Maine Senate candidate Jordan Wood wants to abolish ICE after deadly shooting — and reset Democrats

The collapse of Graham Platner’s Senate campaign has left Maine Democrats with barely any time to choose a new nominee. Jordan Wood is arguing that the party cannot move forward without first confronting what went wrong and that the fatal shooting of a Colombian man by an ICE officer this week has raised the stakes of the race even further.

In an interview with The Advocate, Wood called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be abolished and replaced, defended his early warnings about Platner, and argued that Democrats must nominate someone who can deny Republican Sen. Susan Collins one of her most enduring political advantages: her reputation as a moderate on LGBTQ+ rights.

Wood also took aim at one of his leading rivals, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, saying Jackson’s past vote against marriage equality could become a weapon for Collins in the general election.

The interview comes as Maine Democrats prepare for a July 25 convention to replace Platner, who withdrew after a former partner accused him of sexual assault. Platner has denied the allegation. Wood, who began the cycle as a Senate candidate before switching to the open 2nd Congressional District race, reentered the contest after Platner’s departure.

Related: Gay Mainer Jordan Wood announces bid to replace Graham Platner in Senate race

A fatal shooting changes the race

The campaign was jolted again on Monday when an ICE officer fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man, during an immigration operation in Biddeford.

Federal officials have acknowledged that Durán Guerrero was not the person agents were trying to arrest. The Department of Homeland Security said he attempted to flee in a vehicle and that an officer fired because of a perceived threat. Witnesses and immigrant advocates have challenged parts of the government’s account.

There is no body camera footage of the shooting because the agents involved were not wearing body cameras.

The killing triggered protests in southern Maine and briefly prompted ICE to suspend most immigration-related vehicle stops nationwide. The Trump administration reversed that decision Wednesday. Wood said the shooting was not an aberration but the consequence of an agency operating under a president who rewards force and discourages accountability.

“I had a lot of emotions yesterday when we got the news,” Wood told The Advocate on Tuesday. “One that I didn’t feel was shock because we have endured over a year of ICE terrorizing our streets.”

He pointed to President Donald Trump’s pardons of people convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, arguing that Trump had sent a broader message to federal officers. “He sent this message: If you do it for me, I’ll take care of you,” Wood said. “And that’s how you get situations like this, where an ICE officer shoots and pulls out of a car an innocent person, is that they don’t believe they’re going to be held accountable for it.”

Wood said reforming ICE would not be enough.

“I believe this agency, ICE, needs to be eliminated and replaced with a new law enforcement agency,” he said. “ICE has lost the trust of the people it allegedly is serving and protecting, which means there is a need to remake in a new way something new. And ICE must go.”

Related: A gay Maine man seeking Susan Collins’s senate seat says he isn’t buying Graham Platner’s redemption story

Wood returns to a warning he made months ago

The interview was also Wood’s most detailed public reflection on Platner since the former nominee’s campaign fell apart.

When The Advocate spoke with Wood last October, after this publication reported Platner’s history of homophobic Reddit posts, Wood questioned whether Platner had demonstrated genuine remorse.

This week, he returned to that argument. “I believe LGBTQ people have a special understanding of grace and forgiveness,” Wood said, describing a recent Pride Month sermon he delivered at his father’s church. “But we know what that change looks like.”

Wood said he wanted to believe Platner had changed but did not think Platner had fully reckoned with the harm caused by his repeated use of anti-LGBTQ+ slurs.

“I was made out to be the villain, that I didn’t believe in grace or forgiveness,” Wood said. “I absolutely believe that. I deeply believe that. But I can’t lie.”

Despite those concerns, Wood endorsed Platner after he became the Democratic nominee, saying the urgency of defeating Collins outweighed his reservations.

“I still said I would support Graham if he was the nominee because of what’s at stake,” he said.

Related: Who is Jonathan Ross? ICE agent who killed Renee Good once broke a suspect's car window

A party facing a crisis of trust

Wood said Platner’s downfall has created “a crisis of trust” for Maine Democrats.

“When someone lies to you, you don’t know what else they’re lying about,” Wood said. “There needs to be closure in a way that primary voters feel like they trust who’s coming out of this.”

He compared the moment to the Democratic panic that followed President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, arguing that parties cannot repair a breach of trust by simply declaring the subject closed.

Wood said he spent about $30,000 on an independent examination of his own background before launching his campaign. He argued that consultants who recruited Platner failed to prepare him for the scrutiny that comes with a nationally important Senate race.

“This is one of the most important national races in the country,” Wood said. “Your deepest, darkest secret, the worst thing you ever said online — they will go find that.”

He said those consultants “owe us all an apology,” and also owe Platner and his family an apology for not being candid about what the race would demand.

Related: Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner admits using ‘indefensible’ antigay slurs in unearthed Reddit posts

Preserving the movement while rejecting the candidate

Wood’s criticism of Platner does not extend to much of the agenda that fueled his rise. “I separate Graham, the movement, from the person,” Wood said.

He cited Medicare for All, universal child care, opposition to corporate political influence and conditions on U.S. aid to Israel as priorities the two had shared before Platner entered the race. He also said he rejects “money from corporate PACs or lobbyists or AIPAC.”

He added, “I feel voters can trust me when I say I’m carrying on that platform.”

He also rejected the notion that Platner’s appeal rested primarily on his biography or style.

What animated voters, Wood argued, was a belief that defeating Collins required a candidate willing to speak directly about a health care system, the economy, and the political establishment they no longer trusted.

Related: Graham Platner welcomes attacks from 'fascists and bigots' over his support for trans rights

Collins’ moderation — and the limits of it

Wood said LGBTQ+ rights could become a decisive test in the general election because Collins has spent years cultivating a record that separates her from much of the Republican Party.

Collins supported repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and later backed federal marriage equality legislation. Wood said he does not consider her personally antigay.

“I don’t believe that she is homophobic,” he said. “She has a track record that she can stand by.”

But he argued that Democrats cannot allow Collins to use those votes as proof that she remains a meaningful check on her party. That is where he turned to Jackson. Wood noted that Jackson voted against marriage equality in the Maine Legislature before later becoming a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights.

“I know Troy is better than Susan on this issue,” Wood said. “I know Troy would be a better champion than Susan. But she will weaponize it against him.”

Jackson’s campaign rejected that argument, noting the marriage equality vote occurred 17 years ago and pointing to his subsequent legislative record.

“Troy has been clear that he got that vote wrong 17 years ago,” the campaign said in a statement to The Advocate. “He listened, he learned, and he's built a record over the nearly two decades since that reflects that growth. As Senate President, he earned a 100% EqualityMaine rating and fought to strengthen protections for LGBTQ+ Mainers. Susan Collins has spent years enabling a Republican Party that is attacking LGBTQ+ Americans nationwide. Troy will always fight to protect every Mainer's freedom, dignity, and equal rights.”

The campaign also pointed to Jackson's leadership in passing Maine's 2019 ban on conversion therapy for minors, arguing voters should judge him on nearly two decades of advocacy rather than a single vote cast before public opinion on marriage equality had shifted substantially.