IAM member Troy Jackson announced he was exploring a run for governor back in March. After receiving Local S6’s endorsement on Saturday, he officially launched his primary campaign Monday, May 19. With permission of those working the waterfront, President Alana Schaeffer announced the Metal Trades Council’s “bipartisan and unanimous” endorsement of Troy Jackson from a pier overlooking the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.²

The workers Schaeffer represents have been under attack by President Donald Trump’s antiunion executive orders. The public sector is not just made up of professional bureaucrats. The federal government employs plenty of blue-collar workers, too. A March executive order terminated a collective bargaining agreement the Metal Trades Council had with Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.³ This contract covered shipbuilders like you and me.

Schaeffer has also been outspoken about Trump’s executive order ending “radical and wasteful government DEI programs.”⁴ The DEI umbrella covers more than the minorities that may immediately come to mind. Our union’s 1982 agreement with BIW introduced “DEI” language to protect Vietnam veterans.⁵ Today, there are more than 100,000 veterans living in Maine.⁶ Yet at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, “we were told to dismantle our veterans resource group,” Schaeffer recalled. “That space was not political, it was vital.”⁷

When Jackson joined Schaeffer at the podium, I was in the crowd standing behind him. So was Local S6 President Chris Williams, our Legislative Committee, and representatives from the International. The IAM recognizes the significance of Donald Trump’s attacks on working people. Just because his “big beautiful bill” earmarks $34 billion for shipbuilding does not mean any of that money will wind up in your pocket.⁸

Jackson made the trip from Allagash to Kittery to speak to shipbuilders’ grievances, but his message was much further reaching:

I stand here 386 miles from my home in Allagash, the absolute furthest place you could be and still be in Maine, launching my campaign for governor because the feeling of not having a voice, being ignored and left behind, is felt in every corner of the state.

Every Mainer deserves to feel like they matter. And every Mainer deserves to have someone in their corner fighting for them, and damn it, I sure as hell am going to do that.⁹

It’s simple. Nobody should be left behind. “They said I was a nobody,” Jackson said in a campaign ad:

I’m a fifth generation logger and the son of a public school teacher. I’m a dad that worked 16-hour days, and it still wasn’t enough to get by. There sure as hell weren’t a lot of people like me in Augusta. And if you ask me, that is the problem.¹⁰

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This message has been consistent through Jackson’s career. In 1998, Jackson got his start in politics leading a blockade of the Canadian border. “Mainers shouldn’t have to resort to extreme measures to get the attention of elected officials,” Jackson lamented. He wrote for Bangor Daily News on the 21^st anniversary of the blockade:

Things came to a head in October 1998, when we blocked the border to protest the illegal hiring of Canadian loggers over hardworking Mainers. Canadian loggers could work for less due to the exchange rate and their national health care system. We couldn’t compete. Landowners pitted workers against each other to grow their profits. They were getting away with breaking the law regarding hiring foreign workers — again. The Canadian government looks out for its citizens; all we wanted was our government to do the same.¹¹

Jackson ran as a Republican in 2000, but he lost by 155 votes.¹² He won Maine’s 151^st House District as an independent in 2002.¹³ He joined the Democratic party as a labor Democrat in 2004. Over the next decade, he worked his way up to President of the Maine Senate before terming out in 2024. Jackson accomplished a lot during his time in office. Key accomplishments include:

• Taking on big pharma to pass legislation reducing the cost of prescription drugs¹⁴
• And making free school lunches available for all kids in Maine schools, no questions asked.¹⁵

Jackson was also a huge proponent of Maine’s Paid Family Medical Leave program, tweeting in 2023:

It’s simple– working Mainers shouldn’t have to choose between a paycheck and being able to take care of their health and family needs.¹⁶

Jackson often fought with his own party to pass these reforms. In a 2021 opinion piece, Maine Machinists Council President Mark Vigliotta wrote:

As a Democrat who has fought all my life to create better conditions for Maine workers, I cannot express strongly enough how disappointed I have been with Gov. Janet Mills.

