U.S. Senator from Vermont, two-time presidential candidate and self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders has endorsed former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson’s bid for governor.
The major endorsement from the national progressive figurehead comes just days after Jackson launched his campaign on Monday at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, joining the other declared Democratic candidates Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Angus King III.
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“I strongly support [Troy Jackson] for Maine Governor because he knows what it’s like to feel powerless — and how to turn that into action,” Sanders wrote in a post to X on Wednesday.
“So I’m asking you: get involved & support his campaign,” he wrote. “When working people stand together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.”
Jackson wrote on X that is he “proud to have [Sen. Sanders’] support” and that Sanders “has spent his whole life standing up to corporate greed and fighting for working people.”
“Bernie’s never been afraid to take on the powerful — and neither am I. That’s why I need your support,” Jackson wrote, linking to his Act Blue donation page.
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Sanders’ endorsement of Jackson highlights the populist rhetoric that the former senate president has imbued into in his campaign. Ahead of his official announcement on Monday, Jackson said that Mainers are “under attack from billionaires, special interests, and their friends who control Washington,” and that he would “fight for working people from day one.”
Jackson’s claim that “Bernie’s never been afraid to take on the powerful” carries a layer of irony, as Sanders, despite his anti-establishment rhetoric, ultimately endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, aligning with the Democratic Party he often criticized, a move some of his “Bernie or Bust” supporters viewed as a capitulation to the very powerful interests he vowed to challenge.
In a longer letter of endorsement, Sanders described the “regime of Donald Trump” as “oligarchic” and “authoritarian,” stating that “We need candidates who, unequivocally, will stand with working class families against the enormous power of the monied interests.”
“Troy Jackson is the Governor of Maine who will do that and the Governor that working Mainers need,” Sanders wrote.
“Troy knows what’s going on with the working class of Maine because he’s a part of that working class,” he wrote.
