President Donald Trump wasn’t on the debate stage in Maine Tuesday night, but he was at the center of the fight. Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson faced off for the first time, with Jackson repeatedly going after Collins’ record with the president.
Jackson won the Democratic nomination in July after Graham Platner suspended his campaign amid sexual assault allegations.
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“She stood with Donald Trump whenever he wanted that 96% of the time, she votes with him,” Jackson said. “We’re in a Congress right now that’s totally given up their authority to President Trump. I mean, there’s all kinds of laws that he’s not following. And Senator Collins is not forcing him to follow those laws.”
Collins said he was misrepresenting her record.
“He has said that I vote with President Trump 95% of the time,” she said. “He is using a study that looked at only 30% of the votes. If you look at the study that looked at 90% of the vote, you will find that drops to 72%. When president Biden was in office, I voted with him 92% of the time. So this is greatly misleading.”
Collins also pointed to her breaks with Trump, including over the war with Iran and tariffs on Canada.with Iran and tariffs on Canada.
Abortion and ICE divide candidates
The two also clashed over abortion, with Jackson criticizing Collins for her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Collins defended that vote, saying she judges nominees on their qualifications, and pointed to her support for Democratic nominees to the court.
“In fact, I am the only Republican senator to have voted for Justice [Sonia] Sotomayor, [Elena] Kagan and [Ketanji Brown] Jackson, who were nominated by a Democratic [president],” Collins said.
The candidates also split sharply over immigration. Jackson wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while Collins says the agency needs to be reformed. Jackson criticized Collins over a bill that provided ICE with an estimated $35 billion in additional funding.
“You don’t put more money into an agency that is killing people across this country,” Jackson said.
Voting is already underway in Maine, with election day set for Nov. 3. The race remains close in recent polling, with control of the Senate potentially hanging in the balance.
Collins and Jackson will meet again Thursday for another debate.
Other key debates this week
Maine isn’t the only state with a closely watched debate this week.
In Iowa, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson and Democrat Josh Turek will meet in a Senate debate at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
In Arizona, former Democratic state Rep. Amish Shah will face Republican and former NFL player Jay Feely. That debate is also set for 8 p.m. ET Wednesday.
In Washington, Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez will debate Republican state Senate Minority Leader John Braun at 10 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Another closely watched debate comes Thursday in Michigan, where Republican Rep. Mike Rogers will take on Democrat Abdul El-Sayed at 7 p.m.
