Topic · race tracker
Maine Senate Race
Thin Gold's coverage of the 2026 Maine Senate race between Sen. Susan Collins and State Senate President Troy Jackson, and where it fits the populism thesis.
Updated Aug 13, 2026
Maine's 2026 Senate race pits five-term Republican incumbent Susan Collins against Troy Jackson, the Maine State Senate President, who entered the race after the Democratic field's original front-runner, Graham Platner, suspended his campaign. Collins has long positioned herself as an institutionalist willing to break with her party on selected votes, which complicates a simple partisan read of the contest.
The race matters to Thin Gold's populism thesis for a specific reason beyond the horse race: Platner's candidacy was explicitly a working-class, anti-concentration-of-power bid before it collapsed, and how the race's electorate and coverage respond to a more conventional replacement nominee is itself a data point on whether that lane can hold a coalition together in 2026.
Thin Gold's standing dispatch (/maine) tracks the state of the race, polling, fundraising, and endorsements as they develop; this topic page is the permanent reference for readers arriving without that context.