Two Rivals Just Quit the Maine Senate Race and Handed It to Bernie’s Logger

Graham Platner's Senate campaign imploded under sexual assault allegations he still denies.

Two of the four Democrats trying to replace him just dropped out within one day of each other.

That leaves Maine Democrats one finalist away from a nominee Bernie Sanders' own political operation already built.

Bellows and Shah Bow Out as the Field Collapses to One Man

Shenna Bellows, Maine's sitting Secretary of State, dropped out Sunday after getting buried at the county caucuses.

Nirav Shah went next.

The former Maine CDC director told Democrats they had to beat Susan Collins – then endorsed the most unelectable man in the field, former state Senate President Troy Jackson.

Jackson came in third in his own party's governor's primary this year.

Now he is on track to be Maine's Democratic Senate nominee without ever winning a single statewide primary vote for the job.

Delegates aligned with Jackson took more than ninety percent of the slots up for grabs at Saturday's county caucuses.

In Cumberland County, Maine's largest, Jackson's people won all one hundred forty-nine available seats.

Nearly two-thirds of the 601 delegates set to gather in Bangor on July 25 are already locked in for Jackson, and the actual convention vote hasn't even happened yet.

Jackson himself sounded thrilled with how little competition was actually involved.

"We're well on our way to getting the government that we deserve," he told supporters Saturday night.

Bernie Sanders' Fingerprints Are All Over the Backup Plan

Jackson was not a neutral fallback Maine Democrats settled on after Platner flamed out.

He campaigned alongside Platner for months on the identical platform, and Bernie Sanders backed both men.

Medicare for All, higher taxes on the wealthy, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement outright.

At a debate this week, Jackson stood next to three rivals and could not distinguish himself from any of them on a single major issue.

Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha called the handoff exactly what it looks like: "Soviet style."

Democrats replaced Montana Senator John Walsh after a plagiarism scandal in 2014 and installed an obscure state legislator nobody had heard of.

She lost by nearly eighteen points.

Democrats swapped out Joe Biden for Kamala Harris in 2024 after party insiders decided he could not win.

Harris lost every swing state in the country.

The one time this kind of switch actually worked for Democrats was New Jersey in 2002, when they dumped an ethically compromised senator for a retired one voters already knew and trusted.

Troy Jackson is not that.

He is Graham Platner with a quieter voice and the same donor list.

A Party Desperate for a Working-Class Hero Keeps Finding the Wrong One

Maine Democrats wanted Platner because he sounded like a real person who could win back voters who left the party for Trump.

Instead they got a candidate whose old Reddit posts dismissing military sexual assault allegations surfaced, and he never fully recovered.

Jackson gives them the working-class biography, a fifth-generation logger from Aroostook County, without the platform to match.

Abolishing the agency that enforces America's immigration laws is not a message that flies outside a Portland rally.

Neither is a tax-the-rich, Medicare for All platform that Vermont's own socialist senator has been unable to sell nationally for a decade.

Collins has survived five terms in a state Trump lost twice by running as the practical alternative to whatever chaos Democrats nominate next.

Handing her a Bernie Sanders acolyte running on an abolish-ICE platform is exactly the pitch she has hit out of the park before.

Maine Democrats had eighteen days to find their strongest possible general election candidate.

They spent it watching two of their better options quit and letting delegate slates do the deciding instead of voters.

The convention in Bangor on July 25 is close to a formality at this point.

Bernie Sanders got the nominee he wanted twice in one summer, and Maine Democrats still have to explain it to the voters who have to actually beat Susan Collins in November.

Sources:

• Nick Arama, "Big Action in Maine Senate Race As Candidates Drop Out, Who Will Replace Platner Becomes Clear," RedState, July 19, 2026.
• Staff, "Platner Ally Troy Jackson Closing In on Democratic Senate Nod in Key Race to Face Collins," Fox News, July 18, 2026.
• Staff, "Maine Dems Rally Behind Platner's Far-Left Platform as They Scramble to Court His Followers," Fox News, July 17, 2026.
• Joe Concha, "Democrats Will Install a Candidate 'Soviet Style' Again in Maine," Washington Examiner, July 2026.