WESTBROOK, Maine —
Republican Sen. Susan Collins and her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson, clashed in a Maine Senate debate, repeating a series of familiar attacks in a contest that polls show is a close race.
During the hour-long debate hosted by PolitiFact partner WMTW-TV, Collins and Jackson argued over abortion, tariffs, the war in Iran and whether his vote fit with President Donald Trump’s agenda.
At times the debate became testy. Referring to a ProPublica article about his dealings with a defense contractor who later pleaded guilty to crimes related to political contributions, Collins called the investigative outlet’s allegations “absolutely false.”
At another point, Jackson accused Collins of profiting from the war in Iran, an allegation she called “outrageous” and for which she said he should apologize.
The candidates showed a moment of unity, however, when Collins agreed with Jackson that high earners should pay more taxes on Social Security — even though a pro-Collins political action committee ran ads claiming that that same position means Jackson supports “raising taxes on your Social Security.”
PolitiFact senior correspondent Amy Sherman joined Maine’s Total Coverage just hours after the debate to discuss the candidates’ claims. You can watch Sherman’s interview in the video player at the top of this page. The morning after the debate, PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson joined Maine’s Total Coverage to discuss various claims. You can watch Jacobson’s interview in the embedded video below.
Below is a fact check of several key claims during the debate.
Abortion
Jackson: Collins ‘put people like Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade. »
Collins voted for Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, but it is misleading to draw a direct line from Collins to the end of Roe v. Wade.
Collins also voted to confirm justices who ruled in the minority to defend Roe, including Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, both appointed by President Barack Obama.
When the Senate was deadlocked in 2018 over whether to confirm Kavanaugh, Collins gave a 43-minute speech about his decision to vote yes. Collins said she wanted to protect abortion rights, and Kavanaugh told her the precedent of Roe v. Wade was rooted in the Constitution. Courts have ruled in favor of abortion for decades.
Collins’ vote was a tiebreaker, but even though she had voted against Kavanaugh, then-Vice President Mike Pence was poised to break the tie in favor of Trump’s nominee.
In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4, with Kavanaugh agreeing with the majority to uphold a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, with the majority opinion stating, “the Constitution makes no express reference to the right to obtain an abortion.” The decision overturned Roe v. Wade, ending nearly 50 years of federally protected abortion access and returned the power to states to set their own laws.
Collins said she was disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion, but maintained her vote for Kavanaugh.
Collins: Jackson, “from 2000 until he ran for Parliament in 2013-2014, was very anti-choice” when it came to abortion policy.
That’s correct.
Jackson changed his views on abortion rights. In 2003 and 2010, he received perfect scores from the anti-abortion Maine Right to Life party, and in 2011 he voted for a bill to create criminal penalties for actions against an “unborn” child.
However, over the past decade, Jackson has aligned himself with the Democratic Party’s stance in favor of abortion rights. In recent years, he received a 100% rating on his legislative record from a group called Planned Parenthood, and in 2023 he voted to guarantee state access to abortion following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Jackson told The New York Times in July that, growing up Catholic, he had “a hard time getting to a place where he felt comfortable.”
Electric rates
Collins: “It was under Troy’s leadership that Maine’s electricity rates became the fourth highest in the nation. »
This is exaggerated.
Jackson served as president of the Maine Senate from 2018 to 2024. In 2018, Maine ranked eighth nationally in electricity rates, behind Hawaii, Alaska, Connecticut, New Hampshire, California, Vermont and New York.
In 2024, Maine was still eighth, tied with New York. The seven states with the highest electricity rates are Hawaii, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Alaska and New Hampshire.
That said, although Maine’s national ranking has remained stable, prices in the state have climbed during this period, from 13.44 cents per kilowatt hour to 19.66 cents per kilowatt hour. This represents an increase of 46% over a six-year period.
Jackson’s actions, however, do not explain most of this gain.
Collins’ campaign said Jackson voted in 2023 against a bill called LD 1347, which aimed to curb the rising cost of Maine’s Net Energy Billing renewable energy promotion program. Jackson’s campaign said he subsequently voted for a different bill, LD 1986, which revised the program; it was promulgated.
