Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson explores a run for governor
By Billy Kobin, Bangor Daily News Staff
Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, one of the state’s leading labor Democrats, on Friday confirmed long-running speculation that he is exploring a run for governor.
Jackson, a logger from Allagash, first won election to the Maine House of Representatives as an independent in 2002 after running unsuccessfully as a Republican in 2000. He joined the Democratic Party in 2004 and rose to the Senate in 2008, becoming president a decade later.
His northern Maine roots and advocacy for labor unions have made him an attractive candidate for some Democrats to succeed Gov. Janet Mills, but the potential field also includes other big-name politicians. Jackson was swamped by the Democratic establishment when he ran for Maine’s 2nd District in 2014, losing by 40 percentage points to Emily Cain.
“I look forward to conversations with people all across the state to talk about what we can do to make sure Maine remains a place where middle class families can thrive,” he said in a statement that nodded to his working-class background.
Jackson has not yet filed to run. He has been among a core group of Democrats considering a run to replace Mills alongside Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Hannah Pingree, the head of the governor’s policy office.
The former Senate president first gained recognition as a leader of a 1998 logging blockade that protested the use of Canadian labor in Maine. In the State House, he was a foil to former Gov. Paul LePage, including when Jackson was the target of a vulgar remark by the Republican.
Early in Jackson’s career, he took votes against abortion and same-sex marriage and was endorsed by the National Rifle Association while representing the culturally conservative St. John Valley. But he has since joined the party’s mainstream on those issues. His son, Chace Jackson, lobbied for gun control on the heels of the 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston.
Jackson was prevented by term limits from running in 2024. Two years before that, he waged the political fight of his career by turning back a challenge from Republican Sue Bernard in a record-smashing race that saw more than $1 million spent by outside groups and the campaigns.
The former Senate president was in Augusta this week to telegraph his moves. On Tuesday, state Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, posted and quickly deleted a link to an ActBlue page that Baldacci indicated was for Jackson. He also lunched on Wednesday with lobbyist and Democratic power broker Severin Beliveau, according to a source familiar with the meeting.