Democrat Troy Jackson defeated longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins, unseating the five-term incumbent who has represented Maine since 1997 and ending her reign as the longest-serving active GOP woman in the Senate.
CNN and NBC called the race for Jackson around midnight. He was ahead 52 percent to Collins’s 47 percent with 67 percent of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press.
The Republican suffered one of the biggest defeats of her political career, ending her nearly three-decade tenure in the Senate and dashing her hopes of becoming the longest-serving senator in Maine’s history.
She graciously conceded in a brief conversation with Jackson shortly after the race was called.
‘It has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maine in the United States Senate,’ Collins said in a statement. ‘I’m proud of all I have been able to accomplish for our state and for our country in the past 30 years.’
Jackson’s victory handed Democrats a crucial Republican-held seat as a blue tsunami took hold. It gives Democrats even more leverage in the Senate, where they will force Trump to the negotiating table on federal budgets, priorities and policies.
His victory is yet another major Democratic victory in an election widely seen as a referendum on the President and his administration. The win for Democrats ensures them at least 53 seats in the Senate.
‘We did it. Working people did it,’ Jackson celebrated. ‘I’m so damn proud to be standing here with you all tonight…or this morning, I guess, now.’
Democrat Troy Jackson defeated longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins in the midterms
Five-term Republican Collins suffered one of the biggest defeats of her political career, ending her nearly three-decade tenure in the Senate and dashing her hopes of becoming the longest-serving senator in Maine’s history
Collins conceded the race just after midnight local time, a spokesperson for Troy Jackson told the Daily Mail
The GOP went into the evening with a 53 to 47 majority, meaning Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to take power, given that Vice President JD Vance breaks any 50 to 50 tie.
Democrats quickly flipped North Carolina, South Carolina, Maine, Kansas, Iowa and Texas in a bloodbath for the GOP.
Collins was the only GOP senator on the ballot this year in a state that former VP Kamala Harris carried in 2024, making Maine the first domino on the Democrats’ path to power.
Jackson overcame a truncated campaign after former Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner dropped out of the race in July following sexual assault allegations which he denied.
The Senator-elect had issues of his own, too.
Jackson’s longtime partner and mother of his two children, Lana Pelletier, is reportedly his second cousin by blood.
The couple, who both hail from the state’s rural north and are from sparsely populated towns where residents often share last names, share the same great-grandparents.
That means the two are second cousins, a revelation which made for bitter campaign fodder.
Maine Senator-elect Democrat Troy Jackson delivers remarks during a midterm election night watch party at the Holiday Inn, Portland
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A Republican network of super PACs and nonprofits booked about $126 million in ads in a failed bid to re-elect Collins.
Trump wrote in January that Collins ‘should never be elected to office again’ after she voted to rein in the president’s military powers following his successful operation in Venezuela that month.
The outgoing Senator broke with Trump on some of the biggest votes of his second term, opposing Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as defense secretary and voting against the final passage of his One Big Beautiful Bill.
Voters across Maine told the Daily Mail in the week leading up to the election that they would stick with Collins due to their lack of familiarity with Jackson.
The logger and local lawmaker was not even Democrats’ first choice, stepping in after primary winner Platner, who took 72 percent of the June vote, quit the race in July over a sexual assault allegation he has denied.
Delegates at a party convention in Bangor picked Jackson as the replacement on July 25, giving him a 101-day sprint to unseat a senator who has beaten every Democrat thrown at her since 1996.
Jackson ran a truncated campaign after former Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner dropped out of the race in July following sexual assault allegations which he denied
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Jackson had just lost the Democratic primary for governor to Hannah Pingree weeks before being tapped as a blue-collar rival to Collins, who he has attacked as a Trump enabler.
The race also turned nasty in its final days when a Republican super PAC aired a radio jingle calling Jackson a ‘freak’ and a ‘creep,’ a spot Collins herself said should be taken down.
Money poured in on both sides, with Jackson raising $26.9 million in barely three months against $22.5 million raised by Collins over the full cycle, according to federal filings through October 14.
As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Collins pitched her clout. In a Washington Post-Schar School poll, voters gave her a 24-point edge on bringing federal dollars to Maine.
Collins has a long history of embarrassing pollsters, having trailed for much of 2020 before winning that race by over eight points.
Trump himself was a drag in Maine, where Marist found 58 percent of likely voters disapproved of the job he is doing and 41 percent said their vote was a vote against him.
