Collins concedes to Jackson in Maine’s high-profile US Senate race

This story has been updated.

Democrat Troy Jackson declared victory in the U.S. Senate race after five-term incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins called and conceded the race.

“If you’re sitting at the table after work wondering how you’re going to pay the next bill, I want you to hear something very clearly: You are sending somebody to Washington who knows exactly what that feels like,” Jackson told a crowd of supporters just after midnight on Wednesday at a Democratic watch party in Portland. 

“I am going to remember who sent me there.”

As of 1:03 a.m., Jackson had secured 53% of votes and Collins had 46.9% with 72% of votes counted, according to The Associated Press.

His win is a major victory for the Democratic Party, which viewed Collins’ seat as a key pickup opportunity in their efforts to gain more control in the U.S. Senate. Though, with other states’ races called earlier, Democrats were already projected to flip the upper chamber. 

As supporters and media waited for Collins to make an appearance at her watch party in Bangor, the senator announced she had conceded in a press release.

“It has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maine in the United States Senate,” Collins wrote. “I’m proud of all I have been able to accomplish for our state and for our country in the past 30 years. I called Troy Jackson tonight to congratulate him and to assure him that my staff and I will work to ensure a smooth transition.”

Collins never took the stage after conceding. The song “Closing Time” by Green Day started playing just before 1 a.m., directing supporters and media to file out.

“I think it’s very clear where the country is at,” Collins’ longtime campaign director Steve Abbott told Maine Morning Star. “I think the country was very unhappy at the end of the Biden administration, and the things they’re unhappy about haven’t gotten better, and if anything, they’ve gotten worse. And I think people spoke very clearly about that today.” 

Jackson’s victory comes despite his late entry. A former logger and Maine Senate president from Allagash, Jackson secured his party’s nomination in late July, replacing former Democratic nominee Graham Platner, who dropped out earlier that month after an accusation of sexual assault, which he denied. 

The U.S. Senate race was the most expensive in state history, with the tens of millions of dollars raised by the candidates being far surpassed by the hundreds of millions in outside spending.  

Collins had campaigned on her ability to bring federal earmarks to Maine and tried to distance herself from an increasingly unpopular President Donald Trump. But Jackson tied the senator to the president and many voters cited her alignment with the president the majority of the time as their reason for casting opposing votes. 

Mike Davis of Waterville had voted for Collins before but cast his ballot for Jackson on Tuesday. 

“It’s time for her to go,” he said. “She’s gotten greedy and she votes with Trump.”

At Jackson’s watch party in Portland, Nina Scott of Kennebunkport also pushed back on Collins’ core campaign pitch about her appropriations prowess. 

“I don’t think we’re going to lose very much by losing Susan Collins’ ‘advantage’ in the Senate on appropriations,” Scott said. 

Collins’ loss also comes after she faced accusations of corruption. That included ProPublica reporting that found the FBI had been looking into the senator’s alleged involvement in a pay-for-play scheme in recent years, until Trump’s purge of the bureau ended the inquiry. Collins has denied any wrongdoing.  

Cynthia Dill of Cape Elizabeth, a former Democratic state legislator, has long been a Collins supporter, though she only became a Republican about two years ago. 

Ahead of Collins’ concession, Dill said she viewed the outcome of Maine’s U.S. Senate race as a referendum on her new party.

“I think this vote in Maine is a bellwether on the direction of the party and the country,” Dill said. “We have an opportunity to make a pivot away from Trump.”

Overall, the country did pivot away from Trump, and Republicans overall. The U.S. House of Representatives also flipped blue, leaving Trump with two Democratically controlled chambers for the second half of his second term.  

“Senator Collins and I had a hard campaign. We had real disagreements, and I was clear about them,” Jackson said in Portland. “But to every Mainer who voted for her, you can count on me to be your senator now.”

Eesha Pendharkar contributed to this reporting.