Likely Maine Democratic Senate nominee says he won’t back Schumer for leader

Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, the Democratic Party’s likely nominee to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R), signaled in a new interview this week that he would not support Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as the party’s leader in the upper chamber. 

“The Democratic Party needs to have a different approach — getting people back in the party, getting working-class, everyday people back in the party — and I don’t believe it’s going to happen with Senator Schumer,” Jackson told The New York Times in an interview on Monday.

He suggested instead that he would prefer to see Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as the party’s leader after November, though he acknowledged to the newspaper that reality was a longshot. 

“Obviously Bernie, but that ain’t going to happen,” he told the Times. “If I am lucky enough, I guess I’ll have to survey the field. But one thing I’ve been pretty good at is judging people’s character.” 

Schumer spokesperson Allison Biasotti told the newspaper that the New York Democrat is focused on winning Senate seats. 

“Leader Schumer has one message for every Democratic Senate candidate: Just win,” Biasotti told the Times. “He’ll do everything in his power to help them do exactly that.” 

The Hill has reached out to Schumer’s team for additional comment.

Jackson, whom Sanders backed for Maine governor but who finished third in that Democratic primary, has quickly consolidated support around his bid to be the party’s Senate nominee during delegate nominating meetings over the weekend, prompting all of his most formidable challengers to eventually drop out. 

He technically still needs to be formally nominated at the state party’s convention on Saturday. 

Jackson’s ideological leanings mirror those of Sanders and former Senate candidate Graham Platner as he’s campaigned on Medicare for All and taxing billionaires. His comments about not supporting Schumer are not particularly surprising, though Schumer and the Senate Democratic establishment will certainly need him in order to have any pathway toward flipping the upper chamber. 

But the former Maine Senate president and fifth-generation logger suggested to the Times that he was not sure if he even wants Schumer’s help, though he acknowledged that he currently didn’t have a lot of money in his war chest. 

“I’d have to find out what that entailed,” Jackson told the Times. “I mean, if his help comes, absolutely no strings, I would say, you know, possibly. There’d have to be no strings.”

“You know, Susan’s got $12 million. I got $12,” he said. “I’m hopeful that, you know, we’re going to tell the story about what we want, what we’re going to be fighting for, and people are going to come on board.” 

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.