After pondering his options for several months, retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Jonathan “Tracer” Treacy, announced Monday that he’s jumped into the Democratic primary contest to unseat four-term Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.

His decision sets up a possible four-way primary in June that would also feature state House Speaker Sara Gideon of Freeport, activist Betsy Sweet of Hallowell and Saco lawyer Bre Kidman.

The party’s Washington establishment, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has already lined up behind Gideon in hopes of preventing an internal party fight that could distract from the goal of ousting Collins.

Treacy said people “don’t want to be served up” a candidate by anyone.

“I know Mainers don’t want to be told how to think. That just aggravates ‘em,” the 61-year-old Oxford resident said.

Treacy said his 34-year military background will give voters a choice in a race whose national importance, he said, can’t be overstated.

“People are hungry for someone who’s straight up,” Treacy said.

“Our nation needs leaders,” he said, to tackle problems ranging from a rising debt to the need to provide healthcare for everyone.

Treacy said there is “widespread if not universal” dissatisfaction with Collins in Maine.

He said he offers voters someone who “is not going to change with which way the wind blows” and whose aim is “to get things done” by avoiding the “tribal warfare” that has become the norm on Capitol Hill.

The retired general said he is particularly concerned with the way President Donald Trump “has abdicated all of the responsibility of leadership for all of the free world’s democracies,” tossing aside decades of effort to unite on the key issues of the day, including climate change.

Treacy flew in combat operations in both Libya and Iraq during his military career and commanded other fighter pilots in the air over the East Coast during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Along the way, he held many senior command positions, including stints as the deputy director for Antiterrorism and Homeland Defense, commander of Joint Task Force Civil Support and acting director of staff for the National Guard.

Treacy grew up in New Jersey and earned a degree in 1980 in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he met his wife, Debra.

While based on Cape Cod, Treacy and his wife bought a home in Oxford, but didn’t move there until a couple of years ago, voting in Maine for the first time in 2018. But he’s been coming to Maine regularly since childhood.

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