Maine Democrats’ newly installed Senate nominee is already facing an awkward headline just days after the party rushed to replace scandal-plagued Graham Platner.
Troy Jackson, the former Maine Senate president now challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins, is in a long-term relationship with his high school sweetheart, Lana Pelletier, who is also his second cousin, according to a new report.
Jackson, 58, and Pelletier share two adult sons and the same great-grandparents, independent journalist Steve Robinson reported Thursday.
Robinson noted that second-cousin relationships are legal in Maine and not considered unusual in parts of the rural North Maine Woods region near the Canadian border.
Jackson, a former logger from the tiny village of Allagash, grew up in northern Maine and attended Fort Kent High School with Pelletier.
The report said Jackson has previously described Pelletier as his wife, though local sources told Robinson the couple has never been legally married.
Genealogical records cited by Robinson show Jackson’s maternal grandmother, Albertine Pelletier O’Leary, and Pelletier’s paternal grandfather, Louis A. Pelletier Sr., were siblings.
That would make Jackson’s mother, Colleen McBreairty, and Pelletier’s father, Louis Jr., first cousins.
Under that family tree, Jackson and Pelletier would be second cousins.
The revelation lands at a rough moment for Democrats in a race that could help decide control of the Senate.
Jackson was formally nominated at a special party convention July 25 after Platner withdrew from the race following a rape allegation from an ex-girlfriend.
Platner has denied the allegation.
Democrats had hoped Jackson would stabilize the race after weeks of chaos.
Instead, the party’s replacement candidate is now facing fresh scrutiny before he has even had time to fully reset the campaign against Collins.
Jackson’s roots in rural Maine have long been central to his political identity.
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He has leaned heavily into his background as a logger and working-class Democrat, presenting himself as a blue-collar alternative to Collins.
But the latest report gives Republicans another opening to mock the messy scramble that led Democrats to him.
Maine law bars marriage between close relatives including parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles.
NEWSMAX: “Democrat Senate candidate Troy Jackson is facing scrutiny after a new report claims his longtime partner…is also his second cousin and that the couple has two adult children together…what’s going on in Maine?” pic.twitter.com/PaRqxPsRKD
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 31, 2026
The state initially banned first-cousin marriage in 1985, but a 1987 amendment allowed those unions if the couple presents a genetic counseling certificate signed by a physician.
The statute does not prohibit second-cousin relationships.
Jackson’s campaign, the Maine Democratic Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee did not immediately return requests for comment, according to the report.
The controversy comes as Collins, a veteran Republican senator, is seeking another term in a blue-leaning state that Democrats have targeted as one of their best pickup opportunities.
Jackson was chosen after Democratic delegates scrambled to replace Platner before the state’s ballot deadline.
Platner had won the June primary but dropped out in July after the allegation against him surfaced.
His exit forced Democrats into an emergency nomination process that ended with Jackson’s selection.
Republicans are now likely to use the latest report to argue that Democrats traded one politically damaging candidate for another.
The party wanted a clean restart in Maine.
Instead, its new nominee is opening the general-election fight by answering questions about his family tree.
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