Troy Jackson, the Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, allegedly has a history of violent, rage-fueled aggression toward women, according to recent media reports highlighting his past blow-ups and temper tantrums.
Jackson secured the nomination at a special convention on July 25, after former Democrat nominee Graham Platner was forced to withdraw from the race due to multiple personal scandals.
According to recent reports, his replacement allegedly got physically violent with his longtime “partner” and second cousin Lana Pelletier during a fiery altercation decades ago. More recently, Jackson reportedly led the State Senate with an explosive and volatile temper, routinely yelling and cursing at female lawmakers.
Banger News Daily on Tuesday detailed a violent incident involving Jackson, Pelletier and another man in 1988, when Jackson was 19-years-old.
According to the police report, Pelletier told officers that Jackson “pushed her around” after he broke down a door and punched an apparent romantic rival at a Fort Kent home.
Just before 2 a.m. on March 12, 1988, Jackson went to a home on Market Street in Fort Kent. When he knocked on the door, one occupant told him to go away, according to the police report. Jackson refused, and that’s when he “kicked the door in,” the victim’s handwritten statement to police said.
A friend of Jackson’s who was there tried to hold him back but could not, the victim’s statement said. Jackson then went after the man, grabbed him by the throat and swung at him, hitting his glasses and cutting the man’s face, the report and victim statement said.
The victim grabbed Jackson and held him by one arm and his throat until one of Jackson’s friends got between the two men, the victim said. Jackson told the man to “stay away from Lana Pelletier or else,” the victim’s statement said.
Pelletier, who is called Jackson’s ex-girlfriend in the police report, allegedly told the responding officer that Jackson pushed her following the assault and that she planned to go to court to get “cease harassment papers” against him. But there is no record of Pelletier ever doing so, and she denied telling police those things in a statement released by Jackson’s campaign.
According to a court summary of the case, Jackson entered into an agreement to pay the man he assaulted $50. A May 1988 edition of Banger News Daily shows that he was charged with assault and paid the fine.
Pelletier told BND that the police report was “not accurate.”
“I do not remember making the statements attributed to me, and they are not accurate. This is the first time I have seen this report from 40 years ago,” she said. “Troy and I have built a life and family together, and I know the person he has been through the decades since, both as a caring partner and father.”
In a statement, Jackson did not deny assaulting the man, but insisted he had never been violent with Pelletier.
“Nearly [40] years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man, he said. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now,” Jackson said in a statement. “But let me be clear: I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman. This happened nearly four decades ago, and I assure Mainers this incident in no way reflects the man I am today or the life I’ve led in the years since.”
Jackson is not legally married to Pelletier, although the couple has been together for decades and share two adult sons. While the Democrat has occasionally referred to Pelletier as his “wife” in past official bios, his current campaign materials and public records identify her as his “partner.” Jackson and Pelletier are reportedly second cousins, sharing the same great-grandparents.
The Washington Post recently reported that Jackson was known to be very aggressive with female lawmakers during the six years he presided over Maine’s Senate, writing that “until he left office in 2024, his temper was a feature of his leadership, and one that Democratic lawmakers discussed among themselves as a problem and even raised with the governor.”
According to the Post, people working in Maine politics characterized Jackson’s behavior as “bullying,” because “he was the most powerful Democrat in the Senate.”
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One witness told the Post they were “nervous” to be in the same room as Jackson.
“It was very aggressive,” the person said. “It’s one thing to be screaming when you’re just mad about the world or sad about the world. But his screaming felt like intentional intimidation. So you would feel like then, what else is he going to do?”
During a meeting with Rachel Talbot Ross (D.), the speaker of Maine’s State House, Jackson allegedly cursed and shouted at her until she kicked him out of her office.
Another female lawmaker said he was “too emotional to be in politics.”
In 2021, Jackson allegedly threw a water bottle at then-state Sen. Heather Sanborn (D.) during an explosive confrontation that has become the stuff of legend in Maine politics.
Jackson and Sanborn were on opposing sides of a bill aimed at lowering prescription drug prices — Jackson supported the bill, while Sanborn argued it was unconstitutional and would be struck down by the courts. As one meeting wrapped up, Jackson grew angry with Sanborn and confronted her, said three people in the room that day and multiple people briefed on the fight. At one point, he threw a water bottle in anger.
“He was an inch from her nose, screaming and hollering and haranguing her,” said one of Jackson’s former legislative colleagues who was in the room.
Multiple former lawmakers told the Post that “Sanborn left the Senate that day and did not return for several days.”
“It was pretty intense,” the former colleague said. “I haven’t seen anything like that before or since.”
Jackson’s campaign adviser acknowledged that the candidate did throw a plastic water bottle but denied that he had targeted anyone.
Jackson will face incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins in the November 2026 election.
At the time of the Post’s story, Maine Democrats had not yet selected a replacement for Platner and were expressing fear that Jackson’s reputation with female lawmakers “could hurt him in the general election” against Collins.
The senator “has won past elections in the consistently blue state by appealing to independent and left-leaning women,” the Post noted.
In a statement, the Republican National Committee said that Jackson’s past behavior toward women is “disqualifying.”
“Troy Jackson is an angry, violent man who has revealed himself to be Platner 2.0 in every way–right down to roughing up his girlfriends,” RNC Spokesperson Kristen Cianci stated, Tuesday. “How many scandals must Mainers be forced to suffer through at the hands of Democrats? This behavior is disqualifying and Jackson should read the room and drop out just like Platner.”
Cianci told American Greatness in an email that the disturbing reports do not bode well for Jackson’s fledgling Senate campaign.
“If this is what’s being reported less than three weeks after being coronated as Graham Platner’s replacement, what more will be revealed before November?” she said.
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