Maine Democrats on Saturday overwhelmingly nominated Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president and logger by trade, as their party’s nominee to challenge longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins in November’s high-stakes US Senate election.“Well, thank you, Maine,” Jackson, 58, said after securing the votes of 566 of 571 delegates during Saturday’s special Democratic convention at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. “Today we turn the page, today this becomes a general election campaign, and today we win the work of defeating Susan Collins in November.”“For nearly 30 years, Collins has told Maine that she is ‘concerned’,” Jackson said, referring to the 73-year-old incumbent’s go-to word when President Donald Trump and Republicans attack rights and justice. “She was concerned while she rubber-stamped Trump’s Medicaid cuts and gutted our healthcare.”“She’s concerned when she cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy,” he continued. “Concerned when she confirmed justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. And really tragically, she was concerned when she gave [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] billions to terrorize our neighbors and murder people in the streets with no accountability.”“But concern does not lower the costs of groceries or gas,” Jackson said. “Concern does not keep our monitoring wards of rural hospitals like down in Lincoln County open. Concern does not restore all the rights that she’s taken away. Maine does not need another six years of concern. We need someone with courage. We need a fighter, and we need a senator who remembers exactly who sent them to Washington.”“So if you’ve ever been ignored, underestimated, pushed around, or told that you have to wait your turn while the rich cut the line, I’m asking you to stand with us in this campaign,” he continued. “If you believe in your heart that healthcare is a right, stand with us. And if you believe that workers deserve power, stand with us. And if you believe our freedoms are worth defending, stand with us.”“And if you believe that Maine deserves a senator who will fight like hell for working-class people, well, stand with us,” Jackson added. “We have a party to unite, we have a movement to build, and we have a senator to defeat.”Jackson’s improbably rapid rise followed former Democratic nominee Graham Platner’s withdrawal from the race earlier this month amid allegations of sexual assault and abusive behavior. Supporters of Platner’s progressive platform warned at the time that they would not back a replacement candidate who did not share the same pro-worker, anti-war agenda.While Collins spokeswoman Blake Kernen called Jackson a “low-energy version” of Platner, Maine Democrats decided the fifth-generation lumberjack fit the bill.“The working class has been left behind and forgotten about,” Shelly Mountain, a former Aroostook County Democratic Committee chairwoman and Jackson delegate at the convention, told NBC News. “He is definitely working class and always—has always—been a champion for the working class.”Progressive politicians, advocacy groups, and labor organizations cheered Jackson’s nomination, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) saying that “he’s ready to fight for working people and flip this seat.”International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) president Brian Bryant said Saturday that “Troy Jackson knows firsthand what it means to work hard for a living and fight for a better future for working families.”“Throughout his career, he has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with union members and working people, never backing down from a challenge when workers’ rights were on the line,” he added. “He represents the strength of a people-powered movement focused on fairness, opportunity, and economic justice. Troy has our full support as he heads to the general election.”
The dean of Penn State Dickinson Law resigned on Friday after a former student testified before Congress about the school’s mandatory anti-racism class, which required all first-year students to "acknowledge the reality of systemic racism."
The post Penn State Law Dean Resigns Amid Fallout From School’s Anti-Racism Class and Free Beacon Report appeared first on .
A Democratic Senate hopeful on Saturday shredded Robert F. Kennedy Jr. like the lettuce Americans are now afraid to eat. U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) tore into the scandal-plagued Health and Human Services secretary as the nation faced a Cyclospora parasite outbreak — linked to contaminated shredded iceberg lettuce — under his watch. "The last time I checked, the guy who's running Health and Human Services for this country works out in jeans," El-Sayed quipped. "Meanwhile here in Michigan we're trying to dodge lettuce." El-Sayed was met with cheers and roars of laughter — the reference to Kennedy was met with boos. This is not the first time Kennedy has been mocked for his strange gym habit of working out in denim. A Vogue contributor tried it and decided the HHS secretary was "insane." "All I felt was sticky and desperate for a clean pair of sweatpants," Emma Specter wrote in February. "My experiment in RFK Jr.-style jeans-clad exercise wasn’t the worst thing I could have experienced by following his lead (I could have a rubella rash or, at the very least, a nasty case of E. coli contracted from frozen bear patties right now). Nevertheless, it… wasn’t great."Nor was this the first ribbing Kennedy faced this weekend. On Friday, President Donald Trump took aim at his Health secretary in front of a room of journalists at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. "I hope that everyone finally got to enjoy their entire very delicious beef tenderloin," Trump said. Then he pointed to Kennedy and said, "[He] personally ran over the cow in his car."This was likely a reference to Kennedy's habit of collecting road kill for strange purposes — among them a bear cub crime scene frame-up in Central Park. These odd quirks of Kennedy's prompted El-Sayed to tell his crowd of supporters in Michigan, "I think we might be able to use a public health Senator right about now."
A MAGA meltdown erupted online Saturday because a young man stated a fact to Erika Kirk in church. The supposed infiltration occurred Friday night as Kirk spoke at the Pursuit Church in Kirkland, Washington, as part of her "Make Heaven Crowded" tour event — and was interrupted by the shouts of a young man who rose to his feet."You married Charlie Kirk," he cried out. Video then shows the young man being dragged away and handcuffed by heavy security. The X account Frontlines TPUSA, which is affiliated with the Kirk-led Turning Point USA, described it as a "scary moment," despite the young man being the only one standing up and shouting the one line. According to the account, "A far-left activist infiltrated" the event.Jonathan Choe, who recorded the video posted by Frontlines TPUSA, asked the young man what he wanted to say to Erika Kirk, but he mostly remained silent, only saying, "The things she supports is offensive."Kirk took the reins at TPUSA following the assassination of her husband Charlie Kirk at a Utah University speaking event on Sept. 10, 2025. Earlier this year, students successfully got their Phoenix high school to pull the plug on her planned on-campus event because they found her views "too extremist."Her husband's violent death complicated the legacy as a MAGA influencer who made a career promoting what the Congressional Black Caucus Black Caucus has condemned as “racist, harmful, and fundamentally un-American” ideals.Choe described the events on his own account by writing, "Unhinged whacko went on a tirade" and "he got owned real fast." Meanwhile, other MAGA accounts agreed, "It was scary," while others praised Kirk for continuing.Some accounts questioned the description. Seattle-based journalist Hannah Krieg asked "what infiltrate means" here, as "It was a publicly advertised event with no screening process."Writer Matthew Boedy agreed, noting, "Interesting use of 'infiltrated.' Isn't this a tour to evangelize? Don't want people like this?"The event was also met with protesters who marched outside the church. MAGA commentators similarly went after them, with radio show host Jason Rantz calling them "wicked, evil monsters" in an X post.
An iconic harbor restaurant In Orange County has promised to leave the recipe for its signature cocktail before they close their doors for good, as longtime fans mourn the upcoming closure.
Oh, what three weeks of a baseball season can do. In that span, the Red Sox have surged from being Craig Breslow’s farrago of failure to the game’s most exciting team. For interim manager Chad Tracy, he’s gone from an anonymous pawn to a trending Wikipedia search. The Red Sox’s franchise-tying 15-game win streak came...
