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PORTLAND, Maine — <\/span>Troy Jackson was a longtime labor activist and logger before he unexpectedly became the Democratic nominee<\/a> for U.S. Senate in Maine. On Monday, he returned to a union hall to tell workers they need to go to the polls this fall \u2014 to raise the minimum wage, expand family medical leave and show support for one another.<\/p>\n \u201cLabor Day has never been just another holiday,\u201d Jackson told several hundred union members at a Southern Maine Labor Council event Monday in Portland. \u201cToday, here with the people I\u2019ve fought alongside for years, I want to make a pledge about exactly what I\u2019m going to do in the United States Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson, who became the nominee in a special convention in July<\/a>, is trying to whip up support in a short period of time as he attempts to unseat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins<\/a> in a race Democrats view as critical to winning Senate control. <\/p>\n He was among the candidates in key November races who spent Labor Day weekend stumping at festivals, union halls and parades as the midterms enter the final weeks with control of the House and Senate on the line. <\/p>\n This year’s campaigns already have been combative, busy and expensive, and they are expected to get even more so as a larger number of voters tune in ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. The first statewide mail ballots already went out, in North Carolina<\/a>, on Friday. <\/p>\n Outside the Jackson event in Portland, Doug Born, a 64-year-old union stagehand from Westbrook, said Jackson’s background as a logger and his longtime support of organized labor are reasons to support him.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he’d be the most working-class guy in the Senate. That appeals to me,\u201d Born said. \u201cWe need more union members in seats of power.\u201d<\/p>\n Collins had no events scheduled for Labor Day, but she visited shipbuilder Bath Iron Works early in the morning on Sept. 1 to greet employees and promise to continue \u201cleveraging her seniority to secure billions in destroyer contracts, infrastructure modernization, and wage enhancements,\u201d a spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump is also stepping up his own efforts for Republicans<\/a> in the coming days. His party is set to gather this week in Dallas for an atypical midterm convention<\/a>, a two-day event that Trump and other Republicans hope will generate enthusiasm for the GOP, which currently controls the White House and Congress.<\/p>\n Typically, the party in power in Washington loses seats in Congress during the midterm elections. <\/p>\n Trump has vowed to campaign<\/a> for Republicans in dozens of races, saying he plans to spend the 30 days before Nov. 3 stumping in House and Senate battlegrounds. <\/p>\n Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Democrats\u2019 nominee for governor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, both visited an AFL-CIO picnic in metro Atlanta. <\/p>\n Ossoff, the only Democratic senator seeking reelection in a state Trump won in 2024, praised current and former labor leaders and activists, while lamenting workers\u2019 economic circumstances under a billionaire president who has grown wealthier while in office.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are dealing with the most absurd and obscene corruption in the modern history of our republic,\u201d Ossoff said, hammering Trump for the war in Iran and inflation while \u201cbuilding monuments to himself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll of this, when for working families in Georgia, life just gets tougher and tougher,\u201d Ossoff said.<\/p>\n Ossoff is facing Republican Rep. Mike Collins, who owns a trucking company but has pitched himself as a working-class advocate. Collins\u2019 campaign did not respond to an inquiry about his Labor Day plans.<\/p>\n Bottoms, who faces wealthy healthcare CEO Rick Jackson, urged union members to use their personal influence and networks to help her counter the Republican nominee\u2019s vast personal spending on Georgia airwaves. She noted that Georgia, like other Southern states, is historically anti-union and has so-called \u201cright to work\u201d laws that make it harder to organize unions and easier for companies to fire workers at will.<\/p>\n Jackson had no public events Monday.<\/p>\n In Wisconsin, both major-party candidates in one of the country’s most competitive House districts \u2014 Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden and Democrat Rebecca Cooke \u2014 joined a parade in the western part of the state. Cooke walked the parade route before it started, talking with voters and handing out literature, and then did it again in the parade. Van Orden drove his 2001 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, with two of his grandchildren along for the ride, along the parade route.<\/p>\n Maureen Hilton, a 74-year-old retired insurance underwriter who lives just outside of the village of Readstown where the parade took place, said she\u2019s disgusted with both political parties.<\/p>\n \u201cJust do what\u2019s right,\u201d she said. \u201cGet food prices down. Get gas prices down.\u201d<\/p>\n But Jerry Ray, a 75-year-old semi-retired appliance repairman, said \u201cit\u2019s time for a change.\u201d He\u2019s voting for the Democrat Cooke in November.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump\u2019s had a chance and he\u2019s just screwed it up royally,\u201d Ray said as parade participants tossed candy to children along the route.<\/p>\n Van Orden said he gave Cooke credit for attending the parade in the Republican-leaning village with a population under 500. <\/p>\n