Collins insists her socialist rival won't beat her in the Maine money machine: "You're going to waste a big opportunity"

Suffolk University Poll Shows Troy Jackson Edging Susan Collins 49% to 47% in Statistical Dead Heat Before Final Maine Senate Debate

Collins warned that Maine voters would "miss out big time" if the Democratic challenger wins the Senate race.

BANGER, Maine — Republican Sen. Susan Collins is warning that Maine could lose critical federal funding if voters replace her with Democrat Troy Jackson, as a new poll shows the candidates are statistically tied ahead of Thursday's final debate.

Jackson, a one-time lumberjack and former speaker of the Maine Senate, led Collins 49 percent to 47 percent in a Suffolk University poll conducted Oct. 8-11 and released ahead of the final debate. Jackson's two-point lead over Collins among likely voters was well within the poll's margin of error, and the poll was the latest to show a very close race.

A showdown between Collins and Jackson in the blue-leaning northern New England state is a big opportunity for Democrats as they try to wrest the Senate majority from Republicans in the midterm elections.

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Collins, who is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate, has touted his nearly three decades of Senate experience and his leadership role as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee as integral to his ability "to do a lot for the people of Maine." If Jackson replaces him, he warned, "he'll be 100 years old and all that much-needed federal funding earmarked for the state of Maine will pretty much disappear."

Jackson has argued that Stucklins has not used his Senate power to protect Maine families from rising energy, food and housing costs. "Sean Collins has told us how powerful he is," Jackson said in their first debate. But power means nothing if you don't use it when people need it.

Jackson and Democrats have also repeatedly tried to tie Collins to President Donald Trump, whose popularity in Maine and across the country is declining ahead of the midterm elections.

"It's a choice at this point — a senator who helps Donald Trump hurt Maine, then tells us how worried he is, or someone who stands up to him before another family in Maine has to pay the price," Jackson said in Tuesday's third debate.

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Collins is known as a moderate Republican who has voted against the president at times. But Jackson and Democrats are targeting the senator for comments that he did not regret his 2018 vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh, whose landmark vote four years later helped overturn the landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade.

And after a deadly shooting in Maine this summer involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Democrats have sharply criticized Collins for his support of ICE funding.

But Collins has repeatedly separated himself from Trump in recent months and criticized his tariff war with Canada's neighbor and voted against Attorney General Todd.

Collins noted, "I opposed the deal he made with Vladimir Putin to get a small amount of diesel in exchange for the sanctions we just passed, and the president is not following the law. I signed a bipartisan letter asking the president to reconsider. I opposed the president signing the legislative achievement because I knew there was a big cut in it. It would be bad for Maine."

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The senator was interviewed after the Department of Maine endorsed the Fraternal Order of Police in Bangor.

And he took aim at Jackson, who in late July won a special nominating convention to fill the party's Senate nomination, which was left vacant after primary winner Graham Plattner's campaign ended after an explosive report alleging he sexually assaulted a woman he had previously dated. Plattner denied the report but withdrew from further studies.

Jackson, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination earlier this year, ran alongside Plattner during the primary campaign.

"Troy was Graham Plattner's biggest supporter and stayed by Graham's campaign until the end, and Graham repeatedly disparaged law enforcement," Collins said. "I have never heard Troy publicly condemn those disrespectful and horrible comments."

"During his gubernatorial campaign, he became a Truitian and welcomed the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America," Collins added. A key part of the DSA platform is reducing the costs of policing."

Jackson's campaign, in response, pointed out that "Jackson is not a democratic socialist" and has repeatedly said he does not support police cuts. The campaign added that Jackson had asked Plattner to drop out and "it's clear he won't accept Plattner's endorsement."

But Collins disputed the 96 percent figure, saying it came from a study that covered only one-third of his Senate votes.

He added: "The research that examined 90% of the votes showed that I supported the president 72% of the time. The main thing is that I support him when I think he is right. When I think he's wrong, I don't know.

Collins, who is the only Republican senator seeking re-election in a state Trump lost in 2024, has a history of surviving Democratic attempts to unseat him.

Six years ago, he trailed Democratic challenger then-Maine Speaker Sarah Gideon, but the senator ended up winning re-election by nearly nine points, while former President Joe Biden carried the state by a similar margin.

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