Politics
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Republicans have shifted their deep-pocketed effort to defend Sen. Susan Collins’ U.S. Senate seat to attacking Democrat Troy Jackson, working to tie him to the collapse of his predecessor before he can introduce himself to voters on his terms.
Jackson formally replaced Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee this weekend after Platner dropped out. Collins’ allies are now casting Jackson as an insider and invoking Platner’s numerous scandals in the same breath, while Jackson and national Democrats work to link Collins to President Donald Trump’s agenda on health care, abortion and immigration.
“A volatile personality. Anger issues with women … It’s not Graham Platner. It’s Troy Jackson,” the leadership-connected Senate Leadership Fund said in an ad Saturday that invoked national media reports about the longtime lawmaker’s behind-the-scenes blowups but included a false claim that he struck a female colleague.
Tying the Democrat to the scandal-plagued Platner, who dropped out after being accused of rape, is just one line of attack Republicans are deploying to aid Collins’ bid for a sixth term. With less than 100 days before Election Day, Republicans have also unleashed ads and statements claiming Jackson’s nomination was illegitimate while also warning donors that he could win.
Meanwhile, Jackson and national allies are tying Collins to Trump and an agenda they say has undercut working families, jeopardized health care and abortion rights and empowered aggressive immigration enforcement that could have played a role in this month’s deadly shooting of a Colombian man in Biddeford.
The first few days of the general election already point to a bitter, costly battle over national policy and kitchen table issues with control of the Senate on the line.
“Summer politics in Maine is notoriously a dead zone,” Lance Dutson, a GOP consultant and former Collins campaign staffer, said. “But there’s a race to define who Troy Jackson is, and Republicans are spending massive amounts of money to introduce him before he’s had a chance to fundraise in earnest.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee on Saturday posted an AI-generated video of Platner morphing into Jackson, arguing the new nominee may not have a Nazi-linked tattoo, but he represents the “same crazy.” But the group believes “Jackson is fully capable of winning this seat if we become complacent,” according to a memo released Sunday.
Jackson’s team said Monday that it raised $2 million since he became the nominee, citing more than 30,000 new donors. But in a race projected by AdImpact to generate almost $400 million in ad spending, Republicans have already already reserved more than $115 million in ads compared to $57 million for Democrats.
Early polling shows a tight race with Collins facing a favorability deficit. Fifty-three percent of respondents, including more than half of independents, viewed Collins negatively in a University of New Hampshire poll released last week, compared with 35% who viewed her favorably. Jackson’s favorability was positive by 5 percentage points, 37% to 32%, though 15% still didn’t know enough about him to form an opinion.
The campaigns continued sniping at each other on Monday. Collins’ campaign called Jackson a “24-year Augusta insider” on Saturday, a label Jackson advisor BJ McCollister dismissed given Collins’ own three decades in Washington.
“Republicans are throwing spaghetti at the wall because they know that Mainers know and trust Troy Jackson,” McCollister said, adding that Collins votes “with Donald Trump 96% of the time.”
Collins’ allies are running a two-pronged ad strategy on her behalf. The group Pine Tree Results released an ad citing Jackson standing by Platner after news of his tattoo, offensive social media posts and allegations that the oyster farmer was toxic in past relationships. Boston was a top market for the ad buy, suggesting it was aimed at donors and regional reporters.
The Republican dark-money group One Nation has long been running positive ads on Collins and her legislative work on cancer, diabetes, fentanyl tracking, veterans support and China policy. In its own ads, Collins’ campaign is also driving an upbeat economic message.
Dutson said Republicans should stick to Collins’ record of bringing federal investment to Maine during tough times for the state while Jackson was in office. Jackson would be wise to assert control of his campaign after watching Platner’s bid collapse while largely being steered by out-of-state consultants, he argued.
Jackson drew the biggest cheers at the Democrats’ convention Saturday when arguing that Collins had enabled Trump policies hitting the economy, and after pledging he would fight to restore abortion rights nationwide. Democrats are eager to remind voters that Collins voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who cast a deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, which sparked abortion restrictions in almost two dozen states.
“Susan Collins broke her promise to protect Roe v. Wade,” according to a recent ad from the Democratic dark-money group Affordable Maine.
“Sen. Collins and her supporters are running ads talking about her ability to bring dollars and constituent service,” David Farmer, a Democratic consultant, said. “Democrats are talking about ICE, affordability, rural hospitals closing, abortion being outlawed. The mood of the country right now favors the issues Democrats are talking about.”