Troy Jackson, the newly minted Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, raised roughly $2 million from about 30,000 donors in the first 24 hours after his nomination Saturday, according to figures his campaign shared Sunday night. It’s an early surge of small-dollar cash for a candidate many in his own party had dismissed as a lackluster fundraiser.
That opening haul offers the first sign that Jackson, a former state senator, may be able to close at least part of the vast money gap he faces against Republican Sen. Susan Collins as he begins a 100-day sprint to Election Day.
Collins, running for a sixth term, has not only her own campaign account but will also be aided by millions of dollars in super PAC support as well as the Senate Leadership Fund, which backs Republican Senate candidates. That fund has $42 million in advertising ammunition ready to deploy to help the senator keep her seat.
But Jackson said the early fundraising data “proves that people across Maine and the country are ready to come together and finish the job,” while acknowledging that beating Collins “won’t be easy, and we’ll need everyone in this fight.”
A spokesperson for Collins did not respond to a request for comment.
“I’m humbled beyond words by the tens of thousands of people who have stepped up to become part of this campaign,” Jackson said in a statement. “Every contribution—whether it was five dollars, twenty dollars, or more—is a vote of confidence in the working-class movement we’re building together.”
Securing 30,000 individual donations over a 24-hour period is “really good,” said Al Mottur, a Democratic strategist and fundraiser who is unaffiliated with the campaign.
“He’s a complete unknown nationally,” said Mottur. “That means to me that people are enthused about taking back the Senate.”
A Democratic state committee member in Maine told MS NOW that Jackson “will have an easier time raising money being a Senate candidate” than when he ran for governor.
Democrats, needing to net four Senate seats to retake control of the chamber, likely need to win the race in Maine to make that happen, a dynamic that may help pry open the wallets of big-dollar Democratic donors.
Asked by MS NOW Saturday if he had enough money to win, Jackson riffed, “Well, not now.”
“I mean, people are very excited,” he continued. “I talked early on about Collins has $12 million, and I’ve got $12. I was being somewhat facetious, but, you know, people started sending in $12 like crazy, so it’s been a crazy, crazy deal.”
When pressed later on how much money he’ll need in his war chest, he responded, “I’m sure that you know, I’ll need to raise forty or more million dollars, but you know, we’ll do it, you know, because we’re on the right side of it.”
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