In Maine’s Final Senate Debate, Jackson Tells Collins: “Shut Up. I Don’t Even Know That Kid”

The fourth and final debate between Republican Sen. Susan Collins and her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson, was held in Bangor on Thursday, October 15, and it turned on a protester neither campaign had planned for. As Collins answered a question, 19-year-old Henry Elgie began yelling about data centers. Collins told the audience the demonstrator was “obviously one of Troy’s supporters.” Jackson answered from the other podium: “Oh, shut up. I don’t even know that kid.”

Elgie is a Bowdoin College student and a volunteer with the Sunrise Movement, the climate group. He told The New York Times there was “zero coordination” between him and the Jackson campaign and that he does not know Jackson. The Sunrise Movement, for its part, claimed him proudly: “We’re proud of this Sunrise volunteer.”

Jackson has not walked the line back. On CNN’s State of the Union the following Sunday, he said he does not regret it. “She said that it was a Troy supporter. I had no idea who it was,” he said, and he accused Collins of talking down to his roots as a logger from Allagash. The two candidates, he noted, shook hands after the debate, as they had after each of the four meetings.

Collins has made his refusal to retreat part of her closing argument. She called it “very telling” that Jackson would not walk the comment back, and said the Democrat should “take a hard look at whether he’s ready to come to the United States Senate,” questioning whether he has the temperament for the job.

The race itself is one of the most watched in the country. Collins, the longest-serving Republican woman in Senate history, is seeking a sixth term. Jackson is a former president of the Maine Senate and a former logger from Allagash, in the state’s far north. He became the Democratic nominee in July, after Graham Platner withdrew from the race.

Both national parties have sent help. Sen. Elizabeth Warren campaigned with Jackson in Portland and defended him afterward, saying he is “not a polished politician — he’s a logger from Allagash, and that’s why he’s going to win this race.” Former Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat-turned-independent who often worked with Collins, crossed party lines to endorse her and campaigned with her in Lewiston.

The public polling shows a race with no leader. A Fox News poll taken after the debate put the two candidates tied at 49 percent each, and found 62 percent of Maine voters disapprove of President Trump. An AARP poll found voters over 50 favoring Collins 53 to 44, while voters under 50 favored Jackson by 25 points. A Washington Post poll found 58 percent of voters saying Collins is too supportive of Trump.

A second fight has run alongside the debate story. The Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, aired a radio jingle attacking Jackson over his partner, Lana Pelletier — the mother of his two adult sons, and his second cousin. Collins disavowed the ad and said it should come down. Pelletier answered in an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday, October 21, writing that Collins had known her family’s story for years. Collins had addressed the relationship herself in a September interview with Politico.

Election Day is November 3.

Sources: The Associated Press; CNN; The New York Times; C-SPAN.