Democrat Troy Jackson has defeated five-term Republican senator Susan Collins in Maine, ending her nearly three decades in the United States Senate and delivering another Republican-held seat to the Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections.
The Associated Press called the contest for Jackson following Tuesday’s voting. Collins acknowledged her defeat in a statement, describing her service in the Senate as an honour. The result is an election-night race call, not the final certification of votes by Maine election authorities.
Jackson, a former Maine Senate president and logger from the state’s rural north, entered the contest after the original Democratic nominee, Graham Platner, withdrew. His unusually short general-election campaign centred on housing costs, healthcare, workers’ rights and opposition to policies pursued by President Donald Trump.
Collins, 73, had been a prominent moderate Republican voice in Washington and chaired the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. She sought a sixth term by stressing her independence, seniority and ability to secure federal resources for Maine. Her defeat removes a longstanding Republican incumbent from a state that has often supported Democrats in presidential elections while repeatedly re-electing Collins.
The result is a genuine party flip. Maine’s Senate seat was held by a Republican before the election and will be represented by a Democrat when the new Congress takes office, subject to the formal electoral process. It should not be confused with Georgia, where Democrat Jon Ossoff’s re-election was a Democratic hold.
Jackson’s victory formed part of a much wider Democratic advance. The Associated Press reported that Democrats had secured control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, with Republican-held Senate seats also falling in Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina. Individual calls are projections based on counted votes and outstanding ballots; state certification follows later.
The Maine campaign was fought amid national arguments about household costs, the war involving Iran, healthcare and the president’s conduct in office. Jackson criticised Collins for failing to challenge Trump sufficiently, while Collins portrayed herself as an experienced senator capable of working across party lines.
Jackson’s background in logging and organised labour gave his campaign a distinctive rural identity. Yet his path to victory also depended on winning support beyond the northern communities where he built his political career. The contest demonstrated how an established incumbent could lose despite a record of securing federal funding and cultivating a reputation for independence.
For Nigerians and other Africans living in the United States, the wider change in congressional control could affect debates about immigration oversight, federal spending, foreign policy and relations with African countries. The election result does not itself change visa rules, immigration status or any existing law. Such changes would require subsequent legislative or executive action.
Democratic majorities will gain powers to set congressional committee agendas, investigate federal agencies and scrutinise presidential policies when the new Congress convenes in January 2027. However, President Trump will retain his veto, and Senate procedural rules can still constrain legislation.
Collins’ departure is also significant for the Senate’s internal balance. Her appropriations leadership and long experience had given Maine a senior Republican representative in federal budget negotiations. Jackson will enter Washington as a new senator rather than inherit those committee positions automatically.
The outcome in Maine was one of the clearest signs that the midterm elections had altered the political landscape. Final vote totals and formal certification remain the responsibility of election officials, but the AP race call establishes Jackson as the projected winner of a Republican-held Senate seat.
Archive photograph: Troy Jackson in the Maine Senate chamber, January 2023. ArenLeBrun / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
