Politics
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FREEPORT, Maine — U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona told supporters of Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson on Tuesday that next week’s election “is not going to be about Donald Trump,” then built most of his pitch around stopping the president.
Kelly, a retired Navy fighter pilot often named among Democratic contenders for president in 2028, spoke to a packed crowd at Maine Beer Co. a week before Jackson faces Republican Sen. Susan Collins. He argued Republicans in office had failed to check a “wannabe dictator” in Trump, though he never named the centrist Maine senator.
The two-day swing makes Kelly the latest national Democrat to campaign for Jackson, following Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Collins has gone the other way, campaigning last week with former independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia in a bid to keep a toss-up race that could decide Senate control focused on Maine and her independence.
Kelly hit on core themes of Jackson’s campaign. He said a Democratic majority would force the wealthy to pay higher taxes, repeal health care cuts, end corruption by Trump and his family, regulate artificial intelligence and stop stock trading by lawmakers.
“The election here in a week is not going to be about Donald Trump,” he said. “It’s about you. You know better than anybody what it’s like to worry about your kids, your future, your health care, your budget, your freedom.”
The health care pledge goes to the most disputed vote of the race. Last year, Collins voted to bring Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act to the Senate floor. She was then one of three Republicans who voted against its final passage, citing an estimated $5.9 billion hit to Maine’s Medicaid program over a decade.
Jackson and his allies have focused on the first vote in debates and a volley of ads. Collins said she let the bill advance so she could write a $50 billion rural health care fund into it. Maine is set to receive $190 million from that fund in its first year, including some used to bail out a struggling Bangor-area provider. Democrats say the fund doesn’t come close to covering the cuts.
The visiting Democrats have each pitched Jackson to a different audience. Sanders has called him a working-class voice “taking on the oligarchs” and fighting for Medicare for All. Ocasio-Cortez appealed to Maine women last week over health care cuts and Collins’ vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In Lewiston last week, Manchin called Collins “the soul of the Senate,” pointed to their bipartisan work on infrastructure and health care and said “she’s not a Trump senator.”
Kelly told the crowd that elections are “not rocket science” and urged supporters to knock on doors and make calls. He said that despite Jackson’s steep spending gap with Republicans in the Maine race, “the odds are on our side.”
Polls of the toss-up race have shown Jackson slightly ahead but Collins running well among older and swing-voting Mainers. Jackson needs some former Collins voters to cross over, and the crowd included at least one.
Vanessa Smith, a 56-year-old artist from Raymond, said she once voted for Collins but is now “completely appalled at the state of our country.” She cited what she called attacks under Trump on religious freedom and minorities.
“Mr. Trump is a bit of a bully and disgusting if things don’t go his way,” she said. “I’m just looking for a more happy, joyous, honest America.”
Jackson, addressing the crowd standing on a bar, said Americans know “the country is broken” under the second Trump administration, but turnout is crucial. Kelly and Jackson also urged votes for Hannah Pingree, the Democratic nominee for governor, and her mother, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of the 1st District.
The younger Pingree told the crowd many had already voted early but said Democrats still had to reach voters turned off by negative ads.
“Every single day matters,” she said.