U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Troy Jackson spent the second Saturday before Election Day in very different settings.
Collins sipped hard seltzer while working the crowd at the University of Maine’s homecoming tailgate in Orono. Jackson started his day at a union canvass launch in Westbrook, then went on to events in Bridgton, Windham and Oxford County.
Here are four moments from the trail.
Collins: Selfies and seltzer
In Orono, Collins drew a crowd everywhere she went for more than two hours, from UMaine alumni who graduated decades ago to current students. She asked nearly all of them the same three questions: their name, what they studied at UMaine and where they’re from.
Hundreds took pictures with her. Almost none asked about her votes or the campaign. A spokesperson initially said Collins might be available for questions but returned later to say she would not have time to take them.
The question the senator heard most was whether she wanted a beer. At one point, a group of tailgaters handed her a Wild Maine blueberry hard seltzer, which she opened almost right away. After a picture with the group, she poured it into a red Solo cup and carried it with her through the crowd.
Former Gov. Paul LePage, who is running against Democrat Matt Dunlap in the 2nd Congressional District, joined Collins at one point. So did Republican Leo Kenney, who is in his second consecutive race with state Sen. Mike Tipping, D-Orono.
Jackson: ‘I’m starting to wonder if I should vote for myself’
Jackson, the former Maine Senate president from Allagash, held his Westbrook event with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades and its president, Jimmy Williams. Jackson was a member of that union, and it was one of two that paid him as a consultant as he ran for governor between this year and last.
Republican outside groups have booked about $104 million in ads backing Collins since Jackson replaced Graham Platner as the nominee in July to $81 million from Democrats, according to AdImpact data. Jackson made a joke out of the barrage.
“I had to quit watching TV, not because I don’t like the ads or anything like that, but I’m starting to wonder if I should vote for myself,” he said.
He said the coordinated Democratic campaign had knocked on 125,000 doors as of Friday night, and that door-knocking is how his side plans to make up the difference.
Joke photos
The students were harder to read than the older people around the Collins tailgate. Many who posed with the senator said afterward that they would not vote for her.
“I took a picture with her to send to my dad as a joke. I never plan on voting for Susan Collins,” one student said after a photo with the senator and his friends.
After Collins walked away, one group of three students mockingly repeated talking points from both campaigns’ ads. One was that she votes in a bipartisan way. The other was that she cast the vote that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Jackson calls Collins a ‘puppet’ on tariffs
Reporters’ questions to Jackson focused on Friday’s news. President Donald Trump’s administration is lifting tariffs on some Canadian imports, a change meant to help Maine’s blueberry, potato, apple and seaweed industries. The Wall Street Journal reported that the move was meant to help Collins’ reelection bid.
Collins has opposed Trump’s tariffs on Canada while also lobbying for item-by-item relief, including on road salt, pulp and concrete. In a Friday statement, she said she would “continue working directly with [federal] officials to seek additional relief from tariffs.”
In Westbrook, Jackson called the exemptions “so fake” and predicted Trump would reverse them after the election. He said Trump was granting the exemptions “just so he can keep his puppet Susan Collins in Congress.”
“I can’t believe that the most powerful US senator in the world would stand there and say, ‘Well, I got this and this and this off the list,’ instead of the fact that there shouldn’t have been a list,” he said.