A Bowdoin College student, later identified as Henry Elgie, 19, interrupts a live Senate debate Thursday night in Bangor. (Reuben M. Schafir/Staff Writer)

A Bowdoin College student was removed from Thursday’s U.S. Senate debate after he stood and began yelling that data centers “are poisoning our waters.”

The moment came about 15 minutes into the fourth and final televised debate between U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Democrat Troy Jackson. It led to Collins quipping that it “was obviously one of Troy’s supporters,” to which Jackson replied, “Oh, shut up. I don’t even know that kid.” Thursday’s debate was the only one of the four to feature a live audience.

Henry Elgie, 19, was the protester whom security removed from the Gracie Theatre at Husson University in Bangor, according to a news release from the Sunrise Movement, a national progressive group focused on young people who are “fighting to stop the climate crisis and win a Green New Deal.”

“I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I’m a young person and I’m terrified. AI data centers are destroying our climate,” Elgie, who appeared to be wearing a press badge, shouted as security moved to take him out of the venue. “They are poisoning our waters. You are taking corporate PAC money to an absurd degree.”

Event organizers said the person was not on the pre-registered media list but presented a Bowdoin Orient press badge and was allowed in. In a statement Thursday night, the editor-in-chief of the Orient said the student paper did not send anyone to the debate and that the credential must have been fabricated.

A Sunrise Movement spokesperson said Friday that Elgie lives and is registered to vote in Brunswick, where Bowdoin is located.

The Sunrise Movement news release that came out late Thursday night made clear that Elgie was directing his words at Collins. It included a statement from Elgie that criticized Collins and her campaign for receiving donations from billionaires and executives of artificial intelligence platforms.

“Instead of investing in real climate solutions, Susan Collins continues to prioritize endless war and tax cuts for billionaires. My generation deserves a livable future,” Elgie said in a statement.

Collins campaign spokesperson Blake Kernen responded Friday by sharing a photo the campaign took of pro-Jackson and pro-Collins supporters who were outside of the Oct. 8 debate hosted by WMTW. A person in the photo was holding a fake check in the amount of $150,000 made out to 1820 PAC, a reference to the ProPublica story on pay-to-play allegations surrounding Collins.

A protest outside of the Oct. 8 Senate debate hosted by WMTW. The Collins campaign contends the person holding the giant check sign is Henry Elgie, 19, who interrupted the fourth Senate debate. (Courtesy of Susan Collins for Senate)

The Collins campaign said the person holding the check last week was Elgie.

The Jackson campaign did not respond to a request for comment Friday morning.

Jackson supported the proposed moratorium on large data centers in Maine that Gov. Janet Mills, an outgoing Democrat, vetoed earlier this year. Mills cited concerns that the proposed pause on new centers until November 2027 would have killed a project in the mill town of Jay. (That project went on hold this summer, despite the veto.)

Collins aligned herself with Mills earlier this year, expressing support in August for projects at former mill sites and saying “there is usually hydropower right there, so there’s an energy source built in.” But Collins has also called for federal guardrails on data center development, including regulations on how much water and energy they use.

President Donald Trump has called for more data center development, despite public polling in Maine and nationally showing a majority of Americans from both parties oppose data centers getting built in their communities.