As Troy Jackson nears Democratic Senate nomination, old questions about his temper return
As Troy Jackson closes in on the Democratic nomination for a Maine Senate seat, a new report is raising fresh questions about his temperament and past confrontations. During his six years leading the Maine State Senate, Jackson developed a reputation for being volatile, according to the report from The Washington Post.
The Post, citing interviews with more than two dozen people, reported Jackson once threw a water bottle during a meeting after a lawmaker refused to vote his way, yelled at another legislator who later posted that straight men were “too emotional” for politics and cursed at the speaker of the Maine House until she ordered him out of her office.
The report said Jackson’s outbursts became a recurring concern for fellow Democrats, with some lawmakers taking those concerns to the governor.
Despite that, the progressive fifth-generation logger dominated county Democratic conventions over the weekend, winning more than three-quarters of the delegates. The showing prompted all four of his major rivals to drop out, leaving Jackson as the presumptive Democratic nominee to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
Democrats have until Monday to make the nomination official.
A temperamental history
Witnesses told the Post that during a meeting with then-Maine House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross in 2024, Jackson became enraged when they disagreed about tactics to pass a gun control measure. They said Jackson banged on the table, cursed and got close to Talbot Ross’s face before she kicked him out of her office.
Talbot Ross acknowledged they had a “heated argument,” according to the Post, but did not give any more details.
One person who often met with Jackson told the Post they felt “nervous” and worried about being in the room with him because his outbursts could escalate so quickly.
“It was very aggressive,” the person said. “It’s one thing to be screaming when you’re just mad about the world or sad about the world. But his screaming felt like intentional intimidation. So you would feel like then, what else is he going to do?”
One Maine Democrat who worked closely with Jackson described his behavior to CNN as “bullying.” She said he was “sort of pushing his weight around” and that she had confronted him about his behavior multiple times, but nothing changed.
“He doesn’t always understand that not every problem requires a chainsaw or an ax to get it out of the way,” she said.
Another of Jackson’s former colleagues said she started recording meetings with him because of his outbursts.
“It felt like he was using his body and his voice to make people fearful,” she told CNN. “I was in a room multiple times where he escalated the situation with both the intent and natural ability to really intimidate using his physical presence.”
However, the former colleague said Jackson did not end up exhibiting any concerning behavior in any of her recordings, according to CNN.
Jackson’s team responds
Jackson declined the Post’s request for an interview about his temperament and alleged clashes. One of his campaign advisers, BJ McCollister, said there were “moments when he let his frustration get the better of him,” but told the Post that Jackson took responsibility and apologized when it happened.
“There were many more instances of Troy working alongside those same colleagues to deliver universal school meals, paid family and medical leave, and prescription-drug relief for Maine families,” Jackson’s team said in a statement. “Troy regrets the moments when disagreements became too heated, but passion for the issues he advocates for should not be confused with physical intimidation or bullying.”
His campaign also disputed that his confrontations were ever aimed specifically at female colleagues, arguing that many of Jackson’s fellow top Democrats were women, and so it was not surprising that some of his more contentious conversations involved them, according to CNN. The top five other leaders of Maine’s state House and Senate by the time Jackson’s tenure was up were women, the Post reports.
Round out your reading
- From Obama to Trump to Biden: When networks said ‘no’ to presidential speeches.
- ‘The end of American science as we know it.’ White House funding plan sparks alarm.
- AI data centers are popping up everywhere. What exactly do they do?
- The Trump administration is accused of breaking a law built to target the KKK.
- One Republican senator is dead, another is still alive. Both are the center of conspiracy theories.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
