A Bowdoin College student, later identified as Henry Elgie, 19, interrupts a live Senate debate Thursday evening in Bangor. (Reuben M. Schafir/editor)
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A Bowdoin College student was kicked out of the U.S. Senate debate Thursday after he stood up and started shouting that data centers are “poisoning our waters.”
The moment came about 15 minutes after the fourth and final televised debate between U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Democrat Troy Jackson. This led Collins to joke that it was “obviously one of Troy’s supporters”, to which Jackson responded, “Oh, shut up. I don’t even know that kid.” Thursday’s debate was the only one of the four to have a live audience.
Henry Elgie, 19, was the protester that security removed from the Gracie Theater at Husson University in Bangor, according to a press release from the Sunrise Movement, a national progressive group focused on young people who are “fighting to end the climate crisis and win a Green New Deal.”
“I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I’m a young person and I’m terrified. AI data centers are destroying our climate,” shouted Elgie, who appeared to be wearing a press badge, as security prepared to usher him out of the room. “They are poisoning our waters. You are using corporate PAC money to an absurd degree.”
Event organizers said the person was not on the pre-registered media list, but showed a Bowdoin Orient press badge and was allowed entry. In a statement released Thursday evening, Orient’s editor-in-chief said the student newspaper did not send anyone to the debate and that the credentials must have been fabricated.
A spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement said Friday that Elgie lives and is registered to vote in Brunswick, where Bowdoin is located.
The Sunrise Movement’s press release, issued Thursday evening, made it clear that Elgie was speaking to Collins. It included a statement from Elgie criticizing Collins and his campaign for receiving donations from billionaires and executives of artificial intelligence platforms.
“Instead of investing in real climate solutions, Susan Collins continues to prioritize endless war and tax cuts for billionaires. My generation deserves a livable future,” Elgie said in a statement.
Collins campaign spokesperson Blake Kernen responded Friday by sharing a photo taken by the campaign of pro-Jackson and pro-Collins supporters who were outside the Oct. 8 debate hosted by WMTW. One person in the photo was holding a fake check for $150,000 made out to 1820 PAC, a reference to ProPublica’s article on pay-to-play allegations regarding Collins.
The Collins campaign said the person holding the check last week was Elgie.
The Jackson campaign did not respond to a request for comment Friday morning.
Jackson supported the proposed moratorium on large data centers in Maine, which Gov. Janet Mills, an incumbent Democrat, vetoed earlier this year. Mills raised concerns that the proposed pause on new centers until November 2027 would have killed a project in the industrial city of Jay. (This project was suspended this summer, despite the veto.)
Collins aligned herself with Mills earlier this year, expressing support in August for projects on former factory sites and saying “there’s usually hydroelectricity there, so there’s an integrated energy source.” But Collins also called for federal safeguards on data center development, including regulations on the amount of water and energy they use.
President Donald Trump has called for more data center development, despite public polling in Maine and nationally showing a majority of Americans in both parties oppose building data centers in their communities.
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