U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson speaks during the Maine Democrats' U.S. Senate Nominating Convention at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor last month. (Rich Abrahamson/Staff Photographer)

BANGOR — Maine Democrats officially picked Troy Jackson to be their U.S. Senate nominee during a convention Saturday— a move the party’s supporters hope will move them past the fallout from former candidate Graham Platner’s failed campaign and onto victory in November.

Jackson, a logger and former president of the Maine Senate, was selected by delegates who gathered for the convention and voted 566-5 to name him the nominee. Saundra Pelletier was the only other candidate to present at the convention.

“Maine does not need another six years of concern,” Jackson said in a speech that was met with cheers and chanting of his name prior to the vote. “We need someone with courage. We need a fighter. We need a senator who remembers exactly who sent them there.”

Jackson’s selection Saturday formally launches him into the race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a five-term incumbent who has faced increasing scrutiny in recent years under the Trump administration. Democrats nationally are eyeing her seat as a pickup opportunity.

Collins’ campaign took aim at the Democrats’ process and criticized Jackson for coming in third last month in the party’s primary for governor in a written statement after the convention.

“Senator Collins looks forward to waging a vigorous and issues-oriented campaign that will distinguish her record of accomplishment against Troy’s angry sound bites and far-left ideology,” campaign spokesperson Shawn Roderick said.

Jackson replaces Platner, who won the Democratic primary in June, but dropped out of the race earlier this month after an ex-girlfriend accused him of sexual assault. Platner denied the allegation but left the campaign after his political allies pulled their support.

Platner’s withdrawal launched an unprecedented process in Maine politics. Under state law, parties can choose a replacement if a candidate who wins a primary drops out before the general election — though that has not happened before, according to the Maine secretary of state’s office.

On Saturday, delegates gathered at the Cross Insurance Center to select a new nominee, following a process the party organized in a matter of days after Platner’s exit. The party’s deadline to officially replace Platner is Monday.

Party Chair Charlie Dingman noted the effort that went into organizing the convention on such a tight timeline in opening remarks, saying advisers had characterized it as “somewhere between a high-wire act and a moon landing.”

Saturday’s outcome did not come as a surprise, since all of Jackson’s potential challengers, with the exception of Pelletier, dropped out of the race after Jackson received overwhelming support from the hundreds of delegates who were selected at county caucuses last weekend.

Delegates Saturday seemed to largely be united behind Jackson. M.J. Schepers, a member of the state committee from Bar Harbor, originally supported Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state, for the Senate nomination. But she and other Democrats have moved past any preferences for other candidates now, and are ready to get behind Jackson, she said.

“We’re on a mission to delete Susan Collins’ phone number from our phones, and Troy can do it,” said Schepers, 63.

Ryan Lynch, a 22-year-old student at the University of Maine, was involved in Jackson’s campaign in the Democratic primary for governor and said Jackson is well-positioned to carry forward Platner’s progressive policy priorities. He hopes other Democrats also get behind his campaign.

“The Graham Platner movement wasn’t necessarily a movement behind the man so much as it was about the people,” said Lynch, a delegate from Penobscot County. “If you listen to what he said at town hall meetings and speeches, he emphasized the movement and people above all else. And that’s what Troy Jackson has been able to transfer over and carry forward.”

Jackson, 58, was first elected to the Maine Legislature in 2002 and served 20 years as a state lawmaker, including six as Senate president, from 2018 to 2024. In the Legislature, he championed issues such as access to childcare and prescription drug affordability. As a Senate candidate, he’s calling for Medicare for All, and for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be abolished.

A logger from rural Allagash, in Aroostook County, he first got involved in politics after participating in a blockade of the Quebec border to try to keep out Canadian loggers that their American counterparts felt were driving down pay rates.

He served as Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Maine political director during Sanders’ 2016 campaign for president, and was also endorsed by Sanders in his recent run for governor.

In the Senate race, Jackson will have to make his case against Collins, the chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, who has long been seen as one of the most moderate Republican senators. He is likely to carry forward many of Platner’s policy ideas, but has only three months to campaign and will have to win over independents as well as progressive Democrats.

In remarks to reporters after the convention, Jackson addressed reporting that has come to light since he entered the race indicating he can have a temper, and once threw a water bottle out of frustration during a meeting with colleagues.

He said he has had passionate disagreements in the past about issues, but he has always been able to move beyond them. “Anyone I may have argued with that thought it might have gone too far or I got too passionate, I apologize to,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with anyone in the Legislature or the U.S. Senate. I respect everyone.”

Jackson took aim at Collins as a “rubber stamp for Donald Trump” and criticized her June vote for a $70 billion funding bill to support Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

He said he is confident in his ability to win over independent and moderate voters, saying the policies he stands for, such as access to healthcare and lower prescription drug costs, cut across party lines. And he noted that he also used to be an independent before becoming a Democrat.

Jackson acknowledged there is still some frustration among voters who had supported Platner. But he said he is well-positioned to fight for many of the policies they want.

“I’m not a show horse,” he said. “I’m a work horse. And I have the record to back that up.”