Time and again during her time in office, I and my members have worked to pass legislation to protect and improve the lives of Maine workers, only to see this governor work to kill the bill on the floor of the Legislature or veto it after it made it to her desk.¹⁷

These vetoes blocked legislation that would have:

• Protected whistle-blowers from retaliation;
• Pushed employers to hire Maine workers and buy materials made by American workers;
• Ensured public workers get better wages and fairer contracts (twice!);
• Banned pesticide spraying in the north Maine woods;
• Banned foreign corporate money in Maine elections;
• And banned big pharma price-gouging seniors.¹⁸

This year, Janet Mills proposed an austerity budget prioritizing greedy businesses over hard-working Mainers.¹⁹ Troy Jackson offers an alternative vision for Maine’s future:

With power in their hands, we build a Maine where small businesses thrive, hard work makes good money, and individual freedoms are protected, and big corporations play by our rules, not their own. With power in the hands of the people, we build a Maine where seniors can age in dignity again, and young people can afford to start families and buy a home without drowning in debt… With power in the hands of people, we’ll build a government that respects workers, listens to its people, never forgets who it’s there to serve, and never ever forgets who put it there.²⁰

Nobodies like Jackson far outnumber the “somebodies,” the elites pulling the strings in Augusta and beyond. On Wednesday, Bernie Sanders endorsed Troy Jackson. “Fighting for the working class of Maine is not something new for Troy,” Sanders said. “That’s what he has done for his entire life as a logger and as a member of the Maine state legislature. Troy knows what’s going on with the working class of Maine because he’s part of that working class.”²¹

Jackson’s vision for economic populism speaks to working peoples’ experiences. The best working class politics this country has ever seen came out of the liberal-labor coalition that formed during the New Deal. Liberals left workers behind when they embraced free trade. The Democratic party has been dominated by neoliberal politicians ever since. Not only has this proven a losing strategy, it has left us workers behind. Jackson’s political history proves he is no liberal. If we stand behind him in the primary, we can build a better, pro-worker future for all Mainers.

1. Troy Jackson, “Campaign Kickoff Event,” Facebook, May 19, 2025. ↩︎
2. Alana Schaeffer in news conference, Kittery, ME, May 19, 2025. ↩︎
3. Andy O’Brien, “Trump Terminates Collective Bargaining Rights for Most Federal Workers, Including Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Togus VA Employees, DFAS Limestone, SUPSHIP Bath at BIW & more,” Maine AFL-CIO, March 28, 2025; Lindsay Whitehurst, “Appeals court allows Trump’s anti-union order to take effect,” AP, May 19, 2025. ↩︎
4. White House, “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” news release, January 20, 2025. ↩︎
5. Agreement between Bath Iron Works Corporation and Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, AFL-CIO, and its Local No. 6: June 28, 1982 to June 30, 1985 (Bath Iron Works, 1982), 2. ↩︎
6. “How many veterans live in Maine?” USAFacts, accessed May 23, 2025. ↩︎
7. Quoted in Department of People Who Work for a Living (@deptofworkers), “Alana Schaeffer, a worker at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, on DOGE cuts impacting veteran civil service workers: ‘We were told to dismantle our veterans resource group. That space was not political, it was vital,’” Threads, April 30, 2025. ↩︎
8. Kevin Freking et al, “Trump’s big tax bill has passed the House. Here’s what’s inside it,” AP, May 22, 2025. ↩︎
9. Troy Jackson in news conference, Kittery, ME, May 19, 2025. ↩︎
10. Troy Jackson, “Nobody,” Instagram, May 19, 2025. ↩︎
11. Troy Jackson, “Here’s why the 1998 logging blockade still matters now,” Bangor Daily News, October 25, 2019. ↩︎
12. “Maine House of Representatives elections, 2000,” Ballotpedia, accessed May 23, 2025. ↩︎
13. “Maine House of Representatives elections, 2002,” Ballotpedia, accessed May 23, 2025. ↩︎
14. Troy Jackson, “Bill to Lower Cost of Prescription Drugs Becomes Law,” Maine Senate Democrats, July 5, 2018. ↩︎
15. Andy O’Brien, “Senator Jackson’s Law to Provide Universal Free School Meals is a Gamechanger for Maine Kids,” Maine AFL-CIO, October 27, 2022. ↩︎
16. Troy Jackson (@SenTroyJackson), “It’s simple– working Mainers shouldn’t have to choose between a paycheck and being able to take care of their health and family needs,” X, June 22, 2023. ↩︎
17. Mark Vigliotta, “Why Troy Jackson should run for governor,” Bangor Daily News, September 29, 2021. ↩︎
18. Ibid. ↩︎
19. See James Myall, “Governor Mills’ budget proposal: key takeaways and recommendations,” Beacon, January 22, 2025. ↩︎
20. Troy Jackson in news conference, Kittery, ME, May 19, 2025. ↩︎
21. Quoted in Jake Johnson, “Sanders Endorses Working Class Champion Troy Jackson for Maine Governor,” Common Dreams, May 21, 2025. ↩︎