AUGUSTA — A Democrat with Washington experience is running for the U.S. Senate in hopes of defeating Republican incumbent Susan Collins.

Jordan Wood, who grew up in Lewiston and Gardiner, posted a video to Instagram this week to say he’s running for Senate “to take our country back from the rich and well connected.”

The son of a pastor and a teacher, Wood is a graduate of Calvin College and worked in Washington as vice president of End Citizens United, a group working to get “big money out of politics,” according to his website.

He then went on to serve as chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, a California Democrat. 

He is also a co-founder of democracyFIRST, which works to protect free and fair elections.

In his announcement video, he described the current political climate as “a make-or-break moment.”

“We’ve got a wannabe dictator in the White House stomping on our rights, shredding alliances and handing Elon Musk a chainsaw,” he said.

Wood is pledging to never take money from corporate political action committees or lobbyists, plans to hold at least one public town hall each quarter and will not trade individual stocks while in office, according to his website. 

Since working in Washington, Wood has moved back to Maine and now lives in Bristol with his husband Jake and their daughter.

Wood is the first Democrat to announce a run against Collins, a Republican who will seek a sixth term in 2026. Others are expected to join the race, including potentially Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who said she has not ruled out a Senate run.

In February, independent Phillip Rench of Waterboro announced he too plans to challenge Collins.