The whole thing felt like a setup from the start. They’d already kicked Graham Platner out of the primary—not because he dropped out willingly, but because they forced him out. And now, after weeks of chaos, they’d gathered all these unknown candidates for a debate that was supposed to mean something. Except it didn’t.
Because everyone knew the fix was already in. Troy Jackson was the one they were circling around. The former Maine Senate President had apparently locked up enough delegates to get on the ballot, and one by one, the other candidates started dropping out, backing him like it was some kind of coronation. But they still held the debate anyway, maybe just to go through the motions, to pretend like the people actually had a choice.
That’s where things got strange. There was this one woman on stage, a songwriter who said she wrote her own books, and she kept talking about transparency and how we get lied to with smoke and mirrors. She brought up ICE, said the victims were being treated like they did something wrong. And then she said it flat out:
“If I got elected, I’d be an angry senator.
”
I mean, at least she was honest. But the others? They were just throwing out tired tropes. One guy talked about cutting pork belly from bills like that was going to fix government spending.
Another compared the federal budget to a pool with algae growing in it because nobody was filtering the water properly. They were all over the place, and none of it felt real. Then there was the conversation about the deficit. Someone asked Ashley Webb how she’d handle it, and she actually had a decent answer—said she’d look at a wealth tax, starting at ten million per household, protecting seniors, and setting up an independent commission to audit agency budgets without political interference.
It sounded smart. It sounded like she’d actually thought about it. But it didn’t matter. The fix was already in.
I remember saying it out loud after the debate: even after all that, the Democrats are just going to get in a room and decide who they want to run. They already selected five hundred delegates over the weekend to make the choice for everyone else. The other candidates saw the writing on the wall and dropped out. Some of them even endorsed Troy Jackson because they figured he was their best shot at beating Susan Collins in a state that desperately needed to flip that Senate seat.
But the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. This was supposed to be democracy in action, and instead it was backroom deals and predetermined outcomes. They didn’t let the voters decide. They just picked the person they thought had the best chance and called it a day.
I guess the convention this weekend will make it official. We’ll hear Jackson address all those delegates, and the party will rally behind him, acting like this was all part of the plan. But I can’t help wondering: if this is how they treat the candidates who actually show up, how are they any different from the people they’re running against? So do you think Troy Jackson can actually beat Susan Collins?
Or is this whole process just proving that the Democratic Party doesn’t trust its own voters?
