‘Let Troy be Troy’: How Maine Democrats’ hope to beat Sen. Susan Collins is working to quiet doubters

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As Democrats enter the homestretch of their longtime quest to defeat Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins, they are placing their hope in a fifth-generation logger from the state’s rural north who speaks with a distinct Allagash accent, displays an apparent penchant for boba tea and has never been this close to the national spotlight before.

This was not how it was supposed to go.

But more than two months after Democrats picked Troy Jackson to replace Graham Platner following allegations of sexual assault that Platner has denied, his supporters, critics and other observers agree on one thing.

“Troy is definitely unusual,” said Douglas Rooks, a longtime Maine writer and historian who worked in the state legislature when Jackson first arrived there in 2002. “He is very different from anybody who’s been elected in a long, long time from Maine and many other places.”

Jackson’s quirkiness is set to be tested in a crucial period of the campaign beginning Tuesday night, when he and Collins are set to meet for the first of four debates in 10 days. And this weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is set to visit Maine for three rallies with Jackson, testing whether the progressive working-class politics they share play as well in a general election as they do in a primary.

“[Jackson] is who he is, and I think in this election, people like that,” said Jim Melcher, a political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington. But he also said Jackson would have a “learning curve” on navigating the Senate compared to Collins that could work against him.

Jackson has hit a few road bumps recently. A September story from New York magazine aired out concerns he’s being overly managed by out-of-state consultants, a video of him enjoying a boba tea drew widespread ridicule online, and he had to apologize for theorizing about why Jews may not want to call the war in Gaza a genocide.

A CBS News/YouGov poll released Friday showed some warning signs for Jackson. Forty-three percent of Democrats said they wished someone else were their nominee, and nearly a fifth of voters who disapproved of Trump said they still supported Collins. The poll found the Senate race tied.

Jackson, who lost his primary bid for Maine governor earlier this year before the Senate nomination came open, is still working to galvanize some former Platner loyalists. Scott Niemi, an organizer who met with Platner in August to pitch him on a write-in campaign that Platner ultimately rejected, said he supports Jackson but raised questions about his ability to excite Democrats.

“Obviously he doesn’t carry the same energy as Graham, and he definitely doesn’t have the speaking ability that Graham did,” Niemi said. “I think that’s kind of hurt him the most. We went from someone who’s fiery, had a lot of fight in him, to a guy who’s a bit on the calm side, which I can appreciate, but we want someone who can go to Washington and fight for us.”

Jackson has insisted he is staying the course.

“Nothing has changed,” Jackson said during a call-in program on Maine radio Thursday when asked about the New York magazine story. “This campaign has the same people working on it that it did during the governor’s race. At the end of the day, this campaign is for anyone and everyone who wants to beat Susan Collins and Donald Trump and have a government that works for them.”

Cathy Breen, a Jackson supporter who served with him in the state Senate, said he is “in brand new waters, which I’m sure is disorienting.” But she said she was confident in his campaign and strategy, noting he “absolutely knows what happened” in 2020 when Maine Democrats nominated a more traditional politician, state House Speaker Sara Gideon, and had their hopes dashed by Collins.

“Mainers can smell Washington like nobody’s business, and they don’t like Washington telling them what they do,” Breen said. “I think Troy’s done a really good job of staying true to his story.”

Jackson has made at least 50 public appearances since he replaced Platner in late July, according to his campaign. He has leaned into making the race a referendum on Collins’ support for Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, an issue that national Democrats believe is key to peeling off women who have historically broken for Collins.

Democrats were at least initially excited that Jackson mixed Platner’s outside image with far more government and political experience. But Republicans are working to use his resume against him.

“The fact is, Troy is a 20-year Augusta insider, which poses a problem for him, since Mainers know that’s where so many of their biggest problems come from,” Collins campaign spokesperson Blake Kernen said in a statement.

Collins remains under pressure to answer for a recent ProPublica story detailing an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving her office, a report she’s strenuously disputed. And President Donald Trump continues to be a major vulnerability for her in a state where he is deeply unpopular.

Some Jackson supporters say his mission is to strike more of a balance between his Aroostook County folksiness and the gravitas that Mainers have come to expect from their senators, including on policy issues. Rooks said the transition from the small world of state politics – the Maine Legislature is part-time – to a federal race can trip up politicians and cause “a lot of vertigo.”

“If I were helping him with debate prep, which I am not, my thing would be, ‘let Troy be Troy,’ and let’s just make sure on substance, he’s sharp,” said Nirav Shah, who also tried to replace Platner but dropped out as Maine Democrats coalesced around Jackson.

