Troy Jackson wins the Maine US Senate race over GOP Sen. Susan Collins in a key Democratic victory

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Late Democratic entry Troy Jackson won Maine’s U.S. Senate seat early Wednesday, defeating longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins, taking advantage of President Donald Trump’s deep unpopularity to dislodge an incumbent who had survived tough challenges in the past.

“For every family doing everything they can and wondering when somebody is going to do something for them, you have gotten me into this and you’re going to have someone who is fighting for you in Washington, D.C.,” Jackson told the crowd at an election night party in Portland.

Jackson, 58, a fifth-generation logger and former president of the state Senate, had a little more than 100 days to sell himself to Maine voters after he replaced Graham Platner as the party’s nominee in July.

He won a hastily convened nominating convention and began barnstorming the state, focusing heavily on economic issues such as the high costs of housing and healthcare. As a former campaign surrogate of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, he was known to many progressives in the state but lacked the widespread name recognition of Collins.

Collins, 73, was widely perceived as the most vulnerable Senate Republican this election year. She entered Election Day as the only Republican lawmaker in Congress from New England and was seeking her sixth term representing a state that has voted for the Democratic candidate for president since 1992.

“It has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maine in the United States Senate. I’m proud of all I have been able to accomplish for our state and for our country in the past 30 years,” Collins said in a statement after calling Jackson to concede.

Jackson hails from rural Aroostook County, among the poorest in the state, where he went to work as a lumberjack at 19.

He first entered politics after leading a weeklong loggers’ blockade along Maine’s border with Quebec in the late 1990s 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, an unsuccessful ending that spurred him to run for elected office. He served nearly 20 years in the state House, rising up the ranks to become the Senate’s top leader.

Jackson initially didn’t plan to run for Senate this year. Instead, he threw his hat in for the Democratic nomination for governor but lost.

Platner, an oyster farmer and political newcomer, had drawn huge crowds and enthusiasm but also faced a string of controversies. After he announced in July that he would withdraw from the Senate race, Jackson won a special nominating convention later that month.

It made for a rushed start to the campaign for Jackson. Since then, he has held events at churches, union halls and bars to tout issues such as workers’ rights and the cost of living.

At times, his campaign rhetoric is reminiscent of Sanders, who joined Jackson for rallies in October.

“In the end, if you work hard, you should be able to build a decent life,” Jackson said at a campaign event near Portland in September. “But that’s not the reality right now.”

He criticized Collins as not doing enough to stop Trump. Jackson noted she voted to advance Trump’s signature tax cut and budget legislation out of committee, before she was a “no” vote on its final passage.

“Sen. Collins is like an arsonist who helps set the fire and then she wants credit for bringing a cup of water to put it out,” he said.

Jackson faced blowback over his temperament during the campaign, and Collins criticized him for telling her to “shut up” during a debate.

Collins was first elected in 1996 and has touted her independence from Trump and her party. She has said she didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, and she voted to convict the president after his 2021 impeachment over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

In January, Collins joined a handful of Republican colleagues in backing a failed effort to limit the president’s ability to unilaterally use force in Venezuela. The move prompted Trump to say on social media that they “should never be elected to office again.”

When Vice President JD Vance made trips to Maine, Collins did not appear with him. Vance told the crowd at a May rally that he sometimes gets frustrated with the senator and wishes she were more partisan.

Collins has been a top target of Democrats before. Many pollsters predicted Collins would lose to former Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon in 2020. Collins won handily during a year that Democrats won the presidential race and both U.S. House seats in Maine.

During this year’s race, Collins touted her longevity in the Senate and her status as a key player in powerful committees and budgeting negotiations. She said those aspects of her service remain critically important for Mainers.

“It has been 92 years since a Maine senator was chair of the Senate appropriations committee, the most powerful committee in the Senate,” Collins told reporters. “When I took over last year, I realized I had a once-in-a-century opportunity to help the state of Maine and pursue national priorities as well.”

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, waves at an election night event Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Bangor, Maine. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Supporters of Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson react at an election night event, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson speaks at an election night event, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, smiles while clutching a bag of Maine-grown potatoes during a campaign stop at a market, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Patten, Maine. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Troy Jackson, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, talks with supporters during a campaign stop, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Falmouth, Maine. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Troy Jackson, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, talks with supporters during a campaign stop, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Falmouth, Maine. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, left, shakes hands with business owner Tom York outside his emergency vehicle manufacturing business during a campaign stop at , Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Island Falls, Maine. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Dr. Amy Acton delivered an upset victory in the race for Ohio governor on Tuesday, overcoming more than $100 million spent against her to become the first Democrat to win the seat in 20 years and the first woman ever elected to the state’s top post.

The public health physician and former COVID-19-era state health director defeated Trump-backed Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire and 2024 presidential candidate. She campaigned relentlessly on affordability and better access to healthcare, appealing to working- and middle-class voters by emphasizing her hardscrabble roots as an Ohio native who spent part of her childhood homeless and, for one winter, living out of a tent.

