Troy Jackson gave a stemwinder after he secured the Democratic nomination on Saturday to run against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
If you liked ex-nominee Graham Platner’s populism, you’ve got to love Jackson’s, which comes without the baggage: Politico described him as a “progressive 5th generation logger” who has “had a long career in organizing progressive activists and ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who had endorsed him in his gubernatorial race earlier this year.”
Jackson’s speech focused on how working people are getting screwed by the ultra-wealthy, like Collins. He started with his own experiences being taken advantage of by logging companies. Later, he spoke of his realization that his struggles were part of a much bigger problem:
"The same thing that happened to us as loggers that I worked beside is happening all across the state and all across this country to working people. … People are doing everything they can right and still cannot get ahead. They're working two or three jobs to survive.”
He noted how the struggle to earn enough money to get by infects nearly every aspect of workers’ lives: from working so much they lose precious time with their families to skipping medications and checkups and “praying to God that they don't get sick because they can't afford another damn bill.”
“So, I am running to pass Medicare for all,” Jackson added.
He went on to lower the boom on Collins:
“Susan Collins promised she would only serve two terms. She made that promise in the fall of 1996. In that same fall, that same fall, my father and I were watching work dry up in the logging industry. And by the next spring, we had to sell what we had to get out from under the debt, and like many people, I was just trying to figure out how to keep taking care of my family. 30 years later, Susan Collins is still in Washington.”
While Collins voices “concern” over Trump policies, Jackson pointed out she voted to give “enormous tax breaks to the corporations and the wealthy on our backs,” as well as helping to put Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. “Collins is now worth millions, and she still refuses to support a ban on members of Congress trading stocks,” Jackson noted.
Jackson called on people of all political stripes to join him, “even when we don't agree on every issue, because this movement is not from the left, it is not from the right. It's from the bottom, and we are rising.!"
The audience cheered, applauded, and broke into chants of “Troy, Troy, Troy!”
