Virtual tie and major spending marked Jackson’s late Senate campaign
National polls showed Troy Jackson and Susan Collins in a virtual tie leading up to the end of voting, even though Jackson replaced Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee in August. The contest was one of the most expensive of the year’s midterms: according to AdImpact data, Democratic- and Republican-aligned groups spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars on ads. An Associated Press race call reported by NPR said Jackson’s victory made him the first Democrat to represent Maine in the Senate since 1995.
Platner had suspended his campaign following an allegation of rape that Platner denies. NPR reported that Jackson, a fifth-generation logger, quickly became a national figure after taking over the nomination. NPR described the Senate campaign as short.
Platner’s campaign carried an antiestablishment, change-focused message. Jackson ran on a progressive populist platform, emphasizing his working-class background and deep ties to the labor movement.
Jackson also focused on several Trump policies that had fueled economic concerns in Maine. He pointed particularly to the rise in oil and gas prices from the Iran war and to financial strain on Maine businesses caused by trade tensions with Canada, which borders the state.
The Democratic Party had long tried to unseat Collins. NPR said Democrats viewed Maine as one of their best opportunities to flip a Republican seat when President Trump’s approval ratings were at historic lows. Jackson’s victory gave Democrats a seat in their push to win back the Senate majority.
Collins entered the race as the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate. NPR described her record of “defying national political headwinds” and reported that she had repeatedly won in Maine, a state that consistently voted for Democrats at the state level. Her streak ended Tuesday night, and the result brought Collins’s nearly 30-year tenure in Congress to a close.
NPR reported that Collins pitched herself as a needed independent voice in the Senate. Democratic ads repeatedly highlighted her 2018 vote, which was crucial in confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The ads said the vote expanded a conservative majority that would go on to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Collins has said she does not regret the vote and supports abortion protections.
On the campaign trail, Collins also touted her work as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, a key leadership position she argued had helped her bring more federal funds to Maine.
In an October interview with Maine Public Radio, Jackson pushed back on that framing. “She’s losing more money than she’s bringing in. You know I keep saying, it would be great if she just stopped doing anything. We’d be better off,” he said. “We’re losing a lot more; our healthcare, Iran war, tariffs. I mean, all these things are costing the state way more money than Susan Collins can ever bring in.”
NPR reported that Collins has a record of voting against Trump administration policies. Separately, NPR cited a New York Times analysis that found Collins breaks with her party on votes more than any other Republican in the Senate. The analysis found that the rate at which she does so had dropped considerably during Trump’s second term.
In the final Senate debate, held in October, Collins made a pitch for why having a more moderate representative was a strength for voters in Maine, rather than a liability. “[Jackson] is going to be an automatic vote for the Democratic position no matter what,” she said. “We have lost a lot of the centrists, and one of the reasons is we need people who will work across party lines.”