Troy Jackson appears closest to securing Maine nomination to replace Platner

After the first day of voting, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson’s preferred delegates have won the overwhelming majority of available delegate slots that will ultimately choose which candidate will be the party’s nominee to challenge Susan Collins’ seat in the U.S. Senate.

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Voting for the remaining counties continued Sunday, with the results expected in the evening.

The Democratic Party is choosing its next nominee via elected county delegates after its former nominee, Graham Platner, formally withdrew from the race amid allegations of sexual assault.

Next weekend, the Maine Democratic Party will hold its nominating convention, bringing 601 voting members, which include the 500 voter-chosen delegates, will be at in Bangor. The other 101 members automatically come from the Democratic State Committee.

Ahead of this weekend’s county meetings, Jackson shared on his campaign website a list of delegates who have said they intend to vote for Jackson at the nominating convention, which he has called the “Troy delegate slate.” The Maine Democratic Party has also started listing which delegates have been selected for each county. His preferred delegates secured nearly all of the delegates in Cumberland County and the majority in the others.

The Maine Democratic Party has said that delegates are not pledged to any single candidate, so it is possible they could change course by next weekend. However, if they did keep their votes, that would make Jackson the presumptive nominee.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced Sunday that she would withdraw from the race to become the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Bellows did not endorse another candidate in her withdrawal announcement but urged Democrats to unite quickly behind their eventual nominee.

Hours after, former Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah announced he was also dropping out of the race. In a statement, he threw his support behind Jackson. “Mainers must remember that [Susan Collins] is not a moderate. When the most extreme policies have threatened Maine, she has repeatedly failed to stop them,” he said. “That’s why I am suspending my campaign for the United States Senate today and endorsing Troy Jackson. Susan Collins, Donald Trump, and Senate Republicans are banking on disunity and frustration from Maine Democrats to try and win this seat, and we are not going to give them that.”

Dan Kleban also announcing on Sunday he was dropping out and endorsing Jackson after securing enough signatures to qualify.

“From the very beginning, my focus has been on defeating Susan Collins. I will do whatever I can between now and November to help Troy Jackson finally achieve that goal,” he said.

Jordan Wood announced he was dropping out in a social media video posted to X Sunday evening. Wood gave his endorsement to Jackson.

Our Revolution, a political organizing group, also reacted to the delegate nominating results, saying in a statement, “Margins like these do not happen on enthusiasm alone. They are the product of disciplined organizing: a full delegate slate recruited and filed in every corner of the state, thousands of first-time participants walked through registration and paperwork, and turnout surging across all 16 county meetings.”

State law requires Democrats to select a replacement nominee by July 27.