Democrat Troy Jackson has defeated Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in Maine, ending her three-decade career in Washington in one of the most hotly contested races of the 2026 election.
Collins, a Republican finishing her fifth term in the Senate, called Jackson to concede the race on Tuesday night. The win handed Democrats their 53rd Senate seat, padding what has proved to be a dominant victory across the board.
“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.
“I called Troy Jackson tonight to congratulate him and to assure him that my staff and I will work to ensure a smooth transition.”
The outcome represents a seismic shake-up in Maine, a blue state that has repeatedly elected Collins due to her independent streak. It’s also vindication of Democrats’ decision to push their original nominee, oyster farmer Graham Platner, out of the race following sexual misconduct allegations.
Maine was seen as critical to Democrats’ path to the Senate majority this fall and remained one of the most expensive states in terms of advertising spending.
But Collins’s reputation as a centrist who steered billions to the state as a top Senate appropriator made her a formidable incumbent to defeat, even in a favorable political climate for Democrats.
The result confirms weeks of polling showing Collins behind Jackson, a former leader of the Maine Senate who was chosen in a state party convention after Platner was accused of rape by a former romantic partner. Platner denies the allegations.
Collins defied the polls that showed her behind six years ago in her last reelection campaign.
Like her 2020 race, Collins threaded the needle between criticism of President Donald Trump and explanations for why she supported many of his policies and nominees. Her vote for his Supreme Court justices became a major flash point, as did her votes on last year’s GOP tax law and the war in Iran.
Collins voted against the tax law, citing its Medicaid cuts, and eventually opposed the war, but Jackson attempted to frame her as a rubber stamp who only broke with her party when her vote didn’t decide the outcome.
Collins, for her part, painted Jackson as an Augusta “insider” whose two-decade tenure in state politics had contributed to the affordability crisis. She argued that if Jackson won, her independent streak in Washington would be replaced by someone who always toes the party line for Democrats.
Both sides had to overcome corruption allegations that dominated TV advertising in the race.
The sniping took place during a pitched battle for control of the Senate. Republicans currently hold a three-seat majority and were favored to retain it early in the cycle, but the political environment became increasingly challenging for the GOP, in part because of the war in Iran and its impact on energy prices.
Collins also had to navigate the political fallout stemming from Trump’s trade war with Canada, working behind the scenes to win small but meaningful concessions that helped Maine industries, such as blueberry farming, weather the impact.
Jackson’s campaign amounted to a reset for Democrats and a chance to contest Maine without all the political baggage that came with Platner’s candidacy. Platner won the Democratic primary with record-breaking turnout, but not without repeated scandals surrounding his Nazi-linked tattoo and old social media posts.
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Jackson ran a more guarded campaign and more readily surrounded himself with establishment-aligned operatives, although he embraced the same populist themes as Platner and emphasized his background as a logger from northern Maine.
Jackson took over the Democratic nomination in late July, after placing third in the Democratic primary for governor.