Maine Democrat Chosen to Replace Graham Platner Fathered Two Children With His Second Cousin
“Jackson, 58, and Lana Pelletier share two adult sons and the same great-grandparents, according to Thursday’s report by independent journalist Steve Robinson”
The Senate race in Maine just got a little bit more weird, if that’s possible. Troy Jackson, the Democrat chosen to replace Graham Platner, has apparently fathered two children with his second cousin.
At this point, Republican incumbent Susan Collins must just sit at home and laugh to herself.
The New York Post reports:
Maine Dem Senate candidate Troy Jackson fathered two kids with his second cousin: report
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson is in a long-term relationship with his high school sweetheart — who is also his second cousin, according to a new report.
Jackson, 58, and Lana Pelletier share two adult sons and the same great-grandparents, according to Thursday’s report by independent journalist Steve Robinson, who notes that such relationships are both legal under state law and not uncommon in the rural North Maine Woods region, near the Canadian border.
While Jackson, a onetime logger and the former president of the Maine State Senate, has described Pelletier as his wife in the past, locals tell Robinson the couple has never been legally married.
Jackson grew up in the village of Allagash (population 237 as of the 2020 census) and attended nearby Fort Kent High School with Pelletier.
According to geneological records unearthed by Robinson, Jackson’s maternal grandmother — Albertine Pelletier O’Leary — and Pelletier’s paternal grandfather — Louis A. Pelletier Sr. — were siblings, making Jackson’s mother, Colleen McBreairty, and Pelletier’s father, Louis Jr., first cousins.
Since 1985, Maine law has prohibited marriages to an individual’s parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, or uncles.
People on Twitter/X had some fun with this.
Haha Holy moly. Dems really know how to find every degenerate to run for office. It’s like their superpower. https://t.co/khSikPbv0Q
— The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) July 31, 2026
OUT: Third Reich
IN: Second cousins https://t.co/3itxv8j2BO
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) July 31, 2026
Maine Dems are surely apart of the breed apart, or maybe a breed together? https://t.co/rAp5sszHmK
— Phil Johnson (@OkiePhil2020) July 31, 2026
The plan? We convince them to drop an abusive Nazi and then replace him with someone married to his own cousin. pic.twitter.com/vfPMQ0ZO3Q
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 31, 2026
Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, wants nothing to do with this race.
The Hill reports:
Mills declines to endorse Jackson in Maine Senate race
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) on Tuesday declined to endorse Troy Jackson, the state’s Democratic nominee for Senate, months out from the general election.
“We haven’t spoken, but clearly Susan Collins is vulnerable, and she should be — she should be defeated,” Mills said in an interview with WMTW News 8.
Jackson earned the party nomination last week after embattled candidate Graham Platner stepped aside in response to allegations of sexual assault.
Several candidates recently dropped out of the race to woo 601 Democratic delegates to clinch the party nomination.
All Maine Democrats had to do after Platner dropped out was find a normal person to take his place.
It’s amazing that such a simple task was a challenge.
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Comments
Tight family? Muslim?
Inbred candidates for inbred voters. Satan (Allah) is pleased.
Well, it is legal
Right?
Yes. Second cousins are legal as far as I know.
Mostly yes. Only KY and NV bar 2nd cousin marriage. Six States bar marriage between 1st cousins once removed (up/down a generation) while only 8 States make 1st.cousin marriage a crime. Interestingly NY allows marriage to nieces/nephews by their uncle or aunt.
“Interestingly NY allows marriage to nieces/nephews by their uncle or aunt.”
The longer I learn, the clearer things get.
Colonial Rhode Island banned uncle-niece marriages, but the statute made a specific exception for Jews, since such marriages were (and still are) considered acceptable within that society.
Of course nowadays the 1st amendment wouldn’t allow such an exception in the laws.
“notes that such relationships are both legal under state law and not uncommon in the rural North Maine Woods region, near the Canadian border.”
To the outsider, it’s Maine — to those of us in the know, it’s Yankee Alabama.
“notes that such relationships are both legal under state law and not uncommon in the rural North Maine Woods region, near the Canadian border.”
In an area that has a recurring history of marriages between extended family members, the genetic risk to offspring rises above the standard 3.5% baseline.
The primary danger of cousin marriage is the lack of “new” DNA entering the gene pool.
Plus, IIRC, the possibility of reinforcement of negative genetic traits.
Speaking as a native Alabamian, I think it’s funny. I wonder if the kids’ eyes align properly.
.
