Maine’s US Senate race was blown wide open by Graham Platner dropping out of the race. Thankfully, a suitable populist is at hand to fill the breach. His name is Troy Jackson.

Jackson was born to a 16-year-old mother in the northern Maine town of Fort Kent. He is a fifth-generation logger, union member and former state legislator. As a teenager himself, he went to work in the woods, and by 1998 he led a union logging blockade to prevent Canadian scabs from working Maine jobs.

In other words, he was on the frontlines as globalization devastated rural communities like his. He’s spent his life in the tradition of the New Deal, as one of those rare labor Democrats who have kept that spirit alive.

In 2016, he was among a handful of Democratic superdelegates brave enough to support Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. In fact, before Platner became a political sensation, it was Jackson who was the Pine Tree state’s populist standard-bearer.

Affectionately known as “Johnny Cash from Allagash”, Jackson fought against multinational corporations and........

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