Jim Deyermond serves as chairman of the Maine Republican Party.

A week ago, Democratic Party insiders locked themselves in a room and crowned Troy Jackson their nominee for U.S. Senate.

The Soviet-style convention that resulted in Jackson — a guy who Democratic primary voters rejected just last month — winning 99% of cheering delegates, waving Jackson signs and wearing Jackson shirts, is a piece of propaganda even Stalin could be proud of.

Democratic Party insiders overrode the will of their own primary electorate and installed a candidate no one asked for. Meanwhile, Maine Republicans weren’t behind closed doors; we were out knocking on them.

Maine Republicans are energized and organized. While Democrats were engaged in their sham convention, volunteers, staff and candidates like Sen. Susan Collins and former Gov. Paul LePage were out in communities talking directly to voters about our strong Republican slate and our vision for Maine.

We’ve engaged hundreds of volunteers ready to support Republican candidates and get out the vote and contacted hundreds of thousands of voters to date.

In one weekend alone, Maine Republicans held activations across three counties where we visited front porches, diners and parades listening to what Mainers care about: jobs, affordability and a government that works for them.

What we also heard on the ground was concern over the Democrats’ process, shock in response to news reporting about Troy Jackson’s temper and political positions — and excitement in response to Republican candidates LePage and Collins. 

In 2026, we launched the Maine Neighborhood Navigators program, an initiative to organize and equip grassroots volunteers to activate low-propensity voters in their communities.

This isn’t a top-down operation where party bosses handpick candidates. Maine Navigators is a grassroots movement built on neighbors talking to neighbors. Hundreds of volunteers have already signed up, and tens of thousands of voters have already been contacted.

While Maine Democrats descend into further chaos, our ground operation remains strong. And we have a slate of excellent candidates of good character whom we can proudly campaign with — candidates who have real records of delivering results for Mainers.

Sen. Collins holds a powerful position in the Senate, which she has used to deliver federal funding for Maine infrastructure, healthcare facilities, housing, veterans, workforce training, fire stations, food banks and projects across all 16 counties. Her Maine work ethic is made clear by her unblemished vote record, becoming the first senator to cast 10,000 consecutive votes.

She has championed efforts to lower prescription drug costs, protected hundreds of thousands of Maine jobs during COVID and safeguarded Medicaid and Social Security. And she has never dragged Maine into the spotlight through scandal.

Gov. LePage is back in action to fight for Maine alongside Sen. Collins, and retired Col. Ron Russell stands ready to go head-to-head with Rep. Chellie Pingree. 

On the other hand, both Matt Dunlap and Troy Jackson are tainted by Graham Platner, Hannah Pingree is Janet Mills 2.0., and only two years removed from the Biden-Harris debacle, Democrats somehow found a way to engineer an even more embarrassing candidate swap right here in Maine.

Voters are right to wonder if the party that put them in this position — gave them Graham Platner, fell into chaos, and then stumbled through an undemocratic replacement process — is capable of keeping the promises it makes.

More than 216,000 Democrats and unenrolled voters participated in the June primary. Fewer than 600 party insiders put Troy Jackson on the ballot. To the unenrolled voters who took a Democratic ballot and were unceremoniously kicked to the curb, we welcome you with open arms.

Republicans will keep doing what we always do: working hard, never giving up the fight and spreading our message so we can elect strong leaders to represent Maine.

As we head toward Election Day, Mainers will have a decision to make between experienced, results-driven leadership and anarchy and incompetence hiding behind empty rhetoric. To us, the choice is clear.