I saw two individuals from Arkansas, a man and a woman at a truck stop
They clearly were incest victims, eyes on the side of their faces literally, and in parts of Arkansas, it is not uncommon
I was told by another nurse from the area that the freaky looking family members would come and hide in the corners of the rooms, in the dark, in The hospitals. When visiting family
Ba-da-da-DUMP (snap! snap!)
It’s Yankee Alabama with a French accent. At least up north.
I knew a couple from Maine. It was not either one’s first marriage. It turned out that all of either one’s exes were related. They explained that their town only had two families, so if you remarried in that town, you married a blood relative of your ex.
This is what passes for “normal,” in the vile, stupid and evil Dhimmi-crats’ universe.
Nauseating.
What’s a hoot is that when it comes to picking candidates, Democratic voters are cosmically awful… but their “pros from
DoverWashington” whooverrideimprove their choices from their smoke-filled rooms are apparently no better.Babylon Bee has a humorous article: “The Democratic Party of Maine explained to voters that they can do “no rape” or “no incest”, but not both.
After carefully reviewing the slate of possible Democratic Senate candidates in Maine, party leaders informed voters that they’ll simply have to settle for one or the other.
I married my second cousin because the first one was so much fun.
The main problem or Maine problem is his politics. They suck.
If he wins, the Maine problem is the voters.
“How’s that a problem?”
– single women college grads ages 21 to 40
Well, for one thing, how did they figure out which one was the woman?
As I understand it, second cousins are actually pretty far removed from each other. Related through great great grandparents? That’s a lot of genetics that would not be related.
Just great grandparents.
First cousins are related through grandparents.
You share great grandparents with your 2nd cousin. You share about 3% of your DNA.
That 3% doesn’t seem like a big deal. On the other hand humans share 98.5% of DNA with chimpanzees so the 1.5% difference begins to seem more decisive. Even using a more conservative matching methodology the difference only widens to 4% difference.
Google sez that it’s not really the amount of shared DNA. Research has shown the risk of birth defects for second cousin parents is no greater than in births to two people considered unrelated. That said, despite the prevalence of joking about family trees that are sticks, cousin marriage in the US is quite rare. Only about one quarter of one percent of all marriages in the US involve first (where legal) or second cousins. Even worldwide it’s only about 10 percent of all marriages despite regions where up to a half of marriages are between cousins.
Ok then, What % of shared DNA between humans and chimps does ‘Google say’ exists?
Those would be Muslim marriages and I think it’s actually higher
A study showing correlation between IQ and populations who inbreed would be interesting
Dog breeders would go for it. Often, on purpose.
I don’t know a single second cousin. I don’t know how many I have, or where they live. The risk of genetic issues with 2nd cousin marriage is lower than the risk for women over 35 in unrelated marriages. Unless your family has been intermarrying for generations, there really are no genetic repercussions. For me, there isn’t even an “ick” factor since I wouldn’t even know we’re related unless we sat down and mapped out our family trees.
I do some genetic testing and analysis and through the sites I use I can see some relatives that I;m related to. It’s not complete though but it is kind of amazing to see forth and five cousins and where they live.
“notes that such relationships are both legal under state law and not uncommon in the rural North Maine Woods region”
I posted my observation here before (didn’t I?) about Massachusetts’ odd prohibition on marrying your mother-in-law — an activity that (short of outright bigamy) is semantically impossible?.
Not impossible at all. Note section 3.
Section 1. No man shall marry his mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, stepmother, grandfather’s wife, grandson’s wife, wife’s mother, wife’s grandmother, wife’s daughter, wife’s granddaughter, brother’s daughter, sister’s daughter, father’s sister or mother’s sister.
Section 2. No woman shall marry her father, grandfather, son, grandson, brother, stepfather, grandmother’s husband, daughter’s husband, granddaughter’s husband, husband’s grandfather, husband’s son, husband’s grandson, brother’s son, sister’s son, father’s brother or mother’s brother.
Section 3. The prohibition of the two preceding sections shall continue notwithstanding the dissolution, by death or divorce, of the marriage by which the affinity was created, unless the divorce was granted because such marriage was originally unlawful or void.
Yeah, pretty sure section 3 wouldn’t survive a serious challenge as to rational basis. I doubt an AG would be able to describe convincingly any legitimate government interest it serves, beyond some legislator’s personal moral preferences.
You definitely have a point.
Why is this even a story? This whole kerfuffle seems completely bizarre to me. As noted in the article this is completely legal, and completely normal. What’s the issue?
