Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson apologized after claiming Jewish Mainers reject the term genocide for Gaza solely because of the Holocaust, sparking backlash in his race against Susan Collins.
Fox News reported that Maine’s Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, Troy Jackson, issued an apology after remarks in which he said Jewish residents of the state refuse to call Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide” only because of the Holocaust.
The comments landed in a competitive race against incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and quickly drew sharp criticism online from both conservatives and at least one prominent anti-Trump voice.
Jackson, a former Maine Senate president who secured the Democratic nomination in late July, had already positioned himself on the progressive left. He backs Medicare for All, higher taxes on top earners, abolishing ICE, and ending U.S. aid to Israel.
In a local media interview earlier this week, Jackson described the fighting in Gaza as genocide and then explained why, in his view, some people in Maine will not use that word.
He said: “It’s unfortunate that there are people here in Maine that don’t like to use that term only because they’re Jewish and what that means to them with the Holocaust. It fits that description. It is. It’s an unbelievable thing that’s happened there that people that are innocent are being murdered, and it is a genocide.”
That framing treated Jewish identity and Holocaust memory as the obstacle to accepting his preferred label. Critics heard it as a broad swipe at Jewish Mainers rather than a policy argument about the war.
Jackson later told Jewish Insider he had misspoken. He still called the war in Gaza a genocide, but said he should not have generalized about Jewish residents of Maine.
"I believe what’s happening in Gaza is genocide, and I also understand that word carries particular weight for many Jewish families given the Holocaust, the genocide of six million Jews. In trying to acknowledge that, I misspoke and made a generalization about Jewish Mainers’ views that doesn’t reflect what I mean to say,"
He also apologized “for the pain that caused.” The campaign did not immediately respond when Fox News Digital sought further comment.
Reaction on X was swift and harsh. Dan Senor, co-author of “The Genius of Israel,” wrote that the statement “cannot be real” and “must be a dark dark dark parody.”
Fox News host Mark Levin posted, “Completely out of the closet.” Fox News political analyst Guy Benson referenced prior controversy around former Democratic candidate Graham Platner and wrote that Jackson “could get a matching tattoo.”
Former GOP congressman Joe Walsh, often critical of Republicans, still called the remark “a s---ty thing to say.” GOP consultant Matt Whitlock summed up the disbelief with “Bro what.”
Fox News contributor Hugh Hewitt argued Jackson “should not be within 10 points” of Collins when votes are counted, and said Collins “blew out the polls six years ago.” Hewitt also dismissed Jackson as a “cliche volcano” of Democratic Socialists of America rewrites.
Jackson did not arrive at this moment from the political center. The Democratic Socialists of America backed him earlier this year, and he has kept a hard-left policy list even after the primary picture changed.
Graham Platner, the earlier Democratic Senate contender, left the race after reports of past aggressive behavior toward women and an allegation of sexual assault raised alarms with top party leaders. Platner denied wrongdoing. Jackson had appeared with him at events, including a May “Fighting Oligarchy” stop in Orono, and then carried forward much of that progressive agenda once he became the nominee.
That continuity matters for voters weighing Jackson’s socialist backing against a long-serving Republican incumbent. Ending U.S. aid to Israel, labeling Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal, and refusing what Jackson called a “blank check” for Netanyahu’s government remain part of his pitch.
So does abolishing ICE. In a national debate over border security, that position is not a footnote. It tells lawful residents and taxpayers exactly where the nominee stands on enforcement.
Jackson’s own record and rhetoric have already drawn scrutiny beyond this week’s apology, including coverage of how he joked about running as a communist and the leftward drift that followed.
The general election is set for Nov. 3. An August survey of registered voters found inflation and high prices as the top issue at 32 percent, with border security next. Related coverage has described the Collins-Jackson contest as a dead heat.
Collins has years of statewide experience and a history of outrunning gloomy forecasts. Jackson is asking Maine to replace her with a nominee who pairs economic populism with open hostility to current Israel policy and to the federal immigration agency.
That contrast is why personal and political controversies keep surfacing around the Democratic side of the race. Collins has already shown she will raise a challenger’s controversies on camera when she sees an opening.
Campaign-finance themes cut the same way. Jackson has sold a fight against corporate cash, yet reporting on his party committee’s haul from PACs and lobbyists has undercut the purity test he wants voters to accept, another reason scrutiny of his anti-corporate cash claims continues.
Even biographical questions have followed him on the trail, including separate reporting on family history that put Jackson’s personal background under a harsher light than a standard newcomer expects.
Jackson’s cleanup was narrow. He regretted the generalization about Jewish Mainers. He did not retreat from calling the Gaza war a genocide, and he did not retreat from the broader progressive platform that helped him lock down the nomination in Bangor in late July.
Voters can hold two facts at once. A candidate can apologize for clumsy wording. He can also reveal, in the wording that required the apology, how he assigns motives to an entire religious community when they reject his preferred term.
Jewish Mainers did not ask to be cast as the reason a loaded historical word is contested. Jackson put them there, then said he missed his own meaning. The race against Collins will test whether Maine treats that as a closed erratum or as a warning about judgment under pressure.
When a Senate nominee lectures Jewish voters about the Holocaust while pushing to end aid to Israel and abolish ICE, the apology is not the whole story, the platform is.
