Trump looms as tensions flare in final Maine Senate debate

BANGOR, Maine — The marathon of debates in the Maine Senate race has ended, but there is still one unanswered question: Just how large will President Donald Trump loom in November? That question was at the center of the clashes between Democrat Troy Jackson and longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins as they faced off in four debates over the last two weeks, including a finale Thursday hosted by Maine Public Broadcasting Network, the Portland Press Herald and NBC affiliate WCSH of Portland. Jackson is betting voters’ views of Trump, who has never won Maine, will dominate their views of this Senate race, which could determine which party controls the chamber next year. He repeatedly tied Collins to Trump throughout all four debates. Collins, meanwhile, tried to appeal to Mainers who want a senator willing to break with his or her party. “I voted against my own party more often than any other senator on either side of the aisle,” Collins said during the final debate. “That is not something that Troy could ever say. He’s going to be an automatic vote for the Democratic position, no matter what. We have lost a lot of the centrists, and one reason I’m running again is we need people who will work across party lines.” Jackson countered: “The reality is that 100% of the time, when Donald Trump needs her, Susan Collins is going to be there. That has happened time and time again.” Trump’s policies were intertwined with the major topics covered in all four debates, including high costs, the war in Iran, immigration enforcement and an ongoing trade war with Canada, which Maine borders. On Thursday, Collins was also pressed about her support for some Trump Cabinet officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She said she didn’t regret having voted to confirm him while noting that she disagrees with Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism. Collins said Kennedy has helped release more funds from a program to help low-income Mainers buy heating oil amid soaring prices. Jackson, meanwhile, said he would vote to convict Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on impeachment charges. “But that’s not my focus,” he quickly added. “My focus is delivering healthcare, prescription drugs, child care, the things that Mainers need right now more than ever, and getting out of the Iran war so we can stabilize prices.” Tensions were high after four debates in rapid succession. This one was the first in front of a live audience, with roughly 200 people gathered in a theater at Husson University. Around 20 minutes into the debate, a young man stood and shouted about his concerns about data centers, exclaiming that he was scared for the future. “Thirty years for what?” the protester shouted as he was escorted out of the theater, referring to Collins’ time in the Senate. Collins claimed the protester was a Jackson supporter, and Jackson remarked, “Oh, shut up. I don’t even know that kid.” While the protester questioned her decades in the Senate, Collins has argued that her seniority makes her an effective advocate for Maine. She often touts her role as chairwoman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, arguing she has helped bring home huge sums of federal money to fund projects in the state. Collins stressed that she has broken with Trump on some key issues, noting she voted against Trump’s sweeping “big, beautiful” tax and spending law last year, though she did vote to allow the measure to proceed on the floor. “I nevertheless voted against the bill, even though it was the president’s top legislative priority. I’ve also voted nine times against the president on the Iran war,” she said. Jackson has argued that Collins could have done more to oppose the military action. Asked where he would break with his own party, Jackson pointed to his pledge not to accept donations from corporate political action committees. “I think the Democrats are still too close to that,” Jackson said. “I don’t accept corporate PACs. I don’t accept corporate money. This is a campaign about fighting for everyday working-class people, and that’s one thing that I’ve been consistent on.” Collins tried to undermine that argument, using her one question to ask Jackson about ads run in coordination with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which does accept corporate PAC money. Jackson countered that he doesn’t approve those ads. While he acknowledged he has had some support from billionaires, he said his campaign is powered by small-dollar donors. Jackson raised more than $20 million from July through September, according to a fundraising report filed Thursday. That is nearly four times Collins’ $5.2 million haul over the same period. Jackson, a former state Senate president and logger, then pressed Collins about her claims that he couldn’t be effective in the Senate. “I have the experience fighting for working-class people, and they deserve a senator that respects them. Is it just me that you look down on, or is it working-class people overall?” he asked. “Troy, I do not look down on you or on anyone. I grew up in Caribou. My first job was picking potatoes,” Collins countered, saying she has “literally” worked since she was 10 years old. “I have supported all the social safety net programs,” she said later. Collins’ experience in the Senate is a major reason her supporters are backing her for a sixth term. “He is just not strong on the mechanics of government,” Collins supporter Mary Ann Lynch said of Jackson. Lynch is a lifelong Democrat but is backing Collins. And she said in a phone interview Wednesday that the debates hadn’t changed her mind. “Just watching the debates, it’s hard for me to say that if we sent Troy Jackson to Washington, he would ever be able to cut a path of leadership,” said Lynch, 71, a former member of the Cape Elizabeth Town Council. But Jackson’s push to tie Collins to Trump does resonate with voters leaning toward supporting him, like Dan Tremble. Tremble, a Penobscot County commissioner, said he was “pretty solid” in his decision to support Jackson as he entered the theater in Bangor on Thursday night. “Susan Collins has done a lot for the state of Maine,” Tremble, 61, a Democrat, said when he was asked why he wasn’t certain he’d support Jackson. “But I think having her in the Senate, I think, would still leave a majority for the president in the United States Senate, and that’s very worrisome with this president.” “He says, ‘Vote like I’m on the ballot,’” Tremble added, referring to Trump. “I will.” CORRECTION (Oct. 15, 2026, 10:17 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misidentified the Cabinet secretary Troy Jackson said he’d vote to convict on impeachment charges. It was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, not Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.