In an often-testy Tuesday night debate, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine touted her three-decade-long record in Congress and took aim at some Trump policies — while Democrat Troy Jackson argued Collins has failed to push back against the Trump administration.
The Maine Senate race is one of November’s most closely watched contests, and could prove crucial to determining which party controls the upper chamber next year. While the state leans left, and hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate statewide since the 1980s, Collins’ history of surviving tough reelection challenges has vexed Democrats for more than a decade. Most polls show a razor-thin race.
Collins highlighted her “knowledge, experience, seniority and relationships,” including her ability to score funding for projects in Maine as chair of the influential Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I’ve been able to bring home federal dollars to help ease the burden on our taxpayers,” said Collins, who is running for a sixth term in the Senate.
Collins also has a history of breaking with President Trump, criticizing his trade war with Canada and strategy in Iran, and voting against the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year — themes that frequently emerged in Tuesday’s debate.
Asked about Mr. Trump’s suggestion that he may travel to Maine as part of a pre-election campaign swing, Collins said she doesn’t expect the president to visit.
“I’ve heard nothing from his office, and I’m not exactly his favorite senator,” she said.
But Jackson — a former state Senate president who hails from the same largely rural northern Maine county as Collins — argued that Collins has not used her power effectively to push back against Trump administration policies, and accused her of siding with the president too often.
He criticized Collins for voting to confirm Trump-nominated Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, setting the stage for the high court to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to ban abortion for the first time in more than 50 years.
“Would you trust her to pick the next Supreme Court justice?” asked Jackson.
Collins responded that when evaluating nominees to the Supreme Court, she “always look[s] at their qualifications.” She said she disagreed with the decision to overturn Roe, but added that “there’s only one of us on this stage who has always been pro-choice” — a reference to Jackson’s previous opposition to abortion.
While Collins voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut Medicaid and food stamp spending and extended a set of tax cuts from the first Trump term, Jackson repeatedly criticized the senator for voting yes on an earlier procedural measure to advance the bill, arguing she should’ve tried to block the legislative package.
Collins said Jackson “misrepresent[ed] the facts.” She noted that she opposed the bill due to its Medicaid cuts, but argued that her decision to let the bill move forward on the Senate floor allowed her to secure a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals.
Jackson responded: “Senator Collins is like an arsonist who helped set the fire, and then she wants credit for bringing a cup of water to put it out.”
Collins also pointed to her votes to restrict Mr. Trump’s power to wage war against Iran, saying the war is “not well-thought out” and noting its impact on global energy markets. Jackson criticized Collins for voting against prior Iran measures.
Both candidates were critical of Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Canada, which have sparked a tit-for-tat trade war with Maine’s neighbor. Collins said she is opposed to the trade war but has been “working behind the scenes” to get exemptions for goods that are key to Maine’s economy or to the operations of municipal governments, like road salt.
“Canada is our friend. It should be treated as such,” she said.
Jackson mocked Collins’ approach as writing a “strongly worded letter.”
“What about everything else?” he asked. “I mean, we can’t eat road salt.”
The two candidates were also deeply critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s conduct, after a man in Maine was fatally shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop over the summer. Collins called it “horrific,” and Jackson said he was “murdered.” But they clashed over the policy response. Jackson said ICE should be “disbanded” and should not have received a surge of funding, while Collins said the agency needs “serious reforms” but needs to continue to exist.
“It needs reform, not to be abolished,” Collins said.
A longtime state lawmaker, Jackson initially ran for governor. But after losing in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Jackson was swapped in as the party’s Senate candidate at the last minute after the winner of the Democratic primary, Graham Platner, dropped out amid sexual misconduct allegations. Platner has denied the allegations.
Collins took aim at Jackson’s record in state politics. She argued many of the affordability challenges that have animated voters — including on energy prices and Medicaid reimbursement rates — are the result of failings by politicians in the state capital of Augusta.
She also questioned Jackson’s effectiveness as a legislator, pointing to bills he introduced that were rejected in committee without Democratic support.
“If you can’t find one person in your own party to vote for your bills when you were the Senate president in Maine … how do you think you’re going to get things done in a closely divided Senate as the most junior senator?” Collins asked her opponent.
Jackson said Collins “doesn’t understand the legislative process,” saying it “gums the system up” to have “one or two people vote for a bill that’s not going to make it.”
