Maine's Senate race showed, in a Thursday-night debate in Bangor, where the Republican camp is stumbling before the midterms. ABC Australia wrote on 17 October 2026 about prices, data centres, immigration and the way Donald Trump has called them, in turn, a „hoax” or a „sick conspiracy”. This is not a sanctions story. It is about Susan Collins, the Republican senator seeking a sixth term, and Troy Jackson, a former logger, the Democratic nominee. Pollsters rate the race a toss-up; it can shift the Senate majority.

A data-centre protester shouted from the room. Collins said he was „obviously one of Troy's supporters”. Jackson answered: „Oh, shut up. I don't even know that kid.” The man had come in with an oversized laminated „press” lanyard, according to the ABC reporter who was in the same media group. Maine GOP called „shut up” unacceptable. Jackson's campaign declined to comment on the line.

On substance the two argued over who to blame for prices. Trump has repeatedly called the cost-of-living squeeze a Democratic hoax; a poll cited by ABC showed 65% of Americans blaming high prices on his policies, against 44% who blamed Joe Biden before the 2022 midterms. Data centres poll badly with voters in both parties; the president calls opponents people who „want to end up being backwards and poor”.

Immigration, once Republican terrain, has turned. In January ICE launched „Operation Catch of the Day” in Maine, a pun many residents did not enjoy; the operation was halted, Collins took credit, then raids resumed. Jackson reminded the debate of a 25-year-old Colombian father with a US work permit, shot dead by an ICE agent at a traffic stop, with a child's car seat in the back. Collins talked about body cameras and agreed more reform was needed. A Fox poll cited in the piece found 53% against the current crackdown.

Collins tried distance: she said „Gulf of Mexico”, not „Gulf of America”, and recalled organising votes against Pete Hegseth's nomination, which was confirmed anyway. Jackson replied that when Trump needs her vote, he gets it. This is not a voting prompt and it does not recap a sanctions wave. It is a Maine debate, with a „shut up”, a protester and a list of issues the White House has talked down.

Image: Albany NY, Maine State House, Augusta, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; archive of the Capitol, not the Bangor debate hall.

Sources consulted: Donald Trump's midterm problems on display in Maine debate - ABC News; Collins, Jackson face off in testy Maine Senate debate - PBS.