Free Republic

Confidence is an important factor in any election – candidates need to project it, and supporters need to feel it for morale purposes to help them get across the finish line. Democrats had all the confidence in the world a month ago…but it’s not a month ago anymore. In the closing two weeks of the 2026 midterms, Democrats have begun to act like people concerned that they’re going to lose. In Alaska, Democrats were always worried about losing – it’s Alaska, after all. That’s why they cooked up this stupid “Find another Dan Sullivan” scam to confuse just enough voters...

*** “It’s just an environment of possible retribution,” Mr. Wood said. “It is that fear she instills.” Over nearly 30 years, Ms. Collins, a self-styled moderate in a familiar Maine mold, has cultivated a public persona as a workhorse and a fastidious maestro of constituent services and pork-barrel disbursements, using her Washington know-how to get her constituents what they need. But for just as long, her detractors say, she has managed to mostly mask another reality. “The gentlewoman from Maine,” as her colleagues say on the Senate floor, is a formidable power broker who can play a fierce brand of...

WATERVILLE, Maine — Graham Platner supporters are still pining for the disgraced pol just days before the US Senate election, concerned their backup choice lacks the pizzazz needed to mobilize the base. Almost four months after Platner was forced out of his Senate race due to a rape accusation, local Democrats at a rally for his replacement, Troy Jackson, admitted they wished Platner were still on the ticket and regretted how his political career was cut short. “The establishment did not want him to be out there mobilizing people who had never voted before, just for change,” former Waterville Mayor...

Other recent polling has supported “toss-up” ratings for the race from election handicappers, like the Cook Political Report. Another survey, released last week by Fox News, showed the two candidates tied in their support from likely voters in the state, while a Suffolk University poll conducted earlier this month similarly found the Democrat with a 2-point advantage. Collins is running for a sixth term in Congress. If she is successful in the general election, she will become the longest-serving senator in the state’s history. Despite Jackson’s lead in the Marist poll, 58 percent of respondents said they believe the Republican...

President Donald Trump has handed Republican Senator Susan Collins a timely economic boost in the competitive Maine Senate race, unveiling support for the state’s lobster industry and targeted tariff relief as new polling shows her drawing level with Democratic challenger Troy Jackson. A Fox News Poll found Collins and Jackson tied at 49 percent among likely voters, replacing the four-point Democratic advantage recorded by Marist Poll earlier in October. The surveys measured different electorates, meaning the results do not establish a direct four-point swing, but together they suggest a contest that has tightened during its closing weeks. Supporters of both...

Bangor, Maine – A protester interrupted the final debate between Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson in Maine, triggering a heated exchange after Collins suggested the demonstrator was a Jackson supporter. The interruption came amid a debate that saw the candidates trade fire over numerous issues. The race between Jackson and Collins, who is seeking a sixth term representing the blue-leaning Northern New England state, is a top flip opportunity for Democrats as they try to win back the Senate majority from Republicans in the midterm elections. The latest public opinion polls indicate a race within the...

Nearly $2 million dollars donated to the victims of Maine’s biggest mass shooting didn’t go to the victims and instead went into the hands of Muslim groups and left-wing migrant activist groups, according to a new report. After the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 18 innocent people in Lewiston, Maine, in October of 2023, the state’s Democrat Governor, Janet Mills, promoted an organization called the Maine Community Foundation that began taking donations from the public to benefit the survivors of the rampage. Mills endorsed the organization as the only trustworthy place to send donations to help the victims....

During a portion of an interview with CNN aired on Monday’s “Inside Politics,” Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson could not say what percentage he wanted to tax billionaires at and said that “I’m sure we’ll figure out what that percentage is going to be when I get there.” Host Dana Bash asked, “You mentioned taxing the wealthy, that’s another question I was going to ask, because you say you’re going to tax billionaires when I get to the U.S. Senate. Can you be specific, what kind of tax are you thinking about?” Jackson responded, “Well, the income tax.”...

As president of the Maine Senate, Democrat Troy Jackson, now running for U.S. Senate as an opponent of "greedy corporations," cosponsored a bill allowing online lenders to skirt Maine's interest rate caps when offering small-dollar loans to borrowers with poor credit. A lobbying firm that employed Jackson's son supported the 2022 bill on behalf of a "predatory" lending company that was sued months earlier for violating consumer protection laws, a Washington Free Beacon review found. The bill, which Jackson and five other Maine Democrats introduced in February 2022, was framed as a measure to "Establish Consumer Protections Regarding Small Dollar...

You might have recently seen a political advertisement about Maine’s Senate race. That’s because the advertisement mistakenly played in Portland, Oregon, instead of Portland, Maine. The advertisement, paid for by Republican PAC Defending Main Street, decries “Taxin’ Troy Jackson,” the Democratic candidate facing off against Susan Collins. Sarah Chamberlain, president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, said she was “very unhappy” about the mix-up. “I’m really upset,” she said. “I cannot believe that this happened.”

