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High profile Democrats aren’t backing off their support for Maine Senate candidate Troy Jackson following reports he fathered children with his cousin.
Former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile was among the chorus of party voices throwing cold water on the claims about Jackson in a scandal-plagued Senate race that was already upended after former far-left candidate Graham Platner was forced to drop out earlier this summer following a series of controversies that culminated in a rape allegation.
And now, Jackson is facing even more turmoil with the most recent revelations of a 1988 police report accusing him of assault.
“There’s a lot of people who are doing a lot of gossip as news, and I don’t want to break news that might not be true — especially on something so personal — that’s not what I do,” Brazile told Digital when asked about the report Jackson had two children with his cousin and longtime partner Lana Pelletier.
Donna Brazile attends the Senate Judiciary Committee markup on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, in Hart Building on Monday, April 4, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Jackson became the Democrat nominee for Senate in Maine despite Platner winning the June 9 primary race. Platner formally dropped out on July 10 — just in time for the Democratic Party to select a replacement for the November general election ballot.
But just weeks after being nominated to step into the race, Jackson came under fire when a shocking report hit the internet claiming his longtime partner, with whom he shares two children, is his cousin.
Brazile, a veteran Democrat and longtime operative for the party, told Digital she doesn’t “know anything about Mr. Jackson,” when asked about the relationship with his cousin.
“I wish him the best of luck. I don’t know many… some of the nominees, but I wish them the best luck,” Brazile said, remaining agnostic to those particular claims.
“There are so many lies,” Brazile went on. “I don’t really want to comment on salacious gossip — innuendos.”
“All I know is that that’s going to be one of the most competitive races, and we’ll all be watching in the fall,” she concluded.
The bombshell report introduces another threat to the already tumultuous race where Democrats are trying to flip the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
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The Maine Wire editor Steven Robinson reported that Jackson shares two children with his second cousin “by blood” and alleged high school sweetheart, Lana Pelletier. In posting the genealogical findings, the independent journalist claimed Pelletier’s father is a cousin of Jackson’s mother.
“I think it’s important to get the facts,” Brazile said about the report.
A longtime political strategist, Brazile served as interim chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2011 and again in 2016. She has remained an influential voice within Democratic politics through multiple midterm election cycles and has often weighed in on candidates and the party’s overall direction following major electoral setbacks.
Shortly after Brazile and other Democrats refused to abandon their support for Jackson in the Maine Senate race, a police report from 1988 resurfaced accusing Jackson of assaulting a man in an altercation over Pelletier.
The same report states that Pelletier told the police that Jackson “pushed her around.”
Jackson said in a statement obtained by Digital said, “I took responsibility for [the fight] then, and I take responsibility for it now.”
Pelletier, for her part, claimed the statements attributed to her in the report are “not accurate,” and defended Jackson in a separate statement to Digital.
“I do not remember making the statements attributed to me and they are not accurate,” she said. “This is the first time I have seen this report from 40 years ago. Troy and I have built a life and family together and I know the person he has been through the decades since, both as a caring partner and father.”
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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and Troy Jackson stand together during a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus in Orono, Maine, on May 24, 2026. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Jackson is up against Collins, who has held her Senate seat since 1997. The Democrat candidate accused Collins’ team of being responsible for the accusation that he fathered his second cousin’s children as a “shameful and desperate” attempt to bruise his campaign.
But he has never directly denied in previous statements to Digital the claims that Pelletier, the mother of his two children, is his cousin.
“Susan Collins will do anything to distract from the fact that she votes with Trump 96% of the time and has sold out working people in Maine. Personal attacks on Troy’s family are shameful and desperate,” Jackson’s campaign said in the statement.
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Jackson’s campaign did not respond to Digital’s most recent requests for comment.
Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
