said Sunday morning. And the winning streak of Jackson-aligned delegates continued throughout the day. Over 450 of the 500…