Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson was removed from his own Maine supporter Facebook group after posting curt replies that members called insulting, the third online blowup in days.
Troy Jackson, the 58-year-old Democratic hopeful challenging Sen. Susan Collins, was kicked out of the Facebook group “Mainers for Troy Jackson” this week after members complained about cancelled campaign events. His short replies drew immediate backlash from people who had been backing him.
The New York Post reported that Jackson answered the gripes with “so sad.” and “We have one in Belfast this weekend.” Supporters in the group called the tone patronizing and insulting. Maine Wire confirmed the posts came from Jackson’s personal Facebook account, the only one not run by paid strategists, and that he was removed for being rude to supporters.
South Thomaston resident Carla Poindexter White, whose profile showed a photo of her with Jackson, reacted in disbelief.
Poindexter White wrote that the comments could not be from the candidate she knew.
"This cannot be Troy speaking,"
She added:
"He would not speak so insultingly and patronizingly to regular people let alone supporters."
Poindexter White also called the exchange “horrifying.” Two hours after Jackson’s comment she posted “Removed... freaky,” noting his ouster from the group built around his own name.
Jackson did not respond to a request for comment on the removal. The former Allagash logger and fifth-generation lumberjack has pitched himself as a working-class alternative in the Maine Senate race. Getting tossed by his own online backers undercuts that pitch in plain view.
The episode was not isolated. Reporting described it as the third time in the past few days that Jackson “went rogue on Facebook,” posting outside the careful messaging campaigns usually prefer.
On Sept. 17 he sparred with former Maine State Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, a Republican. Mason said Jackson showed an “astonishing lack of judgment” for a remark wishing nothing had happened with Graham Platner, the Democrat Jackson replaced on the ballot. Jackson shot back:
"Says the guy that supports a child rapist in Donald Trump!"
That exchange alone would have drawn notice. It came while Maine Democrats were still managing the fallout from the earlier nominee’s collapse, a scramble covered when the Maine Senate race unravels under the Platner allegations.
On Sept. 20, in a thread where a Maine voter accused Jackson of mortgage fraud, he answered “bulls***,” according to the Bangor Daily News. The pattern is consistent: short, heated posts from the personal account that Maine Wire tied directly to him.
Jackson has addressed his temper before. After earlier anger outbursts he told reporters, “I wear my heart on my sleeve.” He was also previously described as throwing a water bottle during a fight at the Maine State House. Voters can decide whether that history and these Facebook replies show authenticity or a candidate who struggles to stay measured under pressure.
Party leaders had already been forced into rapid repairs after the first nominee’s exit. Coverage of how Maine Democrats scramble to reset the race showed the stakes of picking a durable replacement against a five-term Republican incumbent.
The Belfast event Jackson mentioned was offered as a fix for the cancellations. It did not calm the group. Members who had joined “Mainers for Troy Jackson” to help him instead watched the candidate dismiss their complaints and then vanish from the page. Poindexter White’s reaction captured the break: shock that the man in her photo would talk down to the same people doing the unpaid work of support.
Jackson entered the picture after Democrats needed a new name on the ballot. The replacement Senate nominee path was already complicated by questions about judgment and alliances. DSA backing and the logger biography were meant to project grit. Snapping at the base projects something else.
Outside pressure on the party’s choice had been public for months, including commentary that urged activists to stay home over a moderate pick, as when Joy Reid tells Maine Democrats how to handle the vacancy. Jackson’s online conduct now gives Collins’s campaign and independent voters fresh material without any help from the other side.
Campaigns cancel events. Weather, logistics, and staffing problems happen. What followed here was a candidate answering frustrated supporters with clipped sarcasm from the one account his team did not control, then losing access to the group that carried his name. Maine Wire’s confirmation closed the usual escape hatch of blaming a staffer or a hacked page.
Susan Collins remains the general-election target. She has won five terms. Jackson’s path required consolidating Democratic energy after a messy primary-season reset and then expanding beyond it. Alienating the people inside “Mainers for Troy Jackson” makes the second job harder. The posts are on the record. The removal is confirmed. The earlier Facebook fights and the State House water-bottle episode sit in the same file.
Voters in Maine have watched this race lurch from one personnel crisis to the next. A candidate who cannot keep his cool with his own volunteers hands them another reason to wonder who will keep his cool in Washington.