{"id":229307,"date":"2026-10-31T08:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/the-status-quo-sucks-affordability-and-trump-loom-over-final-stretch-of-maines-tight-senate-race-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T08:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:09:06","slug":"the-status-quo-sucks-affordability-and-trump-loom-over-final-stretch-of-maines-tight-senate-race-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/the-status-quo-sucks-affordability-and-trump-loom-over-final-stretch-of-maines-tight-senate-race-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The status quo sucks\u2019: affordability and Trump loom over final stretch of Maine\u2019s tight Senate race – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key contest between incumbent Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson will gauge how voters feel about Trump 2.0 and rising costs
Christian LaMontagne has started slowing his lobster boat down.
The 27-year-old fisher spends longer on the water when out hauling traps in Casco Bay, but the trade-off helps him save fuel at a time when costs have surged. Before the US war with Iran began in late February, filling his tank cost about $350 a week. Now it\u2019s doubled to nearly $700.
\u201cLast year at this time I had to go out and catch 40 lobsters to fill up my tank, this year it\u2019s over 104,\u201d LaMontagne said at Widgery Wharf in Portland, where his 34ft Wayne Beal boat is docked just steps away from the hum of tourists in the city\u2019s Old Port.
Practically every part of Maine\u2019s billion-dollar lobster industry has been squeezed by Trump administration<\/a> policies like the Iran war and sweeping tariffs. Despite the economic pressures shaping his vote, LaMontagne remains undecided in the state\u2019s tight Senate race.
One of the most closely watched contests of this midterm cycle pits Troy Jackson,<\/a> the progressive lumberjack who mounted a breakneck 101-day campaign<\/a>, against Susan Collins, the entrenched Republican incumbent seeking a sixth term<\/a>. Democrats see Maine as critical to their effort to retake the upper chamber, though recent polling shows the nominees neck and neck heading into 3 November.
The race was beset by turmoil early on after the former Democratic nominee, Graham Platner, withdrew<\/a> after a series of controversies<\/a>, culminating<\/a> in a sexual assault and rape allegation that he denied.
Now with less than a week to go, pocketbook concerns increasingly blend into a broader judgment of Donald Trump\u2019s second administration. And Maine\u2019s conflicted voters may decide the election.
I<\/span>n the final stretch of this often-acrimonious<\/a> Senate competition, Jackson has cast himself as the working-class alternative to Collins\u2019s three decades in Washington, arguing that her reputation for independence masks a voting record that ultimately benefits Trump.
The federal funding that she has brought in is \u201ca pittance compared to what we\u2019re losing\u201d, Jackson said at a recent campaign event for Maine<\/a> veterans in Brunswick, adding that Collins \u201ctakes credit for an awful lot\u201d but won\u2019t take credit for helping pass Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he said was \u201ccrushing\u201d the state.
Jackson has also worked to yoke Collins more closely to Trump after a ProPublica report <\/a>in September that revealed the FBI had investigated the senator over an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a campaign donor. The inquiry reportedly withered after Trump dismantled the justice department division handling the case.
He called<\/a> the episode \u201ccorruption of the highest order\u201d, while Collins\u2019s office dismissed the report as \u201ccategorically false\u201d and noted there were never any allegations of wrongdoing by the senator\u2019s campaign.
\u201cThe reality is that 100% of the time, when Donald Trump needs her, Susan Collins is going to be there,\u201d Jackson said during one of four televised debates this month, while also invoking the senator\u2019s vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court, which later helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
Collins, whom Trump once derided as \u201cabsolutely atrocious\u201d, argues that her willingness to break with the president and her party sets her apart from most Republicans. \u201cI decide my votes on what I believe is best for Maine and for America, not on whether or not any president, and I\u2019ve worked with five, is for it or against it,\u201d she said at a recent campaign stop.
On the trail, the senator points to her vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act, her vote to impeach Trump after the January 6 insurrection, her opposition to Pete Hegseth\u2019s nomination as defense secretary and her support for a war powers resolution limiting military action against Iran without congressional approval. (The Collins campaign did not respond to the Guardian\u2019s request for an interview.)
However, a New York Times analysis<\/a> found that while Collins has broken with her party 17% of the time during the current Congress, roughly in line with her rate of defections during Trump\u2019s first term, those breaks have rarely slowed the president\u2019s agenda since his return to the White House last year.
One example was Trump\u2019s signature domestic policy package that imposed steep Medicaid cuts, including billions affecting Maine. Although Collins opposed the bill\u2019s final passage, she supported a key procedural vote that allowed it to reach the Senate floor.
Collins is also the only Republican senator up for re-election in a state Trump lost in 2024, leaving her exposed to the broader backlash against the administration. A recent Marist poll<\/a> found that only 42% of likely Maine voters approved of Trump\u2019s job performance, while 41% say their congressional vote was primarily a vote against him.
\u201cJackson, in some ways, seems almost irrelevant,\u201d said Dan Shea, a professor of government at Colby College. \u201cI think it\u2019s about whether or not [voters] can tolerate giving Trump one more vote in the Senate.\u201d
Meanwhile, Collins\u2019s ability to secure concessions from the Trump administration may be her greatest boon on the campaign trail, and Jackson\u2019s biggest disadvantage.
