{"id":884114,"date":"2026-10-16T07:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T07:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884114\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T07:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T07:58:13","slug":"troy-jackson-tells-susan-collins-to-shut-up-during-heated-maine-senate-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884114\/","title":{"rendered":"Troy Jackson tells Susan Collins to ‘shut up’ during heated Maine Senate debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Maine \u2013 Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson<\/a> told Republican Sen. Susan Collins<\/a> to \u201cshut up\u201d during a heated final Maine U.S. Senate debate that also included an interruption from a data center protester.<\/p>\n

Thursday night’s debate in a Bangor theater was the last of four meetings between Collins and Jackson, who are running for a seat that’s considered crucial in the fight for a Senate majority. The debate, like those that preceded it, included several testy exchanges over issues including the national debt, Collins’ relationship with President Donald Trump’s administration, and the candidates’ respective roles in worsening partisan divisions. <\/p>\n

The scene became briefly chaotic when a protester opposing data centers began yelling as Collins spoke. As moderators asked for the protester to be removed, Collins said the shouting demonstrator was \u201cobviously one of Troy’s supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson responded: \u201cOh, shut up. I don’t even know that kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maine GOP said in a social media post after the debate that Jackson’s \u201cshut up\u201d comment was \u201cunacceptable behavior.\u201d Jackson’s campaign declined to comment on the exchange.<\/p>\n

The issue of party loyalty came up during the debate, with one question posed to Collins asking her to cite a time she has defied the Republican Party. She referenced her push to oppose Pete Hegseth’s nomination as defense secretary, saying she organized Republicans to vote no. But Collins acknowledged he was confirmed despite her effort.<\/p>\n

Collins accused Jackson of being a guaranteed vote for the Democratic Party while she has a track record of independence. Jackson disputed that characterization and said Collins is loyal to Trump when he needs key votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I know is that 100% of the time when Donald Trump goes to Susan Collins for a vote, he gets it,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

Collins, who is seeking her sixth term, has sought to distance herself from Trump<\/a> during the debates, including using the phrase \u201cGulf of Mexico\u201d instead of Trump’s preferred \u201cGulf of America.\u201d Jackson described Collins’ votes against Trump as \u201cmanaged votes\u201d when she already knows the outcome is decided.<\/p>\n

Jackson’s campaign also said Thursday that it raised $20.4 million in the third quarter as it seeks to close a funding gap with Collins. Jackson was a late entry into the race and the third quarter was his first quarter of fundraising.<\/p>\n

Collins\u2019 campaign said she raised $5.2 million in the same time period. Collins began the race with a considerable fundraising advantage over Jackson, as she had raised more than $18 million<\/a> by the end of June and Jackson did not become the Democrats\u2019 nominee until late July.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Maine \u2013 Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson told Republican Sen. Susan Collins to \u201cshut up\u201d during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,12,451,3,1572,111,12800,452,453,321102,795],"class_list":["post-884114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-susan-collins","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-troy-jackson","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}