Live updates: Watch tonight’s high-stakes debates for governor, senate

Collins and Jackson clash over Iran war, ethics in heated Senate rematch; Gubernatorial rivals spar on budget, immigration in Bangor

BANGOR — Maine’s two highest-profile races took center stage Thursday night as candidates for governor and U.S. Senate met in back-to-back televised debates, offering voters a sharp contrast in tone and substance less than a month before Election Day.

The evening began in Bangor at 7 p.m., where Democrat Hannah Pingree, Republican Bobby Charles, and Independent Rick Bennett shared a stage for the second time in a week. An hour later, the action shifted to a WMTW studio for a rematch between Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, the President of the Maine Senate.

While the gubernatorial contest remained largely a two-on-one dynamic with Charles attacking the front-running Pingree, the Senate debate erupted into the most personal and combative exchange of the cycle to date, featuring accusations of war profiteering, ethics violations, and a fundamental disagreement over who controls the levers of power in Washington.

Senate Race: Iran, Ethics, and the Weight of Seniority

If the first Collins-Jackson debate was a policy seminar, the second was a brawl.

The Iran war dominated the early exchanges. Jackson repeatedly tied Collins to the conflict, arguing that her initial reluctance to rebuke former President Donald Trump’s military authorization had prolonged a war he said is driving up heating oil prices and threatening Mainers’ survival this winter.

“People are going to freeze to death this winter because they can’t afford to heat their home,” Jackson said, urging an immediate end to the conflict and an expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, countered that she has voted nine times to end the war. She argued that the United States faces a supply problem, not just a funding problem, and that energy independence is the long-term answer. “I have been the leading proponent” of LIHEAP in Congress, she said, pledging to expand both eligibility and funding.

The sharpest moment of the night arrived when Jackson, without offering evidence, accused Collins and her husband of profiting personally from the Iran war.

“That is absolutely outrageous and you owe me an apology,” Collins shot back, her voice rising. “To say that my husband and I are making money off the war in Iran is absolutely outrageous.”

The charge appeared to reference a ProPublica investigation into a government contractor’s donation to a super PAC aligned with Collins. The senator dismissed the reporting as false, stating she had never heard of the contractor, Navatek, and that her office had directed funding toward a University of Maine project. She referred to the head of the company as “a crook” who is currently in jail.

Jackson stood by the broader implication. “The allegations aren’t false,” he said, pivoting to tie Collins to Trump, whom he repeatedly labeled “a convicted felon.”

The ethics volley continued when moderators pressed Jackson on a political action committee he leads that has accepted corporate donations. Jackson said he was not solely responsible for the PAC and that the donations did not dictate Democratic policy in Augusta. Collins countered that Jackson was distancing himself from his own operation while his son, a lobbyist, benefited from his father’s policy shifts.

Collins leaned heavily on her seniority throughout the hour, framing her 28 years in the Senate as the reason Maine has a seat at the table. She cited $1.5 billion in directed funding for the state and her gavel on the Appropriations Committee as proof that longevity delivers results. When asked why she broke her initial pledge to serve only two terms, she did not apologize. “My seniority has meant I can get things done,” she said.

Jackson argued that seniority has produced stagnation. He favored term limits for both senators and Supreme Court justices; Collins opposes both. In a lightning-round segment, Collins said she would support Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota. Jackson said he would not support Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

On abortion, the night’s most policy-heavy clash, Jackson accused Collins of stocking the judiciary with anti-abortion judges, specifically citing the confirmations of Brett Kavanaugh and 54 others. “Our records have changed,” Jackson said. “Mine has gotten better, hers has gotten worse.”

Collins defended her record supporting codifying Roe v. Wade and argued that Jackson’s own legislative history in Maine included votes against abortion rights earlier in his career.

The candidates found rare common ground on Social Security. Both agreed that high earners should pay a greater share. Jackson proposed lifting the payroll tax cap entirely and raising benefits. Collins endorsed a commission of independent financial experts to recommend solvency fixes but agreed the wealthy should contribute more.

They also agreed that Congress, not the presidency, should control tariff authority. Collins noted that oversight had drifted to the executive branch “over the years.” Jackson argued Collins could use her Appropriations gavel to “leverage” the Trump administration on trade; Collins replied that her committee lacks jurisdiction over tariffs but said she is working with the administration to lift them.