Former President Barack Obama came out in support of Troy Jackson’s Senate bid on Thursday after the candidate’s first debate with Susan Collins. “Troy Jackson is running to be your next Senator and I’m proud to be on board. In this economy, we need a fighter like Troy, a fifth-generation logger,” said Obama. “Now we need Troy to deliver for us in the Senate, so do not sit this one out. Get out there and vote for Troy Jackson,” he added. In the 50-second video, Obama repeated the claim that Jackson used to work 80-hour weeks logging and was still...

All conservatives wish that Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins leaned more to the right, but the fact is that Collins represents a purple state and has survived in Washington so long by being a moderate. In a time when communists are openly seizing control of the Democrat Party, the moderate Republican will obviously and always be the better choice. Another fact about Collins that makes her a political survivor is that she can be absolutely ruthless when she wants or needs to be. Last night's first Senate debate between Collins and her Democrat opponent Graham Plat ... err, we mean...

Throughout Graham Platner's Senate campaign, Democrats at the state and national levels repeatedly demonstrated that, at bare minimum, they were going to look away from the well-documented evidence of his antisemitism, his anti-Americanism, and his complete lack of respect for women and the boundaries they set. Worse than that, though, were the Democrats like Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17) who not only knew about the scandals but who excused them by proclaiming that they had gotten to know Platner and that he was a "changed man" who was no longer sexting women who weren't his wife on problematic social media apps...

An account bearing Troy Jackson’s name got kicked out of a Facebook group devoted to supporting him after members decided its replies were so insulting they couldn’t possibly have come from their candidate. Screenshots from “Mainers for Troy Jackson” show members arguing over whether they were dealing with the real Jackson, an impostor or someone else using his account. One member posted images identifying the profile as Jackson’s personal page, complete with a Facebook designation that made for an awkward endorsement: “Former member of Mainers for Troy Jackson.” According to a Maine Wire investigation, the account profile picture matches the...

In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C. For the first time in her two-decade Senate career, the Republican lawmaker from Maine was in danger of losing her seat. President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings were dragging her down in the polls, and she was falling behind her likely 2020 Democratic challenger in fundraising. Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, was on a mission to close that gap. Reed was meeting that day with three executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor,...

A new poll indicates longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins is ahead of her Democratic challenger in a crucial Senate showdown in blue-leaning Maine. Collins, who is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate, stands at 49% support among likely voters, with former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee, at 46%, with 5% undecided in the New York Times/Siena poll. Collins' three-point edge is within the survey's margin of error. Democrats are heavily targeting Collins as they work to flip the seat, which is key to their efforts to win back the Senate majority from the Republicans...

AUGUSTA, ME — The Democratic Party of Maine explained to voters that they can do "no rape" or "no incest", but not both. After carefully reviewing the slate of possible Democratic Senate candidates in Maine, party leaders informed voters that they'll simply have to settle for one or the other. "What do these people expect from us when they say we can't run a rapist?" said party leader Mike Prather. "Once you take all of the rapists out of the equation, it's just a bunch of liberals sleeping with their cousins. Those are your options, Maine. Honestly, we're getting pretty...

Poor Troy Jackson. He can’t buy a serious ticket to a U.S. Senate seat without first enduring a ribald ribbing on social media. X users were having more fun laughing over Troy’s marital partnership with his second cousin than attendees at an American Legion bean supper in Allagash, Maine pop. 240. After Maine Wire chief editor Steve Robinson reported that the former state senate president is attached to his second cousin, with whom he has two kids, all bets were off for X users. “His favorite dating app is 23AndMe,” PoliMath joked on X. “Sydney Sweeney eat your heart out,”...

…Allagash tipsters and genealogical records confirm that Troy Jackson’s longtime significant other, Lana Pelletier — his high school sweetheart and the mother of his two adult sons, Chace and Camden — is, in fact, his second cousin by blood. Jackson and Pelletier share the same great-grandparents: Thomas Pelletier and Edith Thibodeau. Thomas and Edith’s daughter Albertine was Troy’s grandmother; their son Louis Sr. was Lana’s grandfather. That makes Troy and Lana second cousins on the Pelletier line.… First cousins share a pair of grandparents. They inherit, on average, about 12.5 percent of their DNA from the same recent ancestors. That...

ALLAGASH, ME — Maine Senate candidate Troy Jackson reportedly converted to Islam as a way to evade criticism for hooking up with his cousin. Jackson said Islam is "totally what he believes in" after learning it's normal for them to marry their cousins. "Heck, we're not even married, but I guess that's not good enough for those Christian types," Jackson said. "Fortunately, them Muslims are totally cool with it." Jackson said he got the idea after realizing Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar had quite the saucy affair with her brother and no one batted an eye. "Looks like I finally put...