In recent weeks, she has touted a major Pentagon contract <\/a>for the Bath Iron Works shipyard, the release of more than 300,000 barrels of heating oil<\/a> to ease costs across New England and Trump tariff exemptions<\/a> benefiting Maine industries caught in the US-Canada trade war.
As a freshman senator, Jackson would face a steeper climb in directing federal resources to the state, particularly if Democrats remain in the minority.
F<\/span>aced with the reality of rising costs and an unpopular president<\/a>, Collins\u2019s former supporters are weighing their options. Beyond gas, heating oil has emerged as another flashpoint in Maine, where nearly half of households rely on it to make it through the winter. The average price of a gallon now exceeds $6, a record high, according<\/a> to the state\u2019s department of energy resources.
\u201cI put in 131 gallons of oil. It wasn\u2019t even filling the tank, and it was $729,\u201d said Cheryl Clukey, 77, a retired school principal from Augusta. \u201cI\u2019ve never had that before, and I\u2019m scared.\u201d
Clukey, who has voted for Collins in the past and was raised Republican, said the senator\u2019s 30 years in Congress were \u201cenough\u201d.
At Jackson\u2019s campaign events in the final week before election day, enthusiasm is palpable. Yet many supporters appear motivated less by Jackson himself than by opposition to the president.
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\u201cI would have voted for anybody who could put brakes on Trump. If I\u2019m honest, Troy [Jackson] would not have been my first pick,\u201d said Susan Cellucci, 64, of Scarborough. \u201cBut I would\u2019ve voted for pretty much anybody who is a Democrat because I think that this guy in the White House and his administration needs to be brought back to earth.\u201d
In Biddeford that anger remains particularly acute, after a federal immigration agent shot and killed<\/a> 26-year-old Joan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero, a Colombian man and father, at a traffic stop in July.
\u201cThis is not something that happens here in a small seaside town,\u201d said David Kurtz, a Biddeford city councilor and local attorney backing Jackson. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing those chickens come home to roost for people \u2026 There are people who are never going to vote Republican again, no matter who that person is.\u201d
Still \u201cno result will surprise me,\u201d Kurtz added, noting that Collins had repeatedly outrun the political odds in the past, including her nine-point 2020 victory<\/a> over former Maine house speaker Sara Gideon, despite trailing in most polls.
In 2020, Collins won re-election with the help of ticket-splitters who backed her for Senate while sending Joe Biden to the White House. One of them was Rick Dolliver, a registered Democrat and seafood restaurant owner in Ogunquit, who plans to support her again this year.
\u201cShe\u2019s given Maine a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring more federal resources to our state,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s proved that she\u2019s the only member of the delegation who can effectively push back against [Trump\u2019s] bad policies.\u201d
Dolliver pointed to Collins\u2019s role<\/a> in creating the paycheck protection program during the Covid pandemic, which he says helped keep employees on payroll while his restaurant was shuttered. He described Jackson as a \u201crookie\u201d with \u201cno chance of getting anything done\u201d if elected.
For undecided voters like LaMontagne, the question is whether Jackson, a former state senate president, can match the influence that comes with Collins\u2019s seniority and longstanding relationships on Capitol Hill.
\u201cDo I agree with her on a lot of stuff? Probably not. Do I agree with her on some stuff? Yeah, maybe. Is she an ally of the lobster fishery right now? Absolutely,\u201d LaMontagne said, pointing to funding Collins has secured<\/a> and regulations she has helped ease for his industry as chair of the Senate appropriations committee.
Yet he is also hungry for change.
\u201cThe status quo sucks,\u201d he said. \u201cFrankly, it just kind of sucks when your business makes less money every year and there\u2019s no change in sight.\u201d
W<\/span>hile Collins benefited from the turmoil that engulfed Democrats after Platner\u2019s implosion, she may now be more vulnerable than at any point in the campaign, as some independent voters who have backed her in the past weigh Jackson <\/a>as their clearest option for checking Trump.
Democrats also appear more energized<\/a> this cycle. Many in the party will probably \u201ccrawl over broken glass to get to the polls\u201d, whereas Republicans are \u201csort of hanging their head as they drive by the gas station and turning off the news\u201d, Shea said. Jackson could also benefit from strength in the state\u2019s gubernatorial race. Hannah Pingree, a former state representative, is leading Republican Bobby Charles by double digits <\/a>in several polls.
That includes voters like LaMontagne, who said he was \u201cexcited\u201d to vote for Pingree.
As he considers his options ahead of Tuesday, however, LaMontagne said backing Jackson would still require something many Mainers are wrestling with: a leap of faith.
\u201cTaking some trust that he has pivoted the campaign enough to have a good vision for the country, and that the people around him will help lift him up to do a good job,\u201d LaMontagne said.
\u201cBut the question is, is it better than Collins?\u201d
For Jackson, the answer is straightforward.
\u201cI give a shit about people\u2019s families,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you think that you want to vote for somebody that backs the billionaires, well, God bless you. That isn\u2019t me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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