On immigration, Jackson hammered Collins for voting to increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding by billions, invoking the name of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a man shot by ICE agents in Biddeford. Collins said ICE requires reforms—including restrictions on where arrests can occur—but should not be abolished.

Jackson framed the race as a referendum on national forces rather than a personality contest. “It isn’t my own campaign, it’s the people across Maine,” he said. “This is not about Troy Jackson, it’s not about Graham Platner, what is about is Donald Trump and Susan Collins and the band that are making life so much harder in this state.”

Gubernatorial Race: A Budget Hole, A Sanctuary Law, and A Fight for Second Place

Earlier in Bangor, the dynamic was different. Pingree, holding a double-digit lead in public polls, played the role of incumbent-in-waiting. Bennett, the former Republican Senate president running as an independent, positioned himself as a pragmatic auditor. Charles, trailing badly, came swinging.

The first question—how to close a potential $1 billion budget shortfall—set the tone.

Pingree blamed the Trump administration’s tariffs and the Iran war for spiking energy and goods costs. She pivoted quickly to property tax relief. Charles laid the deficit at the feet of the “Mills-Pingree administration,” proposing an immediate hiring freeze, a restructuring of the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education, and the elimination of what he called “insider contracts.” Bennett said the state has spent “well beyond what Mainers can afford for years” and promised a line-by-line audit, along with a team to investigate “any hint of corruption or misspending.”

On MaineCare expansion, Pingree and Bennett aligned: continue the expansion but fix provider reimbursement rates. Charles opposed the expansion entirely, arguing that “able-bodied Mainers are taking advantage of the program.”

Immigration produced the night’s most striking claim. Charles directly linked Maine’s “sanctuary state” law—which limits cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities—to the shooting of Guerrero in Biddeford.

“I would argue that Biddeford probably wouldn’t have happened if the sanctuary state law didn’t exist here, because the comms, they were sidelined,” Charles said. “The comms between local and state and feds would have been clear.”

Pingree said she “would like to see ICE out of Maine” and accused Charles of “stoking fears,” noting his previous call for Trump to send ICE agents to polling places. Bennett said he was “deeply disturbed by ICE’s presence” and supported the current law limiting cooperation.

On housing, the three offered distinct supply-side visions. Charles proposed eliminating property taxes for 100% disabled veterans, banning noncitizens from public housing, and seizing “Chinese marijuana grow houses” for conversion to housing. Pingree pushed a 90-day “shot clock” for Department of Environmental Protection permits and pointed to her detailed housing plan. Bennett advocated for reduced down payments, mortgage assistance, and a push toward factory-built housing.

Abortion revealed a clear split. Pingree wants to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution. Bennett would keep current law unchanged. Charles opposed late-term abortions but repeatedly tried to deprioritize the issue. “There are a ton of issues that are confronting us,” he said. “This is not the number one issue.”

Charles also denied he had shifted his stance on Trump, insisting he has long opposed the former president’s tariffs on Canada. “There is only one Bobby Charles, and he is perfectly consistent,” he said.

Bennett explained his departure from the GOP by declaring the two-party system broken. “Both parties are more interested in keeping us fighting with each other than actually resolving issues,” he said.

The evening ended with Charles choking up during his closing statement while discussing the addiction crisis. “We don’t have to live like this,” he said, before pivoting to a last-second attack on Pingree regarding a state grant connected to a family nonprofit—a line of attack cut off by moderators as his time expired.

Two Races, One Theme: Blame Augusta or Blame Washington

Despite the different formats and tenor, a single narrative thread connected both debates: a battle over accountability.

In the Senate race, Jackson argued that Washington—specifically Collins and her alliance with Trump—is the source of Maine’s pain, from heating bills to judicial appointments. Collins argued that Augusta’s policies—energy mandates, budget choices, sanctuary laws—are the real drivers of the state’s affordability crisis.

In the governor’s race, Pingree pointed to Washington’s wars and tariffs. Charles and Bennett pointed to the Blaine House.

With three weeks until ballots are due, the candidates have made their cases. The debates offered no new policy breakthroughs, but they clarified the choices: experience versus disruption in the Senate; continuity, audit, or revolution in the Blaine House.