LEWISTON, Maine—A sparsely-populated state looms large ahead of Election Day, as the balance of the U.S. Senate could rest on its shoulders. The candidates know it, and locals say they feel the pressure.
With early voting drawing to a close, politicians have been rocketing around Maine. The seat of five-term Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and an open Democratic district in pro-Republican territory are the biggest ticket items. Polls and analysts suggest both races are tight.
At a shipbuilding facility in Bath, Maine, on Oct. 28, Collins, 73, described a “nonstop” campaign schedule, including a dozen stops in one county, York, the previous day.
Also on Oct. 28, her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, 58, visited a brewery in Brunswick with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) as part of his own high-octane tour of the Pine Tree State.
“I’ve only been in this race for 94 days, which is crazy,” the former Maine Senate president told the crowd of several dozen people, which included military veterans.
Jackson replaced the former nominee, Graham Platner, at a summer party conference after Platner dropped out of the race amid allegations of sexual assault.
On Oct, 27, former governor Paul LePage, the GOP nominee for Maine’s 2nd District, competed from a press conference in Lewiston against his Democratic opponent, state auditor Matt Dunlap, in Bangor as both rallied for voter support.
The two are jockeying to represent the state’s interior and northern coast. That congressional district, though supportive of President Donald Trump in presidential elections, has repeatedly sent a Blue Dog Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, to Washington. Golden announced his retirement in November last year.
Well over $150 million dollars has been spent on winning votes from Mainers. The lion’s share has gone to the Senate race, crucial to both parties as models predict the Senate edges closer to flipping.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican who launched the pro-Collins Super PAC Lead Maine Committee, said.
She voiced support for Trump’s decision not to visit the state—a decision that may help the centrist lawmaker keep her distance from the president in a state where registered Democrats and independent voters outnumber registered Republicans.
Jackson, meanwhile, has campaigned on accusing the incumbent of having ties to the president, faulting her for voting to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during an Oct. 6 debate.
Decision Time
Attack ads and other outreach efforts in the small state have driven tension and election fatigue on the ground in the final stretches of the race.
The intense focus may not relent on Election Day, when the Justice Department will continue to send election monitors to Lewiston, Portland, and South Portland as part of its routine monitoring duties across the country in the interest of election security during the midterms.
Earlier in October, Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the decision to dispatch those observers nationwide, telling Fox News that the Trump administration’s move is consistent with those of previous administrations since the Voting Rights Act was created in the 1960s.
“We’re making sure that federal law is being enforced appropriately,” he said.
Asked about those election monitors at the Maine Democratic Party’s headquarters in Augusta on Oct. 25, Jackson urged his supporters to vote absentee if they fear interference at the polls.
“They can’t stop that,” he said.
Mainers Weigh In
If anyone embodies the election fatigue in Maine this midterm election, it might be Trina Metcalf.
Metcalf, who was offering homeless veterans free haircuts at an event near Jackson’s Oct. 28 Brunswick rally, described the intensity of the campaigning this year as “harassing and new.”
Her biggest issues include the Iran War, alleged insider trading, and affordability.
“I’m 50. My kids will probably never be able to afford a house in Maine because our wages don’t match what it costs to buy a house,” she told The Epoch Times, saying outsiders were increasingly the only ones able to purchase a house in the state.
David Cogley—also tired of the relentless ads—had a different top concern when he spoke with The Epoch Times outside a snowmobile and power sport showcase in Augusta on Oct. 24.
He said illegal immigrants access too many resources after crossing the border into the United States, while the system remains much more restrictive for immigrants who follow the rules.
“It’s a slap in the face of the people that do apply legally,” he said.
A few other Mainers who mentioned immigration as a top issue declined to share their names.
Conservatives’ aversion to sharing their views through official, or semi-official, channels could account in part for the polling in the 2026 Senate race. In 2020, despite lagging behind her Democratic opponent in surveys of voters, Collins ultimately won reelection by more than 8 points. The majority (50.98 percent) also enabled her to avoid ranked-choice runoffs.
“I think a lot of conservatives don’t like to take polls, and they may even be tricksters when it comes to answering the questions,” Libby said.
Bret Martel, a Lewiston city councilor running for the Maine House as a Republican, said prospective voters had voiced concerns to him about public safety.
“We’ve got a lot of drug issues here,” he told The Epoch Times outside an early voting location on Oct. 27. “You can walk right through here in Kennedy Park, and you’ll see people passed out on the ground.”
Another voter, Abdi Ibrahim, shared a different perspective while walking through Lewiston’s Simard-Payne Memorial Park on Oct. 25.
“I’m not going to vote for any Republican,” he told The Epoch Times, saying he was disappointed in Trump after voting for him in the past.
“Groceries, the gas, the rent is going up,” said Ibrahim, who said he has lived in Maine for two-and-a-half decades after moving from Atlanta, and prior to that, a historically contested portion of East Africa—the Somali region of eastern Ethiopia. “Everything is skyrocketing, and he doesn’t get it done,” Ibrahim said of Trump.
At the Pumpkin Harvest Festival in Saco, Maine, where Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles and Maine’s 1st District Republican candidate Ron Russell were campaigning, Ashley Hyder told The Epoch Times she is particularly concerned about women’s health and education.
She voiced concerns about both Collins and Jackson as candidates. And like other Mainers, she seemed overwhelmed by all the campaigning.
“It’s also difficult with all of the political mail that you get and everything that’s so in your face,” she said. “It’s hard to differentiate and find good information.”
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