11/04/2026
Congratulations, again, to U.S. Senator-elect Troy Jackson!
Maine just made history by electing the first rank-and-file union member to come out of the labor movement to the U.S. Senate! For over a year, Maine union members organized and mobilized to elect fifth-generation logger and former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, first for Governor and then for U.S. Senate. Jackson is a dues-paying union member.
Below is a statement from President Cynthia Phinney:
“This is a tremendous victory for the labor movement and all Maine workers. For his entire career Troy Jackson has fought for working-class Mainers, from organizing his fellow loggers to passing state laws that improve the lives of working people. Troy didn’t come into politics because he wanted a political career. He came into politics to help his co-workers when the political system wasn’t listening.”
“This victory serves as an inspiration for other working-class candidates. Working-class people like Troy account for just 1 percent of lawmakers in the U.S. while 79 percent of the U.S. Senate is made up of millionaires. This election proves that working-class candidates can win a seat in the world’s most elite institution by appealing to voters’ economic interests and pushing a platform that prioritizes Medicare for All, workers’ rights, fair wages, affordable housing, retirement security and more.”
For the past two months, the Maine AFL-CIO has mobilized more than 530 union members and community volunteers to knock on 65,000 doors and have had more than 20,000 conversations with voters about cost of living issues, Troy Jackson and other labor endorsed candidates, and the stakes in this election. As the monied interests flooded Maine with negative attack ads, our program was having one on one conversations that cut through the noise and spoke to voters about the issues they care about.
In 2026, across the Gubernatorial primary and the US Senate race, the Maine AFL-CIO and aligned unions knocked on over 115,000 doors for Troy Jackson - an unprecedented door to door field operation.
Additionally, the labor movement phonebanked members, sent mail to union members, had thousands of worksite conversations and distributed Troy Jackson baseball cards in workplaces throughout the state.
This isn’t the first time Maine’s Labor movement made political history. In 1878, we elected the first union leader to Congress — Granite Cutters’ Union leader Thompson Murch of Rockland.
