Democrat Troy Jackson has defeated longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, NBC News projects, padding the Senate majority his party won in the midterm elections.
Collins was a top target as the only Republican representing a state Donald Trump lost two years ago, even though she has won re-election in Democratic-leaning Maine for decades.
Jackson and his allies worked to tie Collins to Trump, who has never won Maine, amid his sinking approval ratings. And Jackson had only a few months to make his case, having become the Democratic nominee in late July after Graham Platner’s exit from the race amid a sexual assault allegation, which he denied.
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“Sen. Collins votes with Trump 96% of the time. The billionaire class is who she’s been fighting for,” Jackson said at one of their debates. Collins has challenged that percentage.
Collins, meanwhile, stressed that she was instrumental in bringing federal dollars to the state as chairwoman of the powerful Appropriations Committee.
“To be effective in the Senate, you need knowledge, experience, seniority and relationships,” Collins said in one of the debates, later adding, “I have secured $1.5 billion for 672 projects all over the state of Maine during the past five years.”
But Jackson argued that Collins’ power had not served Mainers, suggesting she could have used her sway to block some of Trump’s major policies, like tariffs and the war with Iran.
Jackson also slammed Collins for voting to advance Trump’s sweeping tax cut and spending package, known as the “big, beautiful bill,” although Collins ultimately voted against final passage because of the measure’s Medicaid cuts.
“Tonight, Sen. Collins has told us how powerful she is. But power means nothing if you won’t use it when the people in Maine need it,” Jackson said at a debate.
Jackson also sought to make a working-class pitch as a former logger from northern Maine, and he was the first challenger from Collins’ home county to take her on. Both Collins and Jackson hail from Aroostook County, a remote area of the state. Republicans tried to undermine Jackson’s pitch by casting him as a career politician who raised taxes.
Republicans also initially tried to tie Jackson to Platner, even though Jackson called on Platner to step aside as the nominee when the sexual assault allegation came to light.
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