Troy Jackson Discloses Campaign Donations From Billionaires Two Days After Saying ‘There’s No Billionaires Funding Me’
Washington Free Beacon
Collin Anderson
October 16, 2026
Two days after Maine Senate candidate Troy Jackson said, “I know that there’s no billionaires funding me,” he released a long-awaited campaign finance report showing donations from at least four billionaires. Jackson acknowledged the flip-flop during a Thursday evening debate against his Republican opponent, incumbent senator Susan Collins.
“When you were replacing Graham Platner, you promised to be totally transparent in your donors and donations,” Collins said. “You said that you would take no money from billionaires. That’s not accurate.” Jackson conceded the point, saying, “As far as the billionaires that I might have on my campaign, that is accurate.” The remark prompted audible laughter in the debate room.
Jackson was referring to at least four maximum individual donations he took from billionaires. One of them came from Bain Capital co-chairman Joshua Bekenstein, a member of what Boston Magazine called the “Boston Billionaires Club” who owns an $18 million home in Nantucket. Fellow billionaire and Democratic megadonor Anne Earhart, the California-based heiress of the Getty Oil fortune, also gave Jackson the maximum general election donation of $3,500. So did billionaire hedge fund manager Nathaniel “Nat” Simons, the founder of the investment management firm Meritage Group. Billionaire heiress Liz Simons, the daughter of the late hedge fund manager James Simons and the sister of Nat Simons, is another top Jackson donor. Bekenstein’s wife, Anita, also kicked in $3,500.
The donations are the latest example of the contrast between Jackson’s “working-class” campaign image and his actions both as a candidate and as president of the Maine Senate.
Beyond his pledge to reject money from billionaires—one that is still prominently featured on Jackson’s campaign site, the front page of which reads, “Troy isn’t backed by corporate PACs or billionaire donors”—Jackson has said he’s running for office because he’s “tired” of “high-priced lobbyists and corporate greed.” Jackson’s son, however, spent years lobbying the Maine legislature on behalf of corporate clients when Jackson led its upper chamber, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Their interests often overlapped: In 2022, Jackson cosponsored a bill allowing online lenders to skirt Maine’s interest rate caps when offering small-dollar loans to borrowers with poor credit. His son’s lobbying firm supported the bill on behalf of a “predatory” lending company sued for violating consumer protection laws, the Free Beacon reported.
Jackson had not released a quarterly financial report before Thursday, the Federal Election Commission deadline for candidates to release their third-quarter numbers, because he replaced the disgraced Maine Democrat Graham Platner as his party’s nominee against Collins 10 days after the commission’s second-quarter deadline.
Collins highlighted Jackson’s lack of disclosures in a Tuesday debate, saying, “I would point out that we have no idea who is financing Troy’s campaign. He promised to be completely transparent, yet he has not filed a single report.” Jackson, visibly irritated, said he would send Collins his report “tomorrow morning,” adding, “How about that? Is that enough? Because we see yours and I know that there’s no billionaires funding me. … I’ll give you the report tomorrow and then we’ll talk about it on Thursday.”
Jackson did not send Collins the report as promised.
“As far as my report, I did say that I’d get it to you in the morning, and I didn’t make that claim,” he said Thursday. “And the reason why was we had over 200,000 people who gave to our campaign … and there’s a lot of work to do to put into that.”