Well, No One Expected to Find Out That Bit of Family History About Troy Jackson
Is this an election-disqualifying story? No. There
is no Nazi tattoo or any claim of sexual assault or misconduct. It’s
simply an interesting look into the family of Troy Jackson, the Maine Democratic Senate candidate
who will face Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) after Graham Platner dropped
out amid a rape allegation. He also had a Nazi tattoo, a history of
graphic social media posts, and other accusations of domestic abuse.
If you look for a trainwreck, there should be a picture of Platner.
Still, Jackson isn’t much better. He ran for governor in the state’s
primaries and lost, which we’ll cover soon. He also has a temper
problem, but this story focuses on his non-marriage to his wife, Lana
Pelletier, with whom he has two children. They’re second cousins, which
has sparked a bunch of Deliverance jokes. It’s not juicy, but the post
from The Maine Wire does a good job of explaining the history of
American politics and these relationships, where many politicians,
including Founding Fathers, married their cousins.
Later, it was
done to preserve the wealth, property, and bloodline of the Patrician
New England elites. The issue with Jackson is that while he may call
Lana his wife. They’re not married, an arrangement that’s been an open
secret in the Allagash enclave. Maine does not recognize common law
marriage, so the now-mandatory financial disclosure forms for candidates
might not shed full light on the subject. Still, the whole cousin
angle—didn’t see that coming, and neither did 23andMe:
If
the revelation feels awkward in 2026, American political history offers
a robust, if slightly squirm-inducing, context. Cousin marriage — or at
least cousin coupling — is practically a Founding-era tradition,
practiced by figures far more exalted than a logger-lobbyist who now
makes his home in Augusta.
John Adams, the second president,
married Abigail Smith, his third cousin. Thomas Jefferson married Martha
Wayles Skelton, also his third cousin. Martin Van Buren wed Hannah
Hoes, his first cousin once removed. Franklin D. Roosevelt married
Eleanor Roosevelt, his fifth cousin once removed — a degree of
relatedness so remote that geneticists treat it as essentially
unrelated, yet still close enough that the Roosevelt name stayed
comfortably in the family.
[…]
In Allagash itself, the
Jackson-Pelletier arrangement has been an open secret for decades. The
couple’s two sons are grown. Pelletier works as a clinical care
specialist with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
Jackson has built a political brand on being the authentic working-class
guy from the far north woods.
The fact that his domestic partner
is also a blood relative of the second-cousin variety may strike
outsiders as the punchline to a Deliverance joke. The comparisons
between Appalachia and Allagash write themselves.
To locals who
have watched the same surnames — Pelletier, McBreairty, Jackson and
O’Leary — recycle through town records for generations, it is simply
another data point in a place where the dating pool is shallower than
the trout streams.
Jackson has never publicly addressed the cousin
connection. His campaign materials continue to describe Pelletier as
his “partner.” Older official bios occasionally slipped into “wife.”
[…]
Where
the relationship between Jackson and Pelletier may have real political
consequences comes down to the rules of the secretary of the U.S.
Senate, who handles the financial disclosures that candidates and
elected members of Congress are required to submit.
Typically,
pols must submit detailed accounts of their income, assets and
liabilities, as well as the finances of their spouses. But because
Pelletier and Jackson never wed, and because Maine does not recognize
any form of common-law marriage, it’s not clear whether Jackson’s
financial disclosures will cover the second-cousin couple’s full
financial situation.
If Pelletier, as merely the mother of
Jackson’s adult children, is exempt from inclusion in the financial
disclosures in a way that Collins’ husband is not, then the knitted
family tree could engage in all kinds of clever accounting tricks to
artificially impoverish Jackson as a way of maintaining his
working-class image.
As of this week, Jackson hasn’t filed the
disclosures or a request for an extension, and the circumstances of his
nomination are so unusual that the secretary of the Senate has yet to
say when Jackson will be required to make his finances transparent — or
whether those disclosures will include assets placed under the name of
his second cousin.
Everyman Mainer eating at an elitist DC restaurant one block from the White House https://t.co/aEwu0FgdOy
— Storm Paglia 🇺🇸 (@storm_paglia) July 31, 2026
Frankly, Jackson’seligibility is somewhat more urgent. Maine does not have an explicit ‘sore loser’ law
that prohibits a defeated primary candidate from appearing on the
ballot for another office. This was brought up by Maine State Rep. James
White before the Democrats’ convention on July 25 [emphasis mine]:
GOP Rep. James White (Maine) points out that Troy Jackson may not legally be eligible to be the nominee for Senate. pic.twitter.com/hKXGgBSMLo
White’s
argument also relies on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1974 decision in
Storer v. Brown, in which the Court described primary elections as “an
integral part of the entire election process.”
According to White,
supporters of Jackson’s candidacy must treat Maine’s June primary and
November general election as separate elections in order for Jackson to
qualify. He argues that interpretation conflicts with both the Supreme
Court’s reasoning and the Legislature’s decision to prohibit candidates
from seeking more than one office “at any election.”
The letter
further argues that so-called “sore loser” laws exist to protect the
integrity of elections by preventing candidates who lose one race from
reaching the general election ballot through another avenue.
[…]
Whether White’s argument ultimately prevails remains an open legal question.
Unlike
several states, Maine does not have an explicit “sore loser” statute
that expressly bars a candidate defeated in a primary from later
appearing on the general election ballot for another office. Instead, White argues that existing provisions of Title 21-A, when read together, effectively create that prohibition.
Also, Jackson had a temper during his time in the state legislature, to the point where he was cast out
of the speaker’s office, and got so mad over a prescription drug
pricing matter with a colleague in the state Senate that he chucked a
water bottle to the ground. None of the matters should lead to these
outbursts, but for now, Democrats have their man.
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