New Maine Dem Senate Nominee Hit With Domestic Violence Scandal

Troy Jackson wants Maine voters to see him as a fresh start after the Graham Platner debacle. But a newly surfaced police report proves he’s not.

The Bangor Daily News obtained a 1988 Fort Kent police report showing that Jackson kicked in a door, choked a man by the throat, and punched him in the face while a friend tried to hold him back. Jackson's longtime partner/cousin, Lana Pelletier, told the responding officer that he "pushed her around" too, according to the report.

Jackson doesn't deny the assault.

"Nearly 40 years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now," Jackson said in a statement, adding, "I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman."

Yeah, we heard similar denials from Graham Platner.

Even so, the statement doesn't address the rest of what's in the report. According to the document and a handwritten witness statement, Jackson showed up at a home on Market Street in Fort Kent just before 2 AM on March 12, 1988, and kicked in the door after the occupant told him to leave. A friend tried and failed to hold him back. Jackson grabbed the man by the throat and swung at him, striking his glasses and cutting his face. The victim held onto Jackson's arm and throat until another friend pulled them apart. Jackson, the victim's statement says, warned him to "stay away from Lana Pelletier or else."

Nice guy, right?

Prosecutors charged Jackson with misdemeanor assault, and he settled the case by paying the victim $50. Maine's court system has since destroyed the original file in accordance with its retention rules. So, who knows what else may have happened.

Pelletier, who has been with Jackson for roughly 40 years, now says she has no memory of telling police that Jackson pushed her, and denies it happened.

"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," Pelletier said in a statement, adding, "Troy and I have built a life and family together."

The police report also noted unspecified prior "incidents" involving Jackson in Fort Kent, though officers never charged him before this one. The Maine Wire has reported that Pelletier, in addition to being his girlfriend of four decades, is also his second cousin.

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Jackson has faced allegations of aggressive behavior before, too: he's faced accusations of hostility toward female colleagues in the Maine Senate, including reports that he banged on a table and got in the face of the first black female legislator in Maine, screamed at another lawmaker, and threw a water bottle during a 2021 argument with a female colleague. One legislator called him "too emotional to be in politics."

Jackson won that nomination less than three weeks ago, in a rushed process to replace Graham Platner, whose campaign imploded after an ex-girlfriend accused him of raping her in 2021. The establishment has now handed Maine a candidate with his own history of alleged violence toward women, running against five-term Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in a race that could doom the Democrats’ chances of taking the Senate.

"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," Republican National Committee spokesperson Kristen Cianci said. "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."

Maine Democrats already watched one scandal-plagued Senate nominee collapse this year. Now they've got a second one who kicked in a door, choked a man, and allegedly shoved his own girlfriend around, and he's still on the ballot.

What else will come out about him?

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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