Maine socialists try again — with another he-man fake to sub for Graham Platner
By Andrea Peyser
Published July 14, 2026, 5:37 p.m. ET
Troy Jackson, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks during a demonstration outside of a federal immigration office after a man was fatally shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, on July 14, 2026 in Scarborough, Maine. Here Maine goes again.
The state’s new far-left contender for the Democratic Party’s US Senate nomination is a faux populist with a wicked reactionary streak.
Until five minutes ago, his immigrant-hating, anti-abortion platform was so extreme it would spook even the staunchest Republican.
He’s a local pol so desperate to make it in the big leagues that he’s cosplaying as a progressive working man unafraid to get his hands dirty.
He is Troy Jackson, fifth-generation Maine logger and wannabe US senator, and he’s got the Bernie Sanders seal of approval to replace accused rapist Graham Platner on the Democrats’ midterm election ballot.
Influential Dems are betting the chance for a Senate majority on a 58-year-old former radical right-winger who’s transformed himself into a socialist darling.
“He was a logger by trade so he’s got that Maine log man in him,” enthused former political operative Kurt Bardella.
But while some see a sexy macho man, I smell an abject phony.
On the surface, Jackson seems to check all the necessary boxes to defeat GOP Sen. Susan Collins — as Platner appeared to do, before his campaign crashed and burned.
Union member? Check.
Virile manual laborer? Ditto.
Yet from where I sit, he’s a blow-with-the-wind, say-anything-believe-nothing fake who’s out for nothing but personal gain.
And those are his good points.
Jackson’s legislative history is marked by obsessions with those he viewed as job-stealing immigrants, as well as a scary preoccupation with what women do with their bodies.
He first rose to political prominence in 1998, when he led a blockade aimed at keeping Canadian workers from crossing the US border.
He was a Republican then, but the anti-immigrant and nationalist rhetoric he pushed was excessive even for the GOP.
And long after he found opportunity as a Democrat, he continued banging the anti-immigrant drum.
Until recently, he’s moaned about seeing “countless foreign loggers cross the border every single day to work in our forests.”
As a state senator in 2022, he authored legislation restricting non-Americans from coming to Maine for employment, even if they had legal work permits.
But when he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor this year, the whiplash was stunning.
Jackson transformed virtually overnight from dedicated xenophobe into sworn enemy of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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https://nypost.com/2026/07/14/opinion/maine-socialists-boost-another-he-man-fake-after-graham-platner/
