Collins Drops a Funny Line on Democrat Challenger Troy Jackson
“You know, he started out as a very conservative Republican. Now he’s essentially a democratic socialist.”
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine was recently interviewed by Jonathan Martin of Politico.
Martin asked her if Graham Platner would have been easier to beat than Troy Jackson, and she explained that they both have different strengths and weaknesses.
Martin then asked if Troy Jackson’s unique family situation should be in play, and her response was hilarious.
Transcript via Real Clear Politics:
JONATHAN MARTIN: Wouldn’t [Platner] have been an easier candidate for you to beat, given that paper trail, than running against a Democrat from the county where you hail from in northern Maine, Troy Jackson? It just seems like Platner would have been easier for you to beat, and it got harder with Jackson. Is that—
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS: Well, they have different vulnerabilities. They really do.
Under Troy Jackson’s leadership in Augusta, electric rates have skyrocketed. Mainers’ are the fourth-highest in the country, and he voted against a bill recommended by the independent public advocate that would have helped to lower rates.
So that’s a huge vulnerability. Anyone who has a record has vulnerabilities that a person without a record, like Graham Platner, does not have.
JONATHAN MARTIN: But you’ve been in a lot of campaigns, Senator. You worked as a staffer on the Hill.
If you were offered the chance to run against somebody who had a Nazi tattoo and a paper trail of sexual assault accusations versus a conventional politician who voted to increase utility rates—
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS: Well, I would suggest that they have different strengths and different weaknesses, and that Troy has changed his position on a whole lot of issues.
You know, he started out as a very conservative Republican. Now he’s essentially a democratic socialist.
JONATHAN MARTIN: Should the circumstances of his personal life and the mother of his children be relevant to this campaign? Is that fair game, do you think?
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS: Well, I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin. I don’t know whether people know that or not.
Watch below, this is pretty funny.
Would Troy Jackson be a tougher opponent than Graham Platner?
Sen. Susan Collins argued the two have “different vulnerabilities” but took aim at Jackson’s record on electric rates and his family ties.
Watch her full interview with our @jmart: https://t.co/omt4o33sdt pic.twitter.com/m5P8xFgp5o
— POLITICO (@politico) September 2, 2026
There is a reason why this meme showing Collins sitting on a throne of skulls exists.
Susan Collins: the infinite everlasting queen of the North. https://t.co/QStjpzfEwO pic.twitter.com/Ao43sj9KKW
— Preston Hill (@realPrestonHill) September 2, 2026
Featured image via Twitter/X video.
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Comments
Credit where it’s due. She is willing to throw punches and that’s more than I can say for a lot of her counterparts in the Senate
Paging Mike Minogue (R) running to Governor of MA…
“Well, I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin.”
“Paraleipsis.”
MUCH more erudite than a Democrat “wrap-up smear.”
Trump used this technique on Kim Jung Un with élan: “I would never say that he is short and fat.”
Collins just sounded like a weasel.
Ummm…marrying a second cousin is legal in all 50 states, D.C., and all U.S. territories. It has never been illegal in any U.S. jurisdiction. (All according to legallyexplained.com). This is not the first site where I have seen writers trying to imply (or reporting on people trying to imply) that there is something unseemly about it. Why are people trying to make something out of this? Let’s talk about something of greater substance, please!
I believe that it’s a Jeff Foxworthy joke:
“If you go to family reunions to meet women, you might be a redneck.”
Agreed!
The objection should be to be to Jackson’s fathering children out of wedlock.
The fact that he did so with his second cousin is irrelevant.
A RINO like Collins is better than any Democrat!
In the 21st century that is certainly not a problem!
Mr Jackson isn’t some anonymous guy trying to get job sweeping floors at the truck stop. He’s running for US Senate. His choices are very relevant, particularly important life altering choices such as with whom to enter into marriage. Now if you’re stipulating he didn’t have any choice and it was either marry his cousin or nobody then maybe we can cut some slack.
Both Nevada and Kentucky prohibit 2nd cousin marriage; they won’t issue a marriage license for it. Though if you’re gonna rely on mere statutes to determine whether a particular decision is a good idea and/or moral/appropriate in 2026 then look to NY which allows marriage between an Uncle and his Niece or an Aunt and her Nephew. Seems like a bad idea to me. FWIW your reliance on State statutes (passed by flawed politicians) to provide your moral compass would lead you to make the same arguments in support of…beastiality in a handful of States which lack a specific statute outlawing it.
The Bible permits uncle-niece marriages, but not aunt-nephew ones. But it also tells us that Moses’s parents were an aunt and nephew; their marriage was lawful because it was before the law was given. If they’d still been alive when the law was given they would have had to divorce.
Colonial Rhode Island had a law banning uncle-niece marriage, except for Jews. (An exception that would be impossible under the first amendment, but of course that didn’t exist at the time.)
It is Aroostook County after all.
She didn’t bring it up. The interviewer specifically asked her about it. She correctly said that it was not appropriate to make it an issue in the campaign.