Troy Jackson’s Petulant Debate Haunts His Campaign

By Noah Rothman

Monday, October 19, 2026

 

If Abdul El-Sayed had as strong a debate as some observers claimed he had, the press would not have spent the last week and a half talking only about the accusations Mike Rogers made on the debate stage and El-Sayed’s failure to defuse them to reporters’ satisfaction.

 

Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee, Troy Jackson, is experiencing a torment similar to El-Sayed’s this week after he delivered one of the more petulant debate performances in recent memory.

 

For most of the week, Jackson has been haunted by his conduct during a debate in which an audience member heckled his opponent, Senator Susan Collins. “This is obviously one of Troy’s supporters,” she joked. “Oh, shut up,” Jackson barked back. “I don’t even know that kid.”

 

The aside has become a sticky moment for Jackson. Combined with his penchant for rolling his eyes when his opponent speaks and condescending to her even as he accuses Collins of “talking down” to him and his fellow “working class” Mainers, it reinforced the perception that Jackson can be a bit of a jerk.

 

At least, that’s what we can deduce from the political press’s persistent but, thus far, unsuccessful efforts to help Jackson recover from his error.

 

“Do you regret saying that to Senator Collins?” one local CBS News reporter asked. “No,” Jackson replied. “She accused me of setting that up, which is completely untrue,” he bristled. “You know, I’m not going to mince words anymore.”

 

Somehow, this indignant display failed to reassure Jackson’s constituents. Over the weekend, he trudged his wounded ego with him for a sit-down interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, which went about as well as his encounter with CBS News:

 

WATCH: Democrat MESEN candidate Troy Jackson refuses to apologize to Susan Collis over telling her to "shut up" during a recent debate, says he did it because he's tired of feeling "talked down" to. Soft followup from CNN's Dana Bash. pic.twitter.com/XMK7b4lFWF

 

— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 18, 2026

 

“What I’m not going to be is talked down to by Senator Collins,” Jackson stressed, his body language clearly conveying his irritation with the news cycle he’d created and the reporters driving it. “I just think that was another situation where she was talking down to me and, you know, so I’m not going to apologize for that. No.”

 

To her credit, Bash took the conversation in a more serious direction by implying that Jackson’s conduct on that debate stage was indicative of his rumored “aggressive” encounters with women.

 

Fortunately for us, PolitiFact ruled that the rumors are “false.” It’s probably true that Jackson “threw a water bottle during an argument” with a female staffer, but “none of the accounts said the bottle hit her.” Phew!

 

Jackson stood his ground, insisting to Bash that Republicans who call his character into question are acting in bad faith. But it’s Jackson’s own demeanor that lends credence to those claims. Like El-Sayed, Jackson will not be goaded by the press into eating enough crow to put the controversy to bed.

 

Despite the tailwinds at the party’s back, the pride evinced by candidates such as Jackson may still rob the Democrats of a historic night on November 3.