When Jamie Isaacson received an application in his mailbox earlier this month to help choose the Maine Democratic Party’s next US Senate nominee at Saturday’s nominating convention, he wasn’t interested.
If accepted as a delegate, Isaacson, a 72-year-old Jewish Portland resident, would have joined 601 Maine Democrats at the party’s convention in Bangor to select a replacement for Graham Platner, the staunch Israel critic who bowed out of the race earlier this month following sexual assault allegations, which he has denied.
Instead, Isaacson sat it out, vowing not to have anything to do with the party that had chosen Platner as its nominee in the first place.
“I thought it wasn’t worth my time, to be honest with you,” Isaacson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I mean, we’ve been blindsided by the Democratic Party here and nationally, and I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. I don’t know what I am right now, and I just feel really let down and don’t feel a part of that party anymore.”
Isaacson’s decision reflected one end of a spectrum across Maine’s Jewish community. Platner’s collapse has prompted reactions ranging from anger at the Democratic Party to renewed engagement with the unusual delegate process that will lead to his replacement.
Isaacson said he had been “relieved” when Platner dropped out of the race, though he, like many Jews, believed other scandals, including his Nazi-linked tattoo, that had rocked his campaign prior to the final allegations should have disqualified him.
“I think that people in Maine would have voted for the devil rather than voting for Susan Collins - Democrats, I mean,” Isaacson said, referring to the incumbent Republican senator who is seeking her sixth term. “I can’t believe that Platner went as far as he could with all the unelectable problems that he had, like his tattoo and a dozen other things, but people were just very forgiving and didn’t care.”
Maine's 19,000-strong Jewish community
The Democratic primary race has reverberated through Maine’s small Jewish community. The state has roughly 19,000 Jews across 10,600 households, with the population highly concentrated in and around Portland, according to the 2024 Maine Jewish Community Study, conducted by Brandeis University in partnership with the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine.
The study found that nearly 70% of Maine Jews identify as liberal or very liberal, and 42% describe themselves as minimally involved in Jewish life.
While Platner’s exit has left some Jewish Democrats relieved, it has also forced them to quickly assess Troy Jackson, a former logger and state Senate president who is believed to have already secured the support of a majority of the delegates and is expected to become the party’s nominee Saturday.
While Jackson has adopted some of Platner’s stances on Israel, including a pledge to end the “genocide in Gaza” and allow “no US tax dollars to Israel’s military” on his campaign website, some Jewish voters say they know little about his stances on Israel.
“This is really literally the first time I’ve ever heard Troy Jackson mention this, so I think he’s taken a position because it’s of interest to voters,” Amy Fried, a professor emerita of political science at the University of Maine, told JTA. Fried was selected as an alternate delegate for the convention, meaning she will serve as a delegate if one drops out.
Fried, who did not campaign for Platner, said that she believed Jackson would be “open-minded and listen to people who talk to him about how at least some American Jews feel about threats to American Jews and about Israel.”
Shenna Bellows, Nirav Shah, Jordan Wood drop out, support Jackson
Jackson’s path to the Democratic nomination has accelerated rapidly. The contest began to thin out last week when Shenna Bellows, Nirav Shah and Jordan Wood ended their efforts and threw their support behind Jackson after his campaign said it had secured the backing of 481 delegates.
Then, of the three remaining candidates challenging Jackson, two, David Costello and Dan Kleban, ended their bids, leaving only Saundra Pelletier, a women’s health pharmaceutical CEO, as Jackson’s opponent on Saturday.
“Thank you, Maine,” Jackson wrote in a Facebook post announcing his gains. “Our campaign has always been powered by ordinary Mainers - not corporate PACs or wealthy special interests, but neighbors organizing neighbors because they believe we deserve better.”
Pelletier said in a statement Tuesday confirming her intention to stay in the race, “I respect the delegates far too much to accept that the decision has already been made for them. Voters from every corner of Maine signed their names to send me to the convention because they want a choice, not a coronation.”
Another Jewish Portland resident, Karli Efron, who applied to be a delegate but was not selected, said that while Jackson’s campaign appeared less “problematic” than Platner’s, she wanted to “learn more about his campaign” before supporting him.
“I’m just glad it’s not Graham Platner,” said Efron, who belongs to Congregation Bet Ha’am, a Reform synagogue in South Portland. “To be honest, I feel like I will have an easier time going to my voting booth to make a decision this election than I would have if it had been Graham Platner.”
For other Jewish Mainers heading to the convention Saturday, Jackson was an easy choice.
“Platner’s progressive populist politics proved to be incredibly popular with voters who were turning out for his events and canvasses in record numbers, and obviously scandals and lack of vetting brought down his campaign,” said Lila Kohrman, a 33-year-old Jewish Portland resident. “But that doesn’t change the fact that Mainers very strongly supported the Platner campaign’s politics, and I’m excited to see Troy Jackson’s campaign embrace those same political positions as he takes the nomination.”
Kohrman, who works for a climate activism nonprofit and supported Platner during his campaign, also said that she aligned with Jackson’s messaging around Israel.
“Troy Jackson will not support sending our tax dollars to fund a genocide, and I believe that is the politically and morally correct position to take in 2026,” Kohrman said.
Kohrman said she hoped Jewish voters who were skeptical of Jackson would weigh his other policy stances.
“I really hope that people who are stuck on any one single issue, as some Jewish voters may be stuck on support for Israel, will not let any single issue stop them from supporting a campaign for a candidate who actually would stand to improve the lives of millions of people in the United States and abroad,” Kohrman said.
Ronna Lugosch, a 71-year-old Jewish grandmother and delegate from Round Pond, Maine, had canvassed for Platner and said that she was not deterred by the scandals that had marred his campaign.
“I don’t think the guy’s a Nazi. I just don’t buy that. I think it was a stupid tattoo, but it was done on a drunken night, and I believe that,” said Lugosch, a jewelry business owner. She added that she liked Platner because “he was one of the first people that came out, at least in this group of candidates, who said that Gaza was a genocide, and I totally agree with him.”
In her application to apply as a delegate in Lincoln County, Lugosch wrote that she would support a candidate who “believes that Gaza is a genocide, that we should abolish ICE, takes no AIPAC money, and wants money out of politics.”
She said she had felt spurred to include her Jewish identity and stance on the war in Gaza in the application because she wanted “people to understand that because you’re Jewish doesn’t mean you necessarily support genocide.”
Looking to Saturday, Lugosch said it was important to begin organizing for Jackson because of concerns the Republican Party might call into question the nominating process.
“There is an expectation that the Republicans will question this or bring it to court,” Lugosch said. “So that being said, we know that we need to be there Saturday, and we must vote for Troy Jackson.”