Former Vice President Kamala Harris swooped into Maine's Senate race Monday, endorsing a Democrat who secured his nomination through a backroom convention — not a voter primary — in a move that underscores the party establishment's habit of cutting ordinary voters out of the process when it suits them.

Harris endorsed Troy Jackson just two days after Maine Democratic Party delegates held a special nominating convention to install him as their candidate against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. The rush job was necessary because the primary winner, Graham Platner, withdrew after sexual assault accusations he has denied. Rather than let voters pick a replacement, party bosses convened delegates to hand the slot to Jackson — a fifth-generation logger and former state Senate president who lost his own gubernatorial primary earlier this cycle.

In a fundraising email, Harris framed the parallel between their paths as a virtue. "I know what it is like to step up to the plate with a short runway to Election Day," she wrote. "Troy will have just 101 days between his nomination for Senate and when voters in Maine will cast their ballots."

What Harris didn't say: neither of them won a competitive primary to become their party's nominee. Harris ascended to the top of the 2024 Democratic ticket after Biden's campaign collapsed post-debate and party elders cleared the field behind closed doors. Jackson's path was similar — installed by party delegates in a Saturday convention rather than by the Maine voters who had already cast ballots in June.

Collins' camp didn't let the irony pass. "She knows exactly what he's going through," spokesperson Blake Kernen said dryly, noting that both candidates skipped the primary process on their way to nomination.

The endorsement also lands at a moment when the Democratic Party's institutional machinery is in visible disarray. The DNC is carrying $2 million in debt, and reporting from The New York Times detailed internal chaos — including chairman Ken Martin hurling his phone at a junior aide in frustration. Longtime strategist James Carville, asked about the dysfunction, halfheartedly suggested former vice chair David Hogg could take over, adding leaders need to "get themselves together" and figure out how to be "somewhat relevant."

Jackson's campaign says it has raised $2 million since securing the nomination — a fraction of Collins' $16 million war chest. The campaign claims Jackson "is harnessing historic energy across the state to deliver the change Mainers have been demanding over Collins' three-decade career in Washington." Whether that energy came from voters or party insiders remains the open question.

It was not clear whether Jackson sought Harris' endorsement or whether it was unsolicited. Neither his campaign nor the Maine Democratic Party responded to press inquiries.

Democrats need a win in Maine and three other Republican-held seats, plus all their own, to retake the Senate. Whether voters in Maine want a senator chosen for them by coastal party elites — or one who earned the nomination the old-fashioned way — is what the next 101 days will decide.