He has appeared disinterested in the race he’s running, and he’s shown peevish irritation when pressed to engage with it.
The Atlantic’s Tyler Austin Harper had a valuable observation on Monday morning:
Haley Stevens is attracting a lot of attention right now, but it’s worth noting that Janet Mills never endorsed Troy Jackson in the Maine senate race. That’s another instance of deep friction between a populist candidate and the establishment choice that has gone quite unnoticed.
— Tyler Austin Harper (@Tyler_A_Harper) November 2, 2026
Late last week, Maine’s Democratic governor did appear to back Jackson, but she did so with a tepidity that betrayed her ambivalence about the outcome of that race.
“I encourage Maine people to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot who will stand up for our values and stand up to Trump,” Mills wrote in a social media post accompanied by a big green checkmark beside Jackson’s name.
For several weeks, Mills’s office said it would be willing to issue a more fulsome endorsement for the Democratic Party’s Senate nominee, but the Jackson camp had done little to cultivate a statement of support.
“On Thursday, though, it was revealed that behind the scenes there had been a last-ditch effort between the two camps to unite Jackson and Mills,” MS NOW reported. “Jackson told MS NOW at a press briefing in Westbrook Thursday morning that he had recently left a voice message for Mills but hadn’t heard back.”
Jackson is getting from Mills’s office the same amount of effort he put into seeking her endorsement. Indeed, the lethargy MS NOW describes has been a feature of Jackson’s approach to much of this race.
Throughout it, he has appeared disinterested in the race he’s running, and he’s shown peevish irritation when pressed to engage with it. Jackson’s recent interview with CNN’s Dana Bash was, in my view, illustrative of his frustration with the indignities of the public life he sought for himself:
I haven’t seen a single clip from this interview of any length in which Jackson comes off as either lucid or particularly engaged with the election.
In this one, he just outright concedes one of the GOP’s premises — one that every other Democrat running on Medicare-for-all… https://t.co/aKJ35KUZEm
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) October 19, 2026
In this one, he completely dispenses with even the appearance of interest in the subject matter. It’s not that he’s evading the question with some rote talking points. He doesn’t seem to have talking points. He’s wingin’ it! https://t.co/pzvs2xWifl
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) October 19, 2026
Just as many dissenting Michiganders have been overlooked by the national press, plenty of Maine Democrats remain skeptical of Jackson’s candidacy. A blue tsunami could and likely would take Susan Collins away with the tide.
But if Jackson comes up short, it will be due as much to Collins’s personal relationship with her voters and the seniority she brings to the Senate as to Jackson’s strange and conspicuous indolence.