Maine: Senator Collins and challenger Jackson face off in TV debate
Overnight, Senator Susan Collins and her Democratic challenger Troy Jackson met for a televised debate. Collins is seeking a sixth term in a race rated a toss-up.
Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · Maine Public · youtube.com
In the US state of Maine, the candidates in one of the most closely watched Senate races met for a televised debate on Thursday evening (local time; 1 a.m. Friday in Central Europe). Republican Senator Susan Collins, who first won election to the Senate in 1996, is seeking a sixth term. Her challenger is Democrat Troy Jackson, a former logger, state senator and former president of the state Senate. Maine Public broadcast the debate live; the Cook Political Report rates the race a Toss Up.
Jackson was not the Democrats' first choice: he was nominated at a party convention after Graham Platner, who won the June primary, ended his campaign following rape and sexual misconduct allegations from former romantic partners. In 2021 Collins voted to convict President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, but she also cast a key vote to confirm his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who later helped overturn Roe v. Wade. Democrats are also attacking her over a report of an alleged pay-to-play probe, which Collins calls "completely false". The election on 3 November will help decide control of the Senate.