Politics
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Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic opponent Troy Jackson went toe-to-toe Tuesday in the first of four debates over 10 days in a race that may decide which party controls the Senate.
The pair challenged each other over their stances on abortion, ethics, President Donald Trump, housing, healthcare, taxes and more, with a few inaccuracies and misleading statements coming from both. The five-term incumbent talked up her experience and accused Jackson of repeating falsehoods, while the former Maine Senate president tried to hammer home the message that Collins hadn’t done enough to blunt Trump’s agenda.
Here are a handful of fact-checks of key moments as the candidates prepare for another debate Thursday on WMTW.
‘Votes with Trump 96% of the time’
Jackson repeated the figure at least four times, and it’s been a mantra throughout the campaign. He cited a Bangor Daily News story, but the claim is rooted in a CQ-Roll Call analysis from last year that looks at only a subset of bills that Trump has taken an explicit position on.
The report stands at 95% for the first seven months of 2025, and the outlet has noted the total was due in part to party leaders mostly bringing up measures the president agrees with in the first year of his second term. That makes it incomplete and out of date.
During the debate, Collins argued the 96% figure was misleading and pointed to another analysis from the same outlet that looks more broadly at party unity. That put her at just over 72% with fellow Republicans.
Iran war votes
Jackson, who blamed high fuel and energy prices largely on Trump’s unpopular war with Iran, said Collins had voted “five times” against ending the war. Collins said she has voted “nine times to end” it. In this case, both numbers are right.
Of the 14 times Democrats forced the Senate to vote on Iran war powers measures since the conflict began in February, Collins voted five times against failed resolutions. She said after the first vote on March 4 that the move “would send the wrong message to Iran and to our troops.”
But she also said she would not approve of the president exceeding a 60-day threshold for congressional approval under the War Powers Act. As the deadline hit on April 30, she voted with Democrats in support of ending the war. She has continued to back such resolutions through late September.
The distinction on Iran votes marks a key theme throughout the race: Just as Collins looks to distance herself from Trump on Iran, tariffs or his signature tax law, Jackson makes the case that her moves come too late, citing votes that either advanced or did not stop Trump’s overall plans.
$70 billion for ICE
Jackson suggested Collins did not regret approving $70 billion this summer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, despite the fatal shooting of Colombia native Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero by federal agents in Biddeford in July. Guerrero was not the target of an ICE warrant, and his death sparked protests and calls for greater oversight and reform.
While Jackson didn’t specifically say the entire $70 billion went only to ICE, he and his campaign have said so in the past in making the case that Collins and the Republican-controlled Congress failed to push back against the agency. Collins challenged Jackson over the figure going to ICE, saying it’s about half that amount over four years.
The law signed in June allocated about $38 billion to ICE, $26 billion to CBP and another $5 billion to the Department of Homeland Security through 2029. The amounts marked dramatic increases, especially when considering the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year injected $75 billion into ICE, nearly tripling its annual budget.
Collins was right about the figures, but Jackson argued that whatever amount went to ICE, it was too much. He wants the agency disbanded. She said reforms are needed but disbanding it would undercut federal agents deporting dangerous criminals or handling drug traffickers.
Jackson’s bill record
Collins argued Jackson would face an uphill battle getting things done as a freshman in Washington based on his Augusta track record. Along with citing 100 combined vetoes of his bills by Govs. Janet Mills and Paul LePage, she said more than a third of Jackson’s bills in 20 years in the Legislature died after being unanimously rejected in committee.
We replicated this number in a search of legislative records. During his career, nearly 36% of bills he led died this way, although the number relies mostly on his less-successful early days in the Legislature. He was at 19% during his final two years, well below the average.
But Jackson had a point in his retort, noting that lawmakers hold hearings on all bills and many that are killed see their parts rolled into other vehicles. For example, a 2019 bipartisan workers’ overhaul had pieces of two dead Jackson bills in it, according to a digest.
Energy costs
During an election year dominated by high costs, Collins looked to shift blame to the state level while Jackson pointed to Trump’s tariffs and healthcare overhauls. In this vein, the senator said Maine has the fourth-highest electricity rates “due to how Troy has voted in Augusta.”
She was keying in on Maine’s solar subsidies enacted under Mills and Jackson. An attention-grabbing estimate from a watchdog in 2023 said the program would balloon to a cost of $225 million per year if lawmakers didn’t act. Democrats shot down Republican attempts to end the program but made a notable reduction to it after Jackson left office in 2025.
So Jackson does own a piece of that. But it is only a sliver of electric bills. The market can’t be untangled from wider factors. Natural gas makes up more than 40% of generation here, according to state data. Heavy natural gas reliance, a lack of regional production and pipelines are often pointed to as reasons for New England’s high electricity prices.
Medicaid autism audit
Collins argued Jackson failed to police Maine’s Medicaid program, citing a federal audit under the Biden administration that found “$42 million in improper payments and fraud … and Troy did nothing about that.”
The comment overstated auditors’ findings. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general flagged about $45.6 million in Medicaid payments for autism services for Maine children, but it did not call those payments fraud. The report labeled them “improper” or “potentially improper,” citing missing documentation and oversight.
Additionally, Democratic-led Maine was not singled out, as Jackson noted. The same multiyear audit, also overstated by Vice President JD Vance, revealed at least $56 million in improper payments in Republican-led Indiana and $18.5 million in Wisconsin.