The Candidate From Rural Maine Fighting Big Money

Folks are tired of the influx of dark money into our politics from both parties. They are tired of empty promises made by politicians that go unfulfilled once elected. If Democrats are serious about winning back the working-class and rebuilding trust in candidates, elected officials and government, then we need to band together and reject outside dark money in our primaries. That starts with the People’s Pledge. I’m challenging all my primary opponents to join me in taking the People’s Pledge. With this pledge, Maine candidates have a chance to put their money where their mouth is.

Maine is considered one of the country’s most rural states, with more than 60% of its residents living in a rural area. Jackson is from Allagash in the most rural part of northern Maine, along the Canadian border. Yet Maine is a “purple” state, crucial in U.S. Senate and House elections, and in recent years governors have swung between Democrat, Independent and Republican.

None of Jackson’s opponents in the June 6 primary have responded to his challenge. They include, among others: Angus King III, the son of Sen. Angus King II (I-Maine); Hannah Pingree, former speaker of the Maine House and daughter of Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01); Shenna Bellows, Maine’s Secretary of State; and Nirav Shah, an epidemiologist and former head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Shah is backed by the 314 Action Fund, which, in other races, has channeled funds from an American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) subsidiary to campaigns against Congressional Democrats who were deemed not sufficiently pro-Israel. (The Pingree, King, Bellows and Shah campaigns did not respond to multiple requests from Barn Raiser for their candidate’s position on the People’s Pledge.)

According to Jackson’s campaign, he has more than 10,000 individual donors, more than the three richest Democratic campaigns—King’s, Pingree’s and Bellows’s—combined.

A member of several building trades unions, Jackson has gained the endorsement of 39 local labor unions, including the Maine AFL-CIO. He has represented rural Maine in the state legislature for 22 years, including as president of the State Senate from 2018 to 2024. In 2016, he won election in a State Senate district that Trump carried by 17%, campaigning on Medicare for All, union organizing rights and investment in renewable energy. In 2016 and 2020, Jackson supported Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.-17) have both endorsed his campaign for governor.

Why is taking the People’s Pledge significant?

Consider this: In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Buckley v. Valeo, struck down portions of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, ruling that money equals speech and that spending is protected by the First Amendment and could not be limited.

That decision served as precedent in 2010, when the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission went further, eliminating limits on independent expenditures by ruling corporations have a First Amendment right to spend money in candidate elections.

During this half-century erosion of campaign finance laws, wealth inequality has soared, workers’ rights in the private sector have been crushed, and the United States lags behind most global democracies in providing affordable health care, child care and higher education. In 2024, according to analysis from Americans for Tax Fairness, 100 billionaire families spent $2.6 billion in political contributions, representing 16.5% of total contributions. Compare that with the year 2000, when billionaire election spending accounted for $18 million, or 0.6% of total political contributions.

Let me be clear: as a former president of a national union, the founding chair of Our Revolution and a member of the Democratic National Committee for 20 years leading structural reform, I see no real opportunity for working people to fight for the things and people we love without Democratic Party reform. That starts with limiting outside expenditures in the party nominating process. Yes, we can work both inside and outside the Democratic Party, but there is no point cheering for political heroes like Bernie or Zohran Mamdani, if we don’t fight to change the rules as well as the rulers. 

Corporate and dark money in party primaries has blocked the expansion of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, defeating incumbents in recent years like Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman and Andy Levin, as well as important new leaders like Susheela Jayapal in Portland, Oregon and Nina Turner in Cleveland.

Election spending in the United States dwarfs every other nation. About $15 billion was spent on the 2024 federal election alone. And while the rise of Super PACs and dark money influence has been documented in general elections, not as well documented is the role of dark money and corporate independent expenditures in Democratic Party nominations.

Elizabeth Warren pioneered the People’s Pledge in her race for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in 2012, when she challenged her general election opponent, Republican incumbent Scott Brown, to join her to oppose all IEs. Brown agreed, and they pledged that if either of their campaigns received support from an IE, or if the IE attacked their opponent, the candidate’s campaign would donate half the amount spent by the IE to a charity. Campaign money is more valuable than IE money, so the penalty was effective in blocking IEs. Only a few candidates since then have agreed to the pledge in general elections. Troy Jackson is the first to propose it in a primary.

Independent expenditures are typically spent on media campaigns supporting a candidate, attacking their opponent, or both.

Corporate IEs use corporate funds supplemented by individual management contributions. For example, in the 2024 election cycle, crypto related corporations  spent more than $245 million, much of it to help pro-crypto candidates win Democratic primaries. Those candidates have committed to support the crypto legislative agenda, essentially privatizing increasing portions of the money supply, thereby legalizing yet another form of gambling.

For 2026, crypto firms expect to spend $200 million. Artificial Intelligence firms have already raised $50 million focused on supporting candidates who will help get federal preemption laws passed to prevent state regulation of AI. These funds are often deployed in primaries in House districts with a large majority of Democrats, since the general election is usually meaningless. 

