Overview
- Jackson built his advantage after Saturday's county caucuses when his allies won at least 290 of the 319 delegates awarded that day.
- The party is choosing roughly 500 county delegates this weekend to join about 101 state committee delegates and form a 601-member convention that will formally pick the nominee on July 25.
- Top rivals Nirav Shah, Shenna Bellows and Jordan Wood won only handfuls of delegates on Saturday and would need an improbable sweep of the eight remaining counties on Sunday to overcome Jackson's lead.
- Republican-aligned groups have already spent or reserved about $112.4 million versus roughly $56.7 million for Democratic groups, leaving the eventual nominee with a large early spending gap and little time to build a general-election operation.
- Platner withdrew earlier this month after reporting of a rape allegation he denies, a collapse that forced the Maine Democratic Party to design an expedited delegate process and has left Democrats racing to vet candidates and unite before filing deadlines.