Monday, July 20, 2026: Troy Jackson appears primed to take Senate nomination; state will send 'affordability checks' this month

From Maine Public Radio and Mainepublic.org, I'm Nicole Ogrisco with the news on this day in Maine, Monday, July 20th, 2026. Over the weekend, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson appeared to have won the support he'll need to clinch the Democratic nomination for Maine's U.S. Senate seat. If he does, Jackson has pledged to continue the populist progressive movement that Graham Platner helped to ignite among Maine Democrats before he dropped out a few weeks ago. Kevin Miller has more on how this weekend's delegate selection process played out. By the time Jackson addressed a crowd of supporters in Sanford early Sunday morning. It was already abundantly clear that he was outperforming every other candidate by far in this first critical stage of the nomination process. You know, our supporters swept all 44 delegates in Pinawskod County. They swept all 40 delegates in Kennebec County. Our entire slate, our entire slate, was elected in Cumberland County.

Democrats in all 16 counties met Saturday and Sunday to elect the delegates who will actually choose a new nominee to take on Republican Senator Susan Collins this fall. Those delegates are not obligated to vote for any candidate, but many had already made their preferences clear. And as the delegate selection process rolled on, Jackson's campaign claimed the vast majority had already signaled their support for him. It was a major turn of events for Jackson, a professional logger and longtime lawmaker who finished third in the Democratic primary for governor last month. But he had managed to mobilize a base among the labor unions and many supporters of Graham Platner, a fellow progressive and populist who had campaigned with Jackson. And that is what this movement has always been about. Even before me, you know, even without me, this movement has always been about working people having the opportunity showing up and fighting for what they deserve. By Sunday evening, Secretary of State Shanabello's, former Maine CDC director, Narav Shah, and former congressional candidate, Jordan Wood, had all dropped out of the race, opening the door for Jackson to next weekend's nominating convention. Under state law, Maine Democratic Party leaders had less than two weeks to select a new nominee after Graham Platner withdrew following rape accusations from a former romantic partner, which he strongly denied. Under intense pressure to respect the massive grassroots support behind Graham Platner, party leaders settled on county-by-county caucus-style meetings to elect delegates. Catherine Edney of Hancock was among the more than 17,000 Democrats who voted either in person or online over the weekend. She was backing either Jackson or Bellows. I think it's kind of a miracle that they came up with this process so quickly and it's so organized. And they have so many volunteers. And I think that's kind of a credit to Graham Platner and the amount of excitement and enthusiasm and support that he generally did. Both national parties regard Susan Collins' seat as potentially key to control the Senate next year. Republican groups have already committed tens of millions of dollars to the race, and defeating Susan Collins, a 30-year veteran who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, will be no easy task even in left-leaning Maine. She won in 2020 by nine percentage points, despite trailing in most polls headed into Election Day. But I think the one thing that unites us all, of course, is we've got to get rid of Susan Collins. Lisa Malone was a delegate candidate for York County. She goes on and on about how much money she's pulled in. Well, I've just talked to a number of people myself, included in that category, the retired, that are really concerned about heating this winter, people that are concerned about food security. Those messages, along with Medicare for All, workers' rights, and taking on the billionaire class, clearly resonated with Democratic voters during Graham Platner's campaign.

And Jackson has portrayed himself as the best Democrat to pick up that torch. And a lot of people poured their hearts into this movement before I even entered this race. People were excited. People wanted health care. They wanted a government that worked for them. Something that I have wanted my entire life. Back in Ellsworth on Saturday, the Hancock County meeting was held less than a mile from Graham Platner's former campaign headquarters. His office was dark in the windows bare, except for a for a rent sign in a second floor window. But Graham Platner, who lives in nearby Dan Sullivan, was still very much on the minds and lips of many of the Democrats involved in the process to replace him. And as you can see, there's still a lot of support for Grandma and Amy here. And I would have voted for him in a heartbeat. Still, if he was on the ballot. Delegate candidate Becky O'Keefe from Goldsboro, sporting a Graham Platner shirt, joined fellow supporter Nancy Hathaway in asking attendees to write personal messages to Graham Platner and his wife, Amy. More than 100 people had signed. It's hard, just like this person wrote. It's hard to lose our line because he was such a good person at inspiring all of us. Should Jackson be declared the nominee next weekend, he will have to convince not only Graham Platner supporters, but hundreds of thousands of other Maine voters, including independents, to support him over Susan Collins in November. For Maine Public Radio News, I'm Kevin Miller. The state of Maine will begin mailing out one-time $300 checks to eligible taxpayers later this month. The so-called affordability payments were a key part of Governor Janet Mills' last budget proposal and was billed as a way to provide relief to Mainers struggling with rising everyday costs. Full-time Maine residents are eligible for a check if they filed a 2025 tax return and report an adjusted gross income that's less than $100,000 if married and filing jointly, $75,000 if filing as head of household, or $50,000 for individuals. The checks will be mailed to an address that's on file with Maine Revenue Services, the agency said today. The state is tapping its rainy day fund to pay for the $155 million program. The destructive Emerald Ash Borer is now present in so much of Maine that state officials want to end a quarantine designed to slow the invasive beetle down. Gary Fish, with the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry, says Ash Borer has spread across Maine, likely through firewood transported outside quarantine zones. You can only have that happen so many times before it gets to the point where... It's not really productive to continue to try to regulate it because it's just going to keep moving and moving quickly. Fetals pose a threat to Maine's ash by tunneling through wood and can kill a tree in five years or less. The department will hold public hearings on its plan August 18th in Preskyle and Old Town. Advocates for transgender people say it's welcome news that the Trump administration appears to be dropping an effort to block all federal funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care. NPR reported last week that the administration is no longer pursuing a rule that would have prohibited federal Medicare and Medicaid funds for hospitals that treat transgender children. Gia Drew is the executive director of Equality Maine. In a very hostile world right now where we have a federal administration trying to

erase transgender people and prevent transgender kids from participating in school activities or getting health care. This is a little bit of light that we all need. But Drew notes that another proposed rule aims to block federal Medicaid dollars from covering pediatric transgender care. In the Colby College Museum of Art has acquired a rare 1946 screen print by the French artist Henri Matisse. The large work is significant because it was early on in Matisse's experimentation with the cutouts that he's now famous for, says Jacqueline Tarassa, director of the Colby College Museum of Art. There are these white shapes that have been silk screened, and they appear to be floating almost like... clouds or like flots them on the ocean. Some of them appear to be amoeba-like. Some of them appear to be fish-like. Some of them appear to be more bird-like. So there are these biological and organic shapes that... kind of dense around the entire surface. Tarossa says Matisse was very inspired by nature and often played with biological shapes to portray an environment. The work, which is a gift of Josephine Meryl Eastman, is now on view at the Colby Museum of Art. And that's today's main news. For more stories, visit mainpublic.org. Coming up on Maine calling at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning, what to know about squid. I'm Nicole Ogrisco. Thanks for listening.