Platner’s Replacement in Maine Accused of Incest

'Its handful of last names and family trees ... don’t so much branch as tangle...'

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(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Democratic party elites in Maine are facing more criticism over their sub-par vetting process amid reports that new Senate nominee Troy Jackson has sex with his cousin.

After using a loophole in the primary process to swap out duly nominated Graham Platner, an alleged Nazi rapist, with Jackson, an accused socialist rageaholic, the latest development could further amplify calls for another audible, possibly helping to secure the ticket for transgender social-media star Ashley Webb.

The bombshell about Jackson’s incestuous relations with his second cousin, which led to the couple’s two children, was first reported on Thursday by independent journalist Steve Robinson.

Robinson noted that inbreeding not only was fully legal in the small Maine town where Jackson boasted of being a fifth-generation logger, but it was pretty widely accepted.

“The tiny St. John River Valley town of Allagash (population 240) has long been the butt of Maine jokes about its handful of last names and family trees that don’t so much branch as tangle,” he wrote.

The couple remains together, with Jackson often describing his cousin-turned-high-school-sweetheart, Lana Pelletier, as his wife, even though they never officially married.

The two share a common set of great-grandparents, with Jackson’s maternal grandmother and Pelletier’s paternal grandfather listed as siblings in records unearthed by Robinson.

While Maine law bans most forms of incest with immediate family members and those closely related genetically, it permits cousin marriages if the lovebirds “present a certificate of genetic counseling signed by a physician certifying their potential children have an acceptably low risk of physical deformity or cognitive impairment,” the New York Post reported.

Jackson suggested the scandal was a non-issue in a statement to the Post, while accusing his Republican rival, incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins, of having been behind it.

“Susan Collins will do anything to distract from the fact that she votes with Trump 96% of the time and has sold out working people in Maine,” Jackson’s campaign said in a statement. “Personal attacks on Troy’s family are shameful and desperate.”

But the revelation nonetheless drew ridicule from some on social media.

Even before his installment as the Democratic nominee, Jackson was raising concerns from both sides of the aisle.

In early July, with his anointment already apparent, the group Progressive Victory alleged that Jackson had hurled a water bottle at a fellow Democrat who disagreed with him in the state legislature.

“In our discussions we have received troubling information about not only Jackson’s behavior, but the behavior of many prominent Maine Democrats toward women more broadly,” wrote the group in a now-deleted July 7 post. “Both as a result of the credibility of the sources and in the interest of not seeing our movement make the same mistake twice, we are choosing to share some of this now.”

Republican critics also said that Jackson, who lost the Democratic primary for governor earlier this year, was ineligible to run again due to the state’s “sore loser” laws.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

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