In Maine, endorsements have poured in over the past several days for former state Senate President Troy Jackson after county-level committee votes over the weekend, where the fifth-generation logger secured the support of more than two-thirds of the delegates who will attend a statewide convention to nominate the Democratic US Senate candidate on July 25.

But while welcoming the support of labor unions and his former opponents in the contest to replace Graham Platner, Jackson said the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is not something he’ll pursue. Jackson also said that, if elected to the Senate, he would not support Schumer as leader of the chamber’s Democratic caucus.

“The Democratic Party needs to have a different approach—getting people back in the party, getting working-class, everyday people back in the party—and I don’t believe it’s going to happen with Sen. Schumer,” Jackson told The New York Times in an interview published Tuesday.

Regarding support from Schumer and the national party, Jackson said there would “have to be no strings.”

“I’d have to find out what that entailed,” added Jackson, a former logger with strong labor ties. “I mean, if his help comes, absolutely no strings."

Like progressives who have won recent primary races in New York and Colorado and are running in states including Michigan and Florida, Jackson is a supporter of expanding Medicare to everyone in the US and has denounced US military aid for Israel. He has recently expressed support for abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the agency’s killing of Biddeford, Maine resident Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero and has called for new taxes on billionaires and “greedy corporations,” echoing Platner, who ended his campaign earlier this month after being accused of sexual assault.

Last year, Schumer pushed Democratic Gov. Janet Mills to run against Platner as the political newcomer was mobilizing voters from across the political spectrum all around the state with his working-class-focused platform.

Schumer is a strong supporter of continuing to provide Israel with military aid, even as leading Holocaust scholars and human rights organizations say the attacks the country has waged in Gaza since October 2023 amount to genocide.

Jackson told the Times that “obviously” progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would be his first choice to succeed Schumer as Senate leader, but expressed doubt that the Democratic establishment would support the Vermont senator, who is consistently ranked as the most popular member of the Senate among voters.

“If I am lucky enough," Jackson said, “I guess I’ll have to survey the field.”

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