What to know about Troy Jackson, Maine Democrats' likely nominee for US Senate

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine Democrats who have been scrambling to tap a new nominee for a pivotal U.S. Senate race against Republican Susan Collins are expected to nominate Troy Jackson at a last-minute convention this weekend.

Jackson, a progressive Democrat, is a former president of the state's Democratic-controlled Senate who has been a fixture in Maine politics for many years. He's also a fifth-generation logger from a rural, heavily Republican northern part of the state.

Jackson is expected to secure the nomination Saturday at a special nominating convention in Bangor that Democrats are holding after the implosion of primary winner Graham Platner's campaign. Jackson would then have less than four months to campaign about Collins, who has been in the Senate for 30 years.

Here are some things to know about Jackson:

Jackson is well known in Maine politics, and his political affiliations and positions have evolved over the years. Most recently, he ran for the Democratic nomination for Maine governor this year but lost in the primary.

He made his first run for office more than 25 years ago as a Republican, and was first elected to the Maine House of Representatives as an independent in 2002. He then switched to the Democrats in 2004 and served a total of three terms in the House.

Jackson was later elected to the Maine Senate and rose to become the president of the chamber from 2018 to 2024.

He comes from a labor background and first entered politics after leading a weeklong loggers' blockade along Maine's border with Quebec in the late 1990s. The loggers were protesting the hiring of Canadian loggers who were coming into Maine and driving down pay rates.

The standoff ended with Jackson being escorted away by police. He went on to fight for better logger and wood hauler protections as a state lawmaker.

Early in his political career, Jackson opposed abortion and same-sex marriage — positions he has since reversed. He is now one of the state’s leading progressives.

He led independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign in the state in 2016 and helped Sanders win the state's caucus. A decade later, Jackson remains an ally of Sanders.

Like Sanders, Jackson is a champion of “Medicare for All.” He has also called for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has come under heavy criticism in Maine recently following the killing of a driver in Biddeford.

Jackson is also a longtime supporter of unions and workers' rights, and made that a central focus of his run for governor.

Jackson and Collins are both from Aroostook County, the farthest north county in Maine which is known for its potato crop and sparse population. Aroostook, known to Mainers as “the County,” is far more Republican than most of Maine. Its voters have overwhelmingly supported Trump in the last three presidential elections.

With Jackson close to securing the nomination, he and Collins are already in campaign mode.

Collins told The Associated Press this week that she has witnessed Jackson’s evolution into what she called “a Bernie bro.” She noted Jackson's "lengthy record” in politics and described his positions as “clearly” in line with socialism.

Collins has a significant fundraising advantage, as federal filings state that she has raised more than $16 million. Jackson's campaign has said it has raised more than $1 million.

Jackson has begun his campaign by tying Collins to Trump and his unpopular war in Iran.

“When the stakes are at the absolute highest, too often she stood with Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and the other big corporations that already have all the power,” Jackson said at a recent campaign event.

Maine Republicans are also already setting their sights on Jackson.

“While promising a fair nomination process and rejecting any notion that Graham Platner would influence it, Maine Democrats still managed to pick the candidate Platner endorsed in the gubernatorial race, who is also a well-established Augusta insider,” said Jim Deyermond, chair of the Maine GOP.

Democrats were thrown into crisis mode when Platner withdrew as their nominee earlier this month. Jackson had campaigned alongside Platner when he was running for the governor nomination.

Platner announced he would drop out of the race after a former girlfriend accused him of sexual assault, which he has denied.

Maine Democrats are implementing a never-before-used process of voting on a new nominee that will involve more than 600 Democratic delegates gathering in Bangor. The delegates were elected at county party meetings last weekend.

Jackson’s campaign says more than 480 of the 601 delegates who will be voting at Saturday’s convention are committed to supporting him.

Democrats have a narrow path to take back the Senate in November and it’s highly unlikely they can do it without a win in Maine. In addition, they need victories in competitive races in North Carolina, Alaska and Ohio, and they need to hang on to the seats they already have. That includes open Senate seats in Michigan and Minnesota, where Democratic incumbents are retiring.

Associated Press journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington D.C. contributed to this report.

From podium left, U.S. Senate candidates Shenna Bellows, Troy Jackson, Dr. Nirav Shah, and Jordan Wood talk with moderator Phil Hirschkorn at WCSH-6 before a televised debate at the WCSH-6 studio Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

FILE - Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, is greeted by lawmakers as he arrives for joint session in the House Chamber, Wednesday, Dec., 5, 2018, at the State House in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty,File)

FILE - Rep. Troy Jackson, D-Fort Kent, holds up a poster warning people not to eat berries from sprayed areas treated by paper companies, outside the State House, in Augusta, Maine, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004. (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach,File)

FILE - Maine loggers Stacey Kelly, second from left, Troy Jackson, and Hilton Hafford are threatened with arrest by Maine State Police if they continue to block access to Canadian woodsmen at the border at St. Pamphile, Quebec, Monday, Oct. 26, 1998. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty,File)

FILE - Troy Jackson, Democratic candidate for governor, speaks to reporters at a campaign event on June 5, 2026, in Bar Harbor, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Credit card giant American Express said its second-quarter profits rose 8% from a year earlier, helped by higher spending by its card members, fewer delinquencies and more customers signing up for its premium products like the Platinum Card and Gold Card.

The New York-based company said Friday it earned $3.11 billion, or $4.53 a share, compared to $2.89 billion, or $4.08 a share, in the same period a year earlier. The results beat analysts' forecasts, who were looking for AmEx to earn a profit of $4.40 a share, according to FactSet.

AmEx continues to benefit from global economic growth that has disproportionately benefited the wealthy and high net worth individuals, as its customer bases skews heavily toward those demographics with the Platinum Card, Gold Card and other high-end credit cards. Its customers often put almost all of their spending on credit cards, and pay those cards off at the end of each month. The average AmEx customers spent $6,759 on their cards in the quarter, up from $6,393 in the same period a year earlier.

But at the same time, the company is spending heavily to keep those customers as it faces increased competition from other high-end credit card products like JPMorgan Chase's Sapphire Reserve Card, Citigroup's Strata card and Capital One's Venture X brand. The company's quarterly expenses rose 12% from a year ago, costs that went into increased marketing as well as refreshes of its credit card products.

While the company upped its guidance on how much revenue it expects to bring in this year, the company did not change its profit outlook for the year, as the company plans to put more resources into marketing and bringing in new customers. The company also expects to put additional investments into technology like artificial intelligence, like many other Fortune 500 companies.

Those efforts seem to be paying off. The company signed up another 3 million customers in the second quarter, of which three-quarters of those new customers signed up for an AmEx card with an annual fee.

FILE - An American Express card is shown, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)