In the Maine Senate race, ads from a Democratic super PAC misleadingly claim Republican Sen. Susan Collins cast a vote to “cover up the Epstein files” and received “$3 million to her super PAC” from “Jeffrey Epstein’s business partner.”
A Republican ad attacking Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson in Maine says under his “failed leadership” the state’s high schools “dropped to dead last” in the country, according to annual rankings by U.S. News & World Report. But that’s not the whole story.
Sen. Susan Collins was one of three Republican senators who voted against passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, and she cited the legislation’s many changes to Medicaid as the main reason. But an ad from a Democratic outside group falsely claims she “voted to support Donald Trump on the largest Medicaid cut in history.”
Sen. Susan Collins helped pass a 2012 law that affirmed that members of Congress are not exempt from insider-trading laws and required members to more promptly disclose their trades of stocks and other investments. But an ad from a pro-Democrat group falsely claims that the Republican senator “doesn’t think” that insider trading “should be illegal.”
An ad attacking Sen. Susan Collins in Maine claimed that she voted “to raise healthcare costs and raise insurance premiums,” as well as give President Donald Trump “a blank check for his war in Iran.” But neither claim fully explains Collins’ more nuanced position on those issues.
The Supreme Court ruled that states may not remove former President Donald Trump from primary ballots based on the Constitution’s insurrection clause. A few days before the ruling, an Instagram post claimed a “traffic court judge” had ruled Trump shouldn’t appear on Illinois’ ballot — misrepresenting Tracie Porter’s role as an Illinois circuit court judge.
A Democratic TV ad attacks Sen. Susan Collins for voting twice “to allow drug companies to keep cheaper generic drugs off the market,” but omits the fact that Collins has supported bills intended to increase generic-drug competition and lower prescription costs.
Then-President Barack Obama’s 2016 designation of a marine monument off the New England coast grandfathered in lobster and crab harvesting for seven years — so there has been absolutely no impact as of yet on the lobster industry.
Q: Did Democrats in Maine legalize female genital mutilation?
A: No. That practice is illegal across the U.S.
It may be true that all politics is local, but in Maine the contenders in a Republican congressional primary are positively wallowing in locality — while making dubious claims about each other’s address.