The Final Word.

AuthorJackson, Troy
PositionMaine Senate President Troy Jackson - Interview

A fifth-generation logger from northern Maine, Troy Jackson (D) served in the state House from 2002 to 2008, when he moved to the Senate. He was chosen by his Senate colleagues to be president in 2018. Jackson is a graduate of the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

How has the coronavirus affected the legislature's ability to work?

We decided to temporarily suspend the legislature until the pandemic has subsided. Before we went home, we worked quickly to pass a bipartisan budget that included funding for public health nursing, the Maine CDC and more. We've launched www.troyjackson.org/covid19 and a weekly video series called the "Dirigo Network: Celebrating Mainers Helping Mainers." COVID-19 has definitely posed many challenges to the way our state operates, but we are simply finding new ways to keep things going. [Watch Jackson's first Dirigo video.!

What leadership lessons have you learned from government reactions to the virus?

We've seen how COVID-19 has devastated other cities and states. As leaders, we had a responsibility to take this pandemic seriously and do everything we could to make sure what happened in those states didn't happen here. The other key takeaway is that we have to take care of people affected by COVID-19. The only way we're going to get through this is by working together. It's why my colleagues and I worked hard to expand unemployment benefits and urged Congress to help small-business owners and seif-empioyed Mainers. As someone who has reiied on unemployment in the past and who has gone without health insurance for long periods, I know what it feeis like to wonder how you are going to make ends meet in the face of uncertainty. I believe the states that take care of working families and small businesses will be better off in the iong run.

What motivated you to run for office?

For me it was about iabor issues in logging that prompted me to get into it back in '98. I got so frustrated that we ended up blocking the Canadian border for a week [to protest landowners hiring Canadian loggers instead of Mainers]. All these politicians showed up because it was just before an eiection. When the election went away, we were nothing...

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