Senate nominee Troy Jackson had two children and spent his life with Lana Pelletier, who is also his second cousin.
The couple shares the same great-grandparents, Thomas Pelletier and Edith Thibodeau, according to Steve Robinson’s genealogy trace of family records.
Their daughter, Albertine Pelletier O’Leary, was Jackson’s grandmother, while their son, Louis A. Pelletier Sr., was Pelletier’s grandfather—making the longtime couple second cousins.
Maine Democrat Jackson, 58, and Pelletier grew up together in the town of Allagash, with a population of 230.
The couple share two adult sons, Chace and Camden, and have long presented themselves as husband and wife. But Robinson reported that locals insist the pair has never actually tied the knot.
Relationships between second cousins are perfectly legal in Maine and, in the sparsely populated Northern Maine, are not considered unusual.
The revelation comes days after Maine Democrats selected Jackson to rescue a Senate campaign already engulfed in scandal. The party turned to the former Maine Senate president after its original nominee, oyster farmer and former Marine Graham Platner, left the race weeks after winning the Democratic primary.
Platner suspended his campaign when a woman with whom he had an on-and-off relationship accused him of sexually assaulting her during an alleged 2021 encounter in an op-ed. She claimed he showed up at her home uninvited, entered without permission, and ignored her repeated refusals before allegedly assaulting her in her bedroom. Platner denied the allegations in an 11-minute video in which he announced that he was stepping aside.
Jackson accepted the nomination last weekend, calling it “the absolute honor of my life.”
“If you’ve ever been ignored, underestimated, pushed around or told that you have to wait your turn while the rich cut the line, I’m asking you to stand with us in this campaign,” he told delegates.
While Maine once prohibited first-cousin marriages, lawmakers amended the law in 1987 to allow them under certain circumstances if couples undergo genetic counseling and obtain a physician’s certification. There is no prohibition on marriage between second cousins.
Jackson isn’t the first prominent figure whose relationship has raised eyebrows for its familial ties. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was married to his second cousin once removed, Regina Peruggi. Albert Einstein also married his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal, who was both his first cousin on his mother’s side and his second cousin on his father’s side.
Jackson will now face Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has held Maine’s Senate seat for nearly three decades, in November’s general election.
Troy Jackson did not immediately respond to comment.