Regardless, the state’s public defender said in an October report that a Central Maine Power customer’s typical monthly bill increased from about $91 in October 2020 to about $157 in October 2026, a 72% increase.
The bureau said “no single cause explains it” and cited rising natural gas prices in New England as the main reason, followed by higher distribution costs that largely came from spending to repair storm-damaged infrastructure.
The renewable energy promotion program “added approximately $9” to customers’ bills, the state public defender wrote. “Focusing only on this issue misses about $57 of the $66 increase. »
Iranian War
Jackson: “Senator Collins and her husband are making money off this war. »
Collins’ husband, Thomas Daffron, owns stocks in the defense and energy industries, but that represents only a small fraction of the couple’s overall assets. Collins’ net worth is between $4 million and $10 million, the Maine Morning Star reported.
Daffron owns shares in two US military defense contractors, Boeing and RTX. According to the couple’s 2025 financial disclosures, filed in May 2026, Daffron owned between $15,001 and $50,000 in stock in each company.
The financial disclosure also shows he owns between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of ConocoPhillips stock.
A spokesperson for Collins told the Maine Independent that her husband’s investments are managed by a third-party advisor and that no individual stocks have been bought or sold from his account in more than three years.
Collins’ voting record
Jackson: “Senator Collins votes with Donald Trump 96% of the time. »
It’s close.
A CQ Roll Call analysis of his votes between the start of Trump’s second term and the start of October found that Collins voted with Trump’s position 92% of the time. During Trump’s first term, she sided with Trump with about 90% of the vote.
The votes analyzed represent only a fraction of all votes cast by Congress.
Only two Republican senators had lower percentages: Rand Paul of Kentucky at 85 percent and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska at 90 percent.
The 96% figure comes from a Bangor Daily News article that cited CQ Roll Call data, but which is now more than a year out of date.
Collins voted against Trump’s position 76 times during his two terms, ranking second to Paul with 103 times. Among these measures were high-profile measures. In 2026, Collins sided with Democrats to block a nearly $1.8 billion arms fund for Trump’s allies and voted in favor of a resolution ordering the withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from hostilities against Iran.
During Trump’s first term, Collins voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act, which Trump was trying to scuttle.
Collins responded to Jackson’s statement by saying, “If you look at all the votes cast, I voted with the administration about 72 percent of the time.” »
Senate vote data can be calculated in different ways and Collins’ campaign said it cited a different, broader calculation method than the QC roll call analysis.
Act on a big and beautiful bill
Collins, when asked why she voted for Trump’s domestic policy bill when she opposed his cuts to Medicaid and rural hospitals: “I created the $50 billion rural health fund. »
Health policy experts said those dollars won’t erase the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s cuts.
Collins introduced the Rural Health Transformation Agenda to provide $50 billion over five years for states to invest in rural health care. Maine announced in late July that it would release $30 million through the federal program for rural hospitals across the state.
KFF, a national health policy think tank, estimated that the $50 billion could mitigate, but will not fully offset, the $137 billion in Medicaid cuts that states, combined, will experience over 10 years.
Maine projected in July 2025 that 31,000 MaineCare expansion members are at risk of losing coverage due to new work requirements.
Nine Maine hospitals or maternity wards had announced closures in the past decade through 2025, the Maine Beacon reported, reflecting a national trend. Hospital administrators say the closures are due to recruiting difficulties, declining births and reimbursement rates that don’t cover the cost of services.
Jackson: Collins ‘advancing the Big, Beautiful Bill out of committee.’
This is false.
Collins chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, but the bill did not come up for a vote in that committee. It was part of the budget reconciliation process, which allows bills to pass with a simple majority in the Senate.
When the Senate considered the bill, Collins voted on a motion to move forward and said that if the legislation did not change to her liking, she would reject it. Jackson’s campaign later clarified that the motion to proceed was what he meant, not a committee vote. She voted against the bill when it finally passed, citing Medicaid cuts as the reason she opposed it.
PolitiFact editors Samantha Putterman and Cami Henry-Seymore, PolitiFact New York reporter Conor Amendola, and news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
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