Second cousins is nothing. Even first cousin marriage, though uncommon nowadays, is legal in the vast majority of states, not to mention countries, and I think in most cultures it’s considered normal. Certainly it is among Jews.
It also used to be very common; it’s only become uncommon in the last century or so, as people’s communities have grown, and thus the pool of available spouses, so that cousins are now a much smaller percentage. But even now, I personally know of at least at least half a dozen couples who are first cousins, and none of them have had any problems with it.
PS: Rudy Giuliani’s first wife was his second cousin.
I think in most cultures it’s considered normal
The only real problem is in those cultures where it’s almost mandatory. Certain Islamic* cultures probably do run risks with constant reinforcement of cousins marrying cousins marrying cousins marrying….
(* And those cultures are now Islamic. But I think the marrying-inside-the-clan thing is not directly related to their religion, but existed prior.)
It’s down right creepy
That’s why
And if a chimp is only 1.5 % genetically unrelated to us, what’s the chances 3.5% can do some autoimmune damage, real damage
The math doesn’t work that way. The figures quoted aren’t comparable.
The “DNA related” figure for man and chimps (or any other species) includes vast swaths of “dead DNA” which has no known significance other than being an evolutionary record. When you measure “all DNA” like that, the relationship quotient between nearly any two species is surprisingly high — and also reproductively meaningless. (Humans and blue whales? Nearly 90% match!)
The “DNA related” figure for two human beings counts only the DNA that has reproductive significance, not all the garbage code left over from before the dinosaur age.
And the interesting figure isn’t “related” DNA anyway. It’s the increased possibility of matching dangerous recessives, resulting in problems like hemophilia, Tay Sachs, cystic fibrosis, and sickle-cell.
Now, you also have an increased possibility of matching beneficial recessives, which could result in increased resistance to plasmodium vivax malaria, noroviruses, and near-immunity to HIV-1 — but nobody ever considers those.
You’re creepy.
Why is it creepy? My G-Grandparents were all born in the 1800s and were dead by the time I was even born in the 60’s. I’ve done my genealogy and I never tracked 2nd cousins because they are insignificant to my history. They’re complete strangers with whom I have nothing in common. My husband, it turns out, is my 8th cousin which isn’t even remotely surprising since both of our families have been here for over 400 years from both the Mayflower and from the New Amsterdam settlement. It would have been stranger if we weren’t somehow related.
There is a certain “ick” factor that goes with this, but really don’t see this as a big issue. Sure, willing to use it in a campaign, but there are lot better reasons to oppose this candidate, like the positions he advocates.
“Why is this even a story? This whole kerfuffle seems completely bizarre to me.”
Democrat rules!
As in the famous speech by Democrat George Smathers against his opponent, as reported in Time Magazine in 1950:
Now, it’s interesting to note that Smathers consistently denied ever having given this speech… but what else would you expect from a man who habitually vacillated on the Senate Floor, and once was actually observed matriculating in public right in front of his parents?
I find it amazing that people are still so “Eeewwww! Ick!” about second cousins marrying. (Several others have made the salient points, so I won’t repeat.) And people are actually making his candidacy about that. Why not just fight him on the issues?
Now, if he had cheated on his wife with said second cousin, I might point to his lousy character. Or if the second cousin was also a guy, maybe. But making babies with his second cousin? Give it a rest.
If you are going to go after someone at least pick a real issue not one like this. I mean he could have been a Somali and married his mother!
Or his sister. Then again this is Maine and not Minnesota,
Isn’t this the sort of thing Democrats disparage rednecks about?
And yes I get Democrats use that term as an offensive slur, but if they’re doing the same thing they condemn in others …
Hypocrisy is required and revered if you call yourself a demonrat.
Charles II of Spain part of the
House of Habsburg
with the Habsburg jaw
sees nothing wrong with marriage
with family members.
/sarc
That registers a zero on the Dems’ give-a-fuvkometer.
The only place where wasn’t considered creepy is in Appalachia, but perhaps times have changed. Democrats certainly have not, though.
That is just not true. It’s not considered creepy anywhere, except by creepy people like you and gonzo.
I would like to appologize to the people of the State of Alabama for all those inbreeding jokes… Clearly I had it wrong…
“HE MARRIED HIS 2ND COUSIN!”
Ilhan Omar : “Yes. And your point is?”
Maine, land of the squint eyed banjo players.
Marrying a second cousin is only illegal in Nevada and Kentucky.
Has he married his sister yet?
Gives new meaning to “kissing cousins”.
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