Troy Jackson secured 566 delegate votes at the Maine Democratic Convention on July 25 to become the party's new U.S. Senate nominee. He's a former Maine Senate president. He replaced the previous nominee, Graham Platner, who had to step aside under his own cloud of disgrace. And according to multiple reports, Jackson's longtime partner — with whom he has two children — is his second cousin.
The Democrats' bench in Maine is exactly as deep as the gene pool, apparently.
The partner is Lana Pelletier. Both Jackson and Pelletier hail from Allagash, a tiny community in Aroostook County at the northern tip of Maine. According to reporting, the two share great-grandparents. They have two children together. They have never legally married — Maine does not recognize common-law marriage — though older biographical materials referred to Pelletier as Jackson's "wife" before the language was quietly updated to "partner."
The timing is brutal for Maine Democrats, who just went through the embarrassment of dumping Platner and had positioned Jackson as the clean reset candidate to challenge Republican Senator Susan Collins.
But it's not just the family tree that's raising questions. Jackson reportedly paid $4,600 in late state income taxes last year — a debt dating back to 2020. A Republican lawmaker had filed an ethics complaint about the tax issue back in 2023. And as of this week, Jackson still had not filed the Senate financial disclosure required of major-party nominees.
Late taxes. Missing disclosures. An ethics complaint already on file. This is the upgrade.
A candidate who can't get his tax filings current and won't submit a financial disclosure is asking voters to trust him with federal oversight of a $6 trillion budget. Maine voters might reasonably want to see the paperwork before handing over the keys.
Democrats in Maine had a specific problem to solve: Platner was damaged goods, and Collins is a tough incumbent. The solution was supposed to be Jackson — experienced, credentialed, a former Senate president with party infrastructure behind him. The 566-delegate margin at the convention was supposed to project strength and unity.
Instead, they're explaining great-grandparents.
The Jackson campaign hasn't addressed the Pelletier reporting head-on, which is a strategic choice that tends to work right up until it doesn't. The shift from "wife" to "partner" in official bios suggests someone was aware this could become a story. The missing financial disclosure suggests someone wasn't ready for it to become one this fast.