As she took the stage for her victory speech, Acton was greeted by the shrieks of joy, shouts and chants of “Amy! Amy! Amy!”

She repeated her campaign pledge to turn down the temperature on Ohio politics and to never ignore anyone as governor, whether they voted for her or not.

“The healing begins today," she said.

She also alluded to the difficult final few weeks of the campaign, during which Ramaswamy aired a controversial attack ad featuring her estranged mother and thanked all those who had expressed support.

The spot sparked national bipartisan backlash on grounds that Acton’s mother had lost custody of her children decades ago after her husband, their stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton as a child.

Acton’s victory was a huge win for a party that had slipped out of power in the former swing state, one that Democrats had all but written off as voters shifted toward Republicans during the Trump era.

Acton, 60, succeeds GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, whom she served alongside during the early months of the pandemic. But she enters office without elective experience, a stark contrast with her 79-year-old former boss, who is term-limited and likely retiring from elective politics after 50 years.

Acton’s victory came despite massive spending by Ramaswamy and his Republican allies. Elon Musk, for example, injected at least $5 million into a Ramaswamy-aligned political action committee.

She also won even after President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, an Ohio native, made repeated trips to the state in the campaign’s final weeks to rally for Ramaswamy and Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who also lost his bid Tuesday to retain Vance’s former seat.

Acton’s campaign was able to capitalize on Ramaswamy’s wealth to paint him as out of touch with average voters whose pocketbooks have been hit by Trump’s tariffs, the rising cost of living, and soaring fuel prices brought on by the war in Iran.

Ramaswamy said Tuesday that he hoped to continue to contribute to the future prosperity of Ohioans, but that he views the future with both hope and reservations.

“I have to tell you I have some serious concerns about the future direction of our country. There’s no avoiding that,” he told supporters at a subdued watch party. “But I do believe that there have been many ups and downs in the history of our country and we have, in the end, still found our way upward.”

Ohio Republicans, energized by Ramaswamy’s high profile, wealth and proximity to Trump, unified around his candidacy early on. His path was facilitated by DeWine, who appointed his lieutenant governor, Husted, then the leading Republican contender for governor, to the Senate. The party’s decision to endorse a newcomer to Ohio politics left a number of veteran Republican politicians — including the attorney general and state treasurer — scrambling to adjust their own plans. And it wasn’t long before the move prompted some anxiety within the party.

Ramaswamy’s earliest headwinds came in the Republican primary, when fierce critic Casey “The Car Guy” Putsch, a vehicle designer and YouTube provocateur, seemed to catch hold with a portion of the party’s working-class base. Putsch also directed veiled ethnic and religious attacks at Ramaswamy, who is Hindu. In the end, Putsch’s $130,000 campaign attracted nearly 18% of the Republican vote. As the general election neared, Putsch announced he planned to vote for Acton.

Acton was one of the out-of-power Ohio Democrats’ most recognizable figures, after spending months during the early days of the pandemic on statewide broadcasts alongside DeWine and Husted. Ramaswamy and his allies had tried to turn that against her, arguing that she harmed Ohio by being too aggressive in shutting down schools and businesses. The governor ultimately defended Acton, his former Cabinet member, saying the buck stopped with him — though his endorsement stood with Ramaswamy throughout the campaign, even after the ad featuring Acton’s mother.

Initially leaked online, the 60-second spot featuring Acton’s mother was quickly claimed by Ramaswamy, who defended it as a fair criticism of a pattern of deception by Acton that was being inaccurately spun by Democrats and the media as questioning whether she was abused as a child.

The ad featured Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter “a liar” with a “serious problem” with being honest about her past. She urged Ohioans not to vote for Acton. But Arthur had been estranged from Acton for nearly 50 years. She lost custody of her children after her husband, the children’s stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton as a child, pleaded not guilty and then fled the state before he could be tried.

Both Vance and Trump defended Ramaswamy’s use of the ad. The president even expressed jealousy that he’d never had the opportunity to run such an attack against a political rival.

But others, including five Ohio governors and other top politicians of both parties, women’s groups and several hundred alumni of Ramaswamy’s Catholic high school in Cincinnati, denounced the ad as gutter politics and called for Ramaswamy to take it down. The campaign took it off the air about a week before the election, having spent about a quarter of the $4 million ad buy Ramaswamy had announced.

Former President Barack Obama, left, greets Democratic Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, right, at a campaign rally Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

President Donald Trump greets Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at a campaign rally at the Shoemaker Center at Ohio University Chillicothe in Chillicothe, Ohio, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Amy Acton, Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, speaks at a campaign rally in Cleveland, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks before President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the Shoemaker Center at Ohio University Chillicothe in Chillicothe, Ohio, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)