President Trump wasn’t at Tuesday’s Maine Senate debate, but he was a major presence as far-left Democrat Troy Jackson worked to frame veteran Sen. Susan Collins as a disciple of the increasingly unpopular Republican president.
The two also clashed on the debate stage in Portland over who is to blame for the high cost of living, the top issue with voters.
Ms. Collins said Mr. Jackson is at fault, after leading the Maine Senate for six years from 2018 to 2024 and not passing legislation that would reduce regulation and taxes or end fraud.
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Ms. Collins also touted significant funding she has brought to the state from her perch atop the Senate Appropriations Committee.
But Mr. Jackson said Ms. Collins is responsible for rising costs thanks to her alliance with Mr. Trump.
“She wouldn’t stop President Trump with the Iran war,” he said, nor did she block his tariffs or do enough to control costs.
“She stood with Donald Trump whenever he wanted; that’s 96% of the time, she votes with him,” he said.
Ms. Collins is serving her fifth term in the Senate and is hoping her history of overperforming polls, a long list of legislative accomplishments and her opposition to Mr. Trump will elect her to a sixth term.
She’s running neck-and-neck with Mr. Jackson, who backed socialist Bernard Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
The 58-year-old former state senator is running on a left-wing agenda: a billionaires tax, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, creating a universal healthcare system, a national right to abortion and an end to U.S. aid for Israel’s military.
Mr. Sanders, the de facto leader of the socialist movement, will hold several rallies with Mr. Jackson this weekend across the state. He would not answer the moderator’s question about whether he’s a member of the Democratic Socialists of America but said he opposes any requirement for voter ID and touted universal health care.
“It’s not big government. We’re watching it in Canada. We’re watching it all across the country. People are having universal healthcare, Medicare for all, and we can do that as soon as we quit wasting money on forever wars like Sen. Collins wants,” he said.
Ms. Collins, 73, has cast herself as a moderate Republican who is willing to stand up to Mr. Trump, who has a mixed approval rating in Maine.
She said she voted with Mr. Trump far less than the 96% calculated in one limited study, saying the number is closer to 70% and that she voted against her own party “more than any senator on either side of the aisle.”
Ms. Collins said the president will not campaign for her in Maine. “I’m not exactly his favorite senator,” she said.
She voted against such Trump Cabinet nominees as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Todd Blanche, and did not vote for the president’s signature tax cut law, the One Big Beautiful Bill.
“I voted against it because it did cut the Medicaid program,” she said. She defended the legislation’s tax cuts and provisions in the bill, written by her, that provide additional money for rural health.
Ms. Collins also backed a Senate resolution calling for an end to U.S. military attacks on Iran.
Since becoming Appropriations chair, she secured $1.5 billion for Maine roads, bridges and hundreds of other infrastructure projects.
“You work hard and I work hard every day for you,” Ms. Collins said, addressing voters from the debate stage.
But Mr. Jackson has blamed Ms. Collins for stripping away access to food stamps under eligibility reforms made in the One Big Beautiful Bill, which she voted to advance to the floor but voted against the final legislation.
“Her colleagues called her a team player. That bill right there cost $3 billion in the state of Maine,” Mr. Jackson said. “It’s cutting SNAP benefits. It’s cutting heating benefits. And why? So that she could give her billionaire funders another tax break; that’s why. That bill is crucifying Maine.”
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