Former diplomats, top foreign affairs experts back Jackson in Maine Senate race

More than 60 former diplomats and top foreign affairs experts are backing Democrat Troy Jackson as he vies for a Maine Senate seat next week against Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Sixty-two officials — including former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, former Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering and former Director General of Foreign Service W. Robert Pearson — signed a letter throwing their support behind the former Maine Senate president’s candidacy, which was released Monday and first shared with The Hill.

The letter, whose signatories span appointees from former President Carter to President Trump and many of whom Collins voted to confirm, rebuked the GOP senator over her voting record and laid blame with her for the war with Iran and the tariff war with Canada.

“Maine’s Senate election could determine whether Donald Trump’s party controls the Senate for the next two years. Our country needs a Senate willing to check presidential abuses, confront corruption, and challenge a reckless foreign policy that punishes our allies while emboldening our adversaries,” the letter said.

“The most consequential thing Susan Collins does in the U.S. Senate is enable Donald Trump. She paints herself as a moderate while voting with Trump 96% of the time,” the letter added. “Her occasional breaks mean little when Republicans already have the votes they need.”

A CQ Roll Call analysis shows the GOP senator has voted with the president 92 percent of the time during Trump’s second term and 90 percent of the time during Trump’s first term.

The letter criticized Collins for voting against multiple war powers resolutions aimed at reining in Trump’s ability to go to war with Iran and for voting “to confirm the officials charged with carrying out Trump’s tariff agenda despite their stated intentions.”

The letter, meanwhile, applauded Jackson for protecting abortion access — an area where his positions have evolved since he got his start in politics — and tackling healthcare costs.

“He brings the judgment of someone who knows what it means to work for a living, listens to his neighbors, and delivers for the people he represents,” the letter added.

Collins campaign spokesperson Blake Kernen responded to the letter, telling The Hill in a statement that he was “touting other people’s foreign policy credentials because he lacks experience and expertise of his own.”

“No endorsement letter can substitute for not knowing the basics of foreign policy. CNN’s Dana Bash had to correct Troy Jackson’s claim that Iran controlled the Strait of Hormuz before the war,” Kernen added, referring to an interview Jackson did with the network earlier this month . “He has accused the Israeli government of ‘genocide’ and pledged never to vote for U.S. military aid to our ally. Mainers deserve a senator who understands the stakes.”

Jackson and Collins are in a tight match for next week’s election, with a polling average of Maine Senate surveys compiled by Decision Desk HQ showing the Democrat barely ahead at 49 percent support to her 48 percent.

Collins has positioned herself as a moderate Republican who has rankled her party and Trump by breaking with them on certain issues. While Collins did vote against some war power resolutions regarding the Iran war, she joined one other GOP senator in April to vote in favor of a war powers resolution. In September, she and several other Senate Republicans broke ranks and voted in favor of a resolution pressing Trump to end the Iran war, though it failed in the upper chamber.

“As I have said since these hostilities began, the President’s authority as Commander-in-Chief is not without limits,” Collins said in a statement at the time. “The Constitution gives Congress an essential role in decisions of war and peace, and the War Powers Act establishes a clear 60-day deadline for Congress to either authorize or end U.S. involvement in foreign hostilities. That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement.”

Collins, who has voted to confirm officials like U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has also broken with the Trump administration on the tariff war with Canada, of which Maine borders and does trade with.

The GOP senator announced last week that she had secured trade exemptions for certain categories of products that are vital to Maine’s agricultural industry.