Election 2026
Visit the BDN election page for our latest coverage of local, state and national races.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins closed out her campaign Monday in the Aroostook towns that elected Troy Jackson to the Maine Senate, while Jackson was in the vote-rich Portland suburbs.
Those schedules traced the map of a divisive race between two natives of Maine’s northernmost county. While Aroostook is where both have staked their identities, southern Maine towns that have long been friendlier to Collins than other Republicans may decide things.
Cumberland and York counties cast nearly 324,000 votes in Collins’ 2020 election, about nine times Aroostook’s roughly 36,000. While former President Joe Biden carried the two counties by 86,000 votes on the same ballot, Collins limited the damage by losing them to Democrat Sara Gideon by 24,000.
Collins’ overperformance was even more impressive in Aroostook, where she doubled Trump’s margin, running 14 points ahead of him in her hometown of Caribou. But Jackson has a strong history there as well, winning his former legislative district by nearly 5 points in 2022 even as former Gov. Paul LePage carried the same towns by almost 11.
Both candidates have leaned hard on their Aroostook roots. Collins sat on a pile of potatoes in an ad released this fall, calling herself a “County girl.” Jackson, a former Senate president from Allagash, has carried the logging story into the suburbs.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins returned to her native roots on Monday as she wrapped up her All of Maine Bus Tour with several stops including Van Buren’s Northern Maine Kolache Co. Credit: Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli / The County“I think everyone probably now has heard that I’m a fifth generation logger,” Jackson said at a town hall in Gorham this September.
Jackson does not need to repeat that showing to win a statewide race. His path runs through slightly better margins in The County and winning back southern Maine Democrats and independents who split their tickets for Collins.
That will be harder in Aroostook, where the electorate has moved right since 2020. Republicans made up 37% of active voters in the towns of Jackson’s old Senate district this March, up from 29% when Collins last ran. Democrats fell from 36% to 30%.
Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson (right) speaks to reporters alongside Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly at Flight Deck Brewing in Brunswick on Thursday, Oct. 29. Credit: Benjamin Kail / BDNIn Cumberland and York counties, each party’s share has barely moved but is on a long-term Democratic trajectory that has made it harder for Republicans to win statewide elections as shown by LePage’s poor performance there in a 2022 race with Gov. Janet Mills.
Jackson’s Monday schedule pointed at suburban voters. He rallied canvassers in Yarmouth, where Biden won 75% in 2020 but Collins ran 11 points ahead of Trump. He also stopped in Scarborough, where Biden won by 4,300 votes and Collins lost by less than 800.
Meagan Cadorette, a 56-year-old retired teacher and unaffiliated voter from Pownal, backed Collins for several cycles but turned out to see Jackson at a packed rally in Freeport last week.
“It can’t be about one extreme or the other,” Cadorette said. “It has to be everyone together moving in the same direction to effect change.”
BDN writer Benjamin Kail contributed to this report.
English (US) ·