Dark money means the donors are not known at the time the media campaign is conducted. The true purpose of the funding is often concealed, with the ad sponsor being a political organization (a Super PAC) with a benign sounding name that contain words like “democracy” and “jobs.” While some billionaires like Elon Musk brag about their spending and disclose it, often billionaire and other wealthy dark money contributors to Democratic primary candidate IEs are Republicans supporting corporate Democrats and targeting progressives.

In the 2022 midterms, the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) famously targeted at least $50 million against Democrats in primaries who opposed the Netanyahu government’s killing of more than 50,000 Gazans. AIPAC has already raised nearly $100 million for this year’s elections, mostly through their allied super PAC, United Democracy Project.

Democratic Party nominations are not regulated by Citizens United, since political parties are private organizations. This means that state and other party organizations can limit IEs in their nominating process, making it a requirement for qualification.

Thankfully, the process of structural reform has begun inside the Democratic Party. Last year, Ken Martin, the former chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party who began his political career in the 1990s as a staffer for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone from Minnesota, ran for Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on a platform that pledged to limit corporate and dark money IEs in the party’s nominating process.

In August, at the first DNC meeting chaired by Martin, a resolution was adopted prohibiting corporate and dark money IEs in the 2028 party presidential nominating process. A task force was appointed to bring implementation proposals to the DNC’s meeting this summer. The resolution also encouraged all state and local party candidates to support a pledge similar to Warren’s, and now Jackson’s, as part of the nominating process for any office.

If implemented, the DNC could mandate that all Democratic presidential candidates sign a version of the People’s Pledge if they want to campaign for the party nomination. The DNC has required other pledges in the past, including in 2020 when all candidates were required to sign a “loyalty” pledge to the Democratic Party. That pledge was aimed at Bernie, who has long run as an Independent for the U.S. Senate from Vermont. Of course he signed. The DNC has established other rules for candidates who are allowed to appear on the debate stage for the presidential primary. Signing the People’s Pledge can be one condition for 2028 candidates.

In addition to the DNC requiring the People’s Pledge for candidates, state parties and party donors can also play a role in getting dark money out of the Democratic Party. The DNC regulates the presidential nomination, but state and local Democratic parties regulate all other nominations. They do so in a variety of ways.

In Pennsylvania, for example, a candidate winning a super majority of convention delegates is awarded the nomination without a primary. In Massachusetts, a candidate must receive at least 15% support from convention delegates to run for the party’s nomination in the primary.

Last year, the Arizona, North Carolina and New Mexico Democratic Parties all began the process of adopting rules that would limit IEs with a focus on corporate and dark money. Resolutions were adopted in Arizona and North Carolina, committees were formed, but implementation has been postponed. New Mexico will consider a proposal at their March state meeting.

Progress at the state and local level has been limited in part because of the role corporate and interest-based donors play not only in backing elected officials but in party financing. There are no restrictions on giving to party affiliates and these contributions often fund party meetings and social events. Party organizations are loath to challenge elected officials who have benefited from IEs.

The consequences are enormous and self-fulfilling, particularly in single-Democratic districts. In about 90 House districts out of the 218 needed for a majority in Congress, the combination of low turnout and big spending results in outsized influence for these donors. The candidates who benefit from big money and win the primaries often align with a general moderate and pro-corporate view. So for the rest of us fighting for things like Medicare for All, freezing or cutting military and homeland security funding, stopping fossil fuel expansion, and supporting workplace organizing rights, the outcome, in the last 50 years, has been to water down the Democratic Party commitment on issues like these. That in turn leads to a decline in the party’s working class orientation—and election results like we saw in 2024.

Finally, 45 large Democratic Party donors have signed a letter encouraging candidates and state parties to follow the lead of the DNC and limit corporate and dark money independent expenditures. The list includes Abigail Disney, Jane Fonda and Ben Cohen (of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream), and it is being circulated by Liam Connell, an important Democratic donor from Illinois.

All four of these initiatives—candidate pledges, DNC action, state and local party action, and donors supporting campaign finance reform, are just beginning. Progressive activists in all state parties will need to mobilize pressure on not only party officials, but also candidates. For that to happen, people need to understand that the victory on progressive key issues is inextricably linked to limits on independent expenditures in the party nominating process.

When candidates like Troy Jackson, the logger from Allagash, are contending for a major office like governor, all of us across rural America should be proud. But we also need to carry his message against big money to the Maine Democratic Party, as well as his opponents in the June primary where Jackson faces a tough battle in a crowded field of wealthy candidates and moderates with access to big money.

Twelve years ago, Thomas Steinbeck, son of the novelist John Steinbeck, heard Jackson’s message and told him to use his father’s words whenever that might help. Thomas described Jackson as “grounded in the very spirit of the words of John Steinbeck.”

Democratic Party reform is grounded in that spirit—hard, almost too hard, but not hopeless.

Larry CohenMore by this author →

Larry Cohen is the founding chair of Our Revolution, past president of the Communications Workers of America, and, since 2005, a member of the Democratic National Committee.