Troy Jackson, the Maine Democrat running for U.S. Senate, was removed from a Facebook group organized to support his own candidacy after he insulted a supporter, according to posts and coverage circulating online.
The removal was first reported by the New York Post, whose account @nypost wrote on Saturday that the "Maine Dem Senate hopeful" had been "kicked out of own Facebook group for rudeness." Additional coverage followed from conservative outlets including The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy and others, which described the same sequence of events and amplified the claim.
According to that coverage, the group was titled "Mainers for Troy Jackson" — a page created to boost his Senate bid against Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins. Jackson was reportedly a member of the group before the removal. The dispute is said to have begun when Jackson responded to a supporter's comment with a rude remark, prompting administrators or moderators to remove him from the group that bears his name.
The Gateway Pundit, in a piece by Mike LaChance, called the situation "beyond parody" and noted that Jackson is the Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Maine "who was chosen by party insiders after Graham Platner was forced out of the race over credible accusations of sexual assault." The Gateway Pundit also referenced prior accusations of "bad behavior in social situations" against Jackson, though those claims were not detailed in the coverage reviewed.
Twitchy, a conservative aggregation site, described the removal as "hilarious" and said Jackson was "removed from his own Facebook fan page over rude comments during 2026 Maine Senate race."
The story has traveled across multiple conservative accounts and outlets, with the Post's original post serving as an early catalyst. The sequence, as described in that coverage, is that Jackson engaged with a supporter inside the group, the exchange turned rude, and the group's moderators removed him. The precise comments that triggered the removal have not been independently confirmed, and it is not yet known which moderator or administrator made the decision or what internal process preceded it.
Jackson's Senate campaign is one of several storylines developing in Maine's 2026 cycle. A separate poll released this week showed Jackson slightly ahead of Sen. Collins. Another report noted that Democratic Party consultants have surrounded Jackson with pro-Israel donors, describing the effort as "co-optation" — a third attempt by the consultant class to nominate a Maine candidate friendly to the party establishment, after two prior attempts failed.
Jackson was selected by party insiders after Graham Platner was forced out of the race over credible accusations of sexual assault, according to The Gateway Pundit. That context has been repeatedly invoked by conservative commentators covering the Facebook group removal.
Next News Network could not independently verify the claim that Jackson was removed from the group or the specific comments attributed to him.
What is clear from the coverage is that the story originated with a New York Post post on Saturday evening and was quickly picked up by conservative outlets including The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy and others, each of which described the same alleged sequence. The claim has since been repeated across social platforms, where it has become a talking point among critics of Jackson's Senate campaign.
Jackson's campaign has not issued a public statement on the matter, and it is not yet known whether the group's administrators will comment further. The identity of the supporter whose comment preceded the removal has not been confirmed, and the full text of the exchange has not been independently reviewed.
Maine's Senate race remains closely watched nationally, with Collins among the most prominent Republican incumbents facing re-election. Polling released this week showed Jackson slightly ahead, a result that has added attention to both campaigns and to stories like the Facebook group removal that might otherwise have remained local.
Conservative commentators have seized on the removal as evidence of a campaign struggling with its own supporters, while Democratic strategists have largely declined to engage with the story. The coverage has focused on the irony of a candidate being removed from a group named for him, and on the broader questions about Jackson's temperament that his opponents have raised.
Next News Network will continue to follow the story as more details emerge.
Our Take
The reaction to this story is more revealing than the story itself. A candidate who cannot remain welcome in a Facebook group that exists to support him has a problem that no consultant can fix. Troy Jackson was handed the Democratic nomination after party insiders pushed out Graham Platner over credible accusations of sexual assault, and the consultant class is now surrounding him with pro-Israel donors in a bid to make him palatable. But the base — the people who actually knock doors and post in support groups — is not buying what is being sold. The moderators of "Mainers for Troy Jackson" did what the party establishment refuses to do: they showed him the door. That is not a gaffe. That is a signal. Maine Democrats have now cycled through multiple candidates, and the one they settled on cannot get along with his own supporters long enough to stay in their group. If Jackson cannot manage a Facebook page, voters should ask how he intends to manage a Senate office. The poll showing him slightly ahead of Sen. Collins is not a comfort — it is a warning that Maine is closer to sending this behavior to Washington than anyone should be comfortable with. Republicans should not underestimate him, and Democrats should not pretend this is nothing.