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民主党人进入了他们长期以来击败缅因州共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯的最后冲刺阶段，他们将希望寄托在一位来自该州北部农村的第五代伐木工身上，他操着一口独特的阿拉加什口音，显然对珍珠奶茶情有独钟，而且以前从未如此接近过全国的聚光灯。

事情原本不应该是这样的。

但民主党人选择特洛伊·杰克逊接替格雷厄姆·普拉特纳两个多月后，普拉特纳的支持者、批评者和其他观察人士在一点上达成了共识。此前，普拉特纳被指控性侵，但他否认了这些指控。

“特洛伊绝对是不同寻常的，”道格拉斯·鲁克斯说道。鲁克斯是一位长期在缅因州工作的作家和历史学家，2002年杰克逊首次到任时，他曾在州议会工作。“他与缅因州乃至其他许多地方很久以来当选的任何人都非常不同。”

杰克逊的古怪个性将在竞选的关键时期接受考验。从周二晚开始，他和柯林斯将进行十天内四场辩论中的首场。本周末，佛蒙特州独立参议员伯尼·桑德斯将前往缅因州，与杰克逊一同参加三场竞选集会。这将检验他们共同倡导的进步派工人阶级政治理念，在普选中是否也能像在党内初选中那样奏效。

“杰克逊就是他自己，我认为在这次选举中，人们喜欢的就是他这样的人，”缅因大学法明顿分校政治学教授吉姆·梅尔彻说道。但他同时表示，与柯林斯相比，杰克逊在参议院运作方面需要一个“学习过程”，这可能会对他不利。

杰克逊最近遇到了一些麻烦。9月份，《纽约》杂志的一篇报道表达了人们对他过度受外州顾问控制的担忧；一段他享用珍珠奶茶的视频在网上引发了广泛的嘲笑；他还因为自己关于犹太人为何不愿将加沙战争称为种族灭绝的理论而不得不道歉。

周五公布的CBS新闻/YouGov民调显示，杰克逊的选情出现了一些不利迹象。43%的民主党人表示，他们希望提名其他人，而近五分之一对特朗普持反对意见的选民表示，他们仍然支持柯林斯。民调显示，参议院席位争夺战双方势均力敌。

杰克逊今年早些时候在缅因州州长初选中落败，之后参议院提名才开放。他仍在努力争取一些普拉特纳的前支持者。斯科特·尼米是一位组织者，他曾在8月份与普拉特纳会面，向他推介一项以“另选他人”方式进行的竞选活动，但普拉特纳最终拒绝了。尼米表示他支持杰克逊，但对杰克逊能否激发民主党人的热情表示质疑。

“显然，他不像格雷厄姆那样充满活力，他的口才也远不及格雷厄姆，”尼米说道。“我认为这对他影响最大。我们之前找的是一个热情似火、斗志昂扬的人，现在换成了一个比较冷静的人，我能理解他的冷静，但我们想要的是一个能去华盛顿为我们而战的人。”

杰克逊坚称他会坚持既定方针。

杰克逊周四在缅因州电台的一档电话访谈节目中被问及《纽约》杂志的报道时表示：“一切都没有改变。这次竞选的幕后团队和州长竞选时一样。归根结底，这次竞选是为了所有想要击败苏珊·柯林斯和唐纳德·特朗普，并拥有一个真正为他们服务的政府的人。”

曾与杰克逊在州参议院共事的杰克逊支持者凯西·布林表示，他“身处全新的境地，这肯定让他感到迷茫”。但她表示，她对杰克逊的竞选和策略充满信心，并指出他“非常清楚”2020年发生了什么，当时缅因州民主党提名了一位更为传统的政治家——州众议院议长萨拉·吉迪恩，结果却被柯林斯击败。

布林说：“缅因州人对华盛顿的运作了如指掌，他们不喜欢华盛顿对他们指手画脚。我认为特洛伊在讲述自己的故事方面做得非常出色，他完全忠于自己的故事。”

据杰克逊竞选团队称，自7月底接替普拉特纳以来，他至少公开露面50次。他一直试图将这场竞选变成对科林斯支持推翻“罗诉韦德案”的最高法院大法官们的公投，而全国民主党人认为，这一问题对于争取那些历来支持科林斯的女性选民至关重要。

民主党人最初对杰克逊能将普拉特纳的公众形象与更丰富的政府和政治经验结合起来感到兴奋。但共和党人正试图利用他的履历来攻击他。

“事实上，特洛伊是奥古斯塔的 20 年老手，这对他来说是个问题，因为缅因州人知道，他们很多最大的问题都源于此，”柯林斯竞选发言人布莱克·克南在一份声明中说。

科林斯仍面临巨大压力，需就ProPublica近期一篇报道作出解释。该报道详细描述了她办公室涉嫌参与的权钱交易，她对此报道予以强烈否认。此外，在特朗普支持率极低的佛罗里达州，他仍然是科林斯的一大软肋。

杰克逊的一些支持者表示，他的目标是在阿鲁斯托克县的亲民作风和缅因州选民期望参议员应有的严肃认真之间取得更好的平衡，尤其是在政策问题上。鲁克斯则表示，从州政治的小圈子（缅因州议会是兼职的）过渡到联邦竞选，可能会让政治家们措手不及，并造成“极大的眩晕感”。

“如果我帮他准备辩论（但我没有），我的想法是，‘让特洛伊做他自己’，我们只需要确保他在实质内容上思路清晰，”尼拉夫·沙阿说道。他也曾试图取代普拉特纳，但随着缅因州民主党人团结在杰克逊周围，他退出了竞选。