The Colby Democrats opened their five-week speaker series with Maine gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson, drawing students and community members into a conversation about labor, political power, and what he described as a system that no longer works for everyday Mainers. The series, which will feature candidates from the state’s governor and Senate primaries, aims to give students the opportunity to hear directly from those seeking office during what organizers called one of Maine’s most significant election cycles in recent history.
Jackson, the current President of the Maine Senate and a fifth-generation logger from Allagash, framed his campaign not around partisan identity but around a lifetime of confrontation with economic inequality. As a middle schooler, he accompanied his father to a logging strike in northern Maine, where he watched a landowner warn workers that if they refused reduced pay, they would be replaced by Canadian labor. The moment, he said, exposed him to the realities of power and inequality. “It was the first time that I saw somebody with power show people that they didn’t matter,” Jackson said. That experience, he argued, shaped his understanding of how political and economic systems can marginalize working people.
After graduating high school, Jackson entered the logging industry himself. He described years spent chasing work across the state, often gone for days at a time without reliable communication with his family. By the late 1990s, Maine loggers were struggling as exchange rates shifted and Canadian competition intensified. When elected officials declined to meet with workers seeking relief, Jackson joined a small group of loggers in blockading the Canadian border in 1998 to demand that their concerns be taken seriously.
The blockade led to arrests and became a turning point. Jackson said it forced him to reconsider his belief that the government, if approached through proper channels, would be there for people. “Government doesn’t work the way that I always saw it work,” he said. In his view, political systems respond primarily to those who maintain a constant presence in Augusta and Washington, those with influence and financial power.
That realization led him to run for the Maine House of Representatives. He later moved to the State Senate and eventually became Senate President. During his tenure, Democrats expanded reproductive rights protections, enacted universal school meals, invested in childcare, and strengthened collective bargaining laws. Jackson cited these measures as evidence that progressive policy can materially improve lives.
Yet he argued that many efforts aimed at protecting working-class Mainers have been blocked or vetoed under pressure from powerful interests. He pointed to bills addressing prescription drug costs, aerial herbicide spraying, nondisclosure agreements in harassment cases, and binding arbitration as examples of legislation he believes was derailed despite legislative support. For Jackson, these setbacks reinforce his argument that Maine needs new leadership in the Blaine House.
He acknowledged that there are other candidates in the race, but suggested they would preserve the status quo rather than disrupt it. In his view, maintaining existing structures means the same dynamics will continue. “I want to upset the system,” he said. “It doesn’t work for us. I know damn well because I’ve been there for 20 years and I’ve watched it.” He closed by adding, “I’d love to have your support.”
~ Sophia Ikiri `29
Be First to Comment