Susan Collins walked onto a must-win debate stage Tuesday night with a familiar pitch: she is a Republican, but voters should not confuse her with President Trump. This time, the routine came with control of the United States Senate hanging in the balance. That is a rather important detail to leave sitting in the corner while a candidate explains how independent she is.
Asked whether she would welcome President Trump to campaign with her in Maine, Collins would not provide a direct yes-or-no answer. Instead, she said she was “not exactly his favorite senator” and emphasized moments when she opposed his agenda. For Republican voters, that answer was hardly a mystery. Collins was advertising distance from the leader of her party while still asking his supporters to keep her in the Senate.
CBS13 and FOX23 broadcast the full debate, where Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson battled over tariffs, healthcare, abortion, the Iran war and their records. It was the first of four scheduled debates in one of the country’s most consequential Senate races.
Collins’s political problem is obvious. Maine rejected President Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns, but Collins cannot win a general election without a huge share of Republican voters who support him. So she is trying to run two campaigns at once. To moderates, she presents herself as the independent senator who restrains President Trump. To Republicans, she points to moments when she helped move his agenda, confirmed his nominees and used her seniority to deliver federal money to Maine.
Jackson’s strategy is to make that balancing act impossible. He repeatedly tied Collins to President Trump when it suited him, then accused her of hiding behind letters and carefully timed objections when President Trump became unpopular with Maine voters. That forces Collins to defend both her record and her distance from the party leader, which is quite a balancing act for one debate stage.
The sharpest exchange involved Collins’s defense of her work to secure tariff exemptions for concrete, pulp and Canadian road salt. She said, “I was successful in getting road salt removed from the Canada tariff list.” Jackson fired back, “What about everything else? We can’t eat road salt.”
Collins: I was successful at getting road salt removed from the tariff list.
Jackson: What about everything else? We can’t eat road salt. With everything she’s doing with the Iran war, there will be so many less people that can afford to drive that I’m not even sure the road… pic.twitter.com/67ZBrn0CV3
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 7, 2026
Jackson’s line was built for a viral clip, and it worked. Road salt clearly matters to Maine towns, but the broader point was Collins spending the night defining herself by the distance she could place between her own brand and President Trump. That may be a difficult message with which to inspire Republican voters.
The Associated Press reported that Collins cited her votes against parts of President Trump’s agenda and called herself the most independent member of the Senate. Jackson countered by emphasizing her pivotal vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh and her support for advancing President Trump’s legislative priorities. Collins defended that Kavanaugh vote even after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She said Kavanaugh had described the decision as settled law and maintained that she still does not regret supporting him.
That left Collins in a strange position, attacked by Democrats for helping President Trump while assuring Maine voters that President Trump does not particularly like her. It is hard to build much enthusiasm around a strategy that asks both sides to focus on what the candidate is not.
SUSAN COLLINS: I was successful in getting road salt removed from the Canada tariff list
TROY JACKSON: What about everything else? We can't eat road salt pic.twitter.com/luyWC1KnKj
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 7, 2026
The stakes are enormous because Democrats see Maine as one of their clearest paths to a Senate majority. Collins has survived wave elections before, but she now faces a consolidated Democratic opponent in a state where the Republican presidential brand remains difficult. Jackson is no moderate alternative. He has aligned himself with the left on healthcare, labor and federal immigration enforcement, and used the debate to blame President Trump for nearly every pressure facing Maine families.
Republicans should understand what a Collins loss would mean. Her replacement would not be a more loyal conservative. It would be a Democrat who wants to hand Senate control to Chuck Schumer’s party. The Portland Press Herald also noted clashes over high prices, rural healthcare and corruption allegations, giving voters plenty to weigh before this high-stakes race is decided.
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