Sen. Susan Collins told reporters that her new Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson, "struggles to control his temper", a pointed reference to a 1988 police report accusing him of kicking in a door and punching a man in the face.
Collins made the remarks Friday while launching a statewide bus tour in Kittery, Maine. Asked about the resurfaced police report, the Republican incumbent declined to comment on the specifics but left little doubt about her read of the situation. Fox News Digital reported that Collins told reporters Jackson is "the one that needs to respond to the reports," adding that "based on widespread reporting, it appears that he struggles to control his temper."
The police report, first covered this week by the Bangor Daily News, describes a violent early-morning confrontation in Fort Kent, Maine, on March 12, 1988. Jackson was 19 years old at the time. He went to a home around 2 a.m., and after the occupant told him to leave, Jackson kicked the door in, grabbed the man by the throat, and punched him in the face. The victim's glasses cut his face during the blow. A friend broke up the fight.
But the report contained a second allegation that has drawn sharper scrutiny. Officers noted that Jackson's longtime partner, Lana Pelletier, told them at the scene that Jackson had "pushed her around." Pelletier now denies making that statement.
Jackson acknowledged the confrontation in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital but drew a firm line on the domestic allegation:
"Nearly forty years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now. But let me be clear: I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman."
His campaign said the case was resolved with a $50 fine. No court, no charge type, and no issuing agency were identified in the available reporting. Jackson framed the incident as ancient history, telling Fox News Digital that it "in no way reflects the man I am today or the life I've led in the years since."
Pelletier issued her own statement disputing the police report's account of her words. She said she does not remember making the statements attributed to her and called them inaccurate, adding that it was the first time she had seen the report "from 40 years ago." She described Jackson as "a caring partner and father" and pivoted to an attack on Collins, saying the senator had spent her time in Washington "enriching herself at our expense."
Jackson's personal life has already drawn sustained attention in this race. He and Pelletier, who is also his second cousin, share two adult children, a detail that genealogical records confirmed and that prompted uncomfortable questions for Democrats backing his candidacy.
The police report was not the only development this week. On Thursday, the Maine Wire, a conservative-leaning outlet, reported that an unnamed man from Allagash, Maine, a small town near Fort Kent, alleged he had witnessed Jackson strike Pelletier in a separate incident years ago. The man told the outlet he has known Jackson for decades. No date, corroboration, or additional detail about the alleged incident appeared in the reporting.
Taken together, the two reports landed in the middle of a Senate race that was already volatile. A Fox News poll released Wednesday showed Jackson holding a slim two-point edge over Collins, though the lead fell within the survey's sampling error, a statistical tie in a contest both parties consider critical.
The Maine seat is among roughly a dozen races that will determine whether Republicans hold their slim Senate majority. Collins is the only GOP incumbent seeking re-election in a state President Trump lost in the 2024 election, making the seat a top Democratic target.
Collins did not miss the chance to remind voters how Jackson ended up on the ballot. Maine Democrats selected him just a couple of weeks ago to replace Graham Platner, the former nominee who won the June Democratic primary in a landslide before dropping out amid rape allegations he denied. Collins referenced Platner by name Friday, telling reporters that "vetting is very important" and that Democrats should have learned from the earlier failure.
"From my perspective, it seems that vetting is very important. We learned the failure of vetting with Graham Platner. But that's really up to the Democrats."
The comparison is uncomfortable for Maine Democrats. They chose Jackson as a replacement nominee after Platner's collapse, and now their second pick faces his own cascade of damaging reports, the police record, the second witness allegation, and previously reported questions about his son billing nearly $200,000 in lobbying fees to clients with business before the Maine Senate while Jackson ran it.
An anonymous Democratic strategist who works on Senate races acknowledged the turbulence to Fox News Digital, calling it "a bit of a rocket vetting process." The strategist added: "Maine Democrats have made their choice, and they're just going to have to ride with it."
National Republicans moved quickly to exploit the opening. The Republican National Committee posted on social media that "Troy Jackson is Graham Platner 2.0: Violent and unhinged." The National Republican Senatorial Committee posted on X, directing a question at Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Kirsten Gillibrand: "Is this incredibly disturbing report of violence and abuse not enough for you to drop Troy Jackson?"
The NRSC also launched a series of social media posts aimed at individual Democratic senators and Senate nominees who had endorsed Jackson, asking each whether they would "call on Troy Jackson to drop out." No responses from those Democrats appeared in the reporting. Democratic senators have already dodged questions about Jackson once this cycle, when earlier personal revelations surfaced.
Jackson, a former state Senate president and one-time logger, has cast himself as a tested candidate who has served in the Maine legislature for 20 years. He told Fox News Digital last month that Collins was raising vetting concerns only to distract from "a really bad record," adding that Maine voters "know exactly what I'm fighting for" and "know they can trust me."
His political background, though, has produced its own liabilities. Jackson was once a conservative Republican who became a Democrat over two decades ago, has said he supports abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and has faced questions about a past strict anti-abortion stance and what the reporting described as mortgage improprieties. He also joked publicly that he would have "ran as a communist", a quip that drew fresh attention to his leftward drift over the years.
Vice President Kamala Harris has endorsed Jackson in the race, tying the national Democratic brand to a candidate now fielding questions about a police report, a second witness allegation, and a party vetting process that has failed twice in the same cycle.
Several basic facts remain unresolved. The 1988 police report's issuing agency has not been identified in public reporting. The specific charge or violation that produced the $50 fine has not been disclosed. The name of the man Jackson allegedly assaulted has not been made public. And the unnamed Allagash witness who alleged a separate incident involving Pelletier has not been identified by name, nor has the approximate date of that alleged incident been established.
Jackson's campaign has not addressed whether additional incidents exist beyond the two now reported. Pelletier's blanket denial of the statements attributed to her in the police report raises its own question: if she did not say what officers recorded, what did she say, and why does the report say otherwise?
Maine Democrats replaced one nominee over allegations of violence and chose another who now faces a police report describing a door kicked in, a man grabbed by the throat, and a partner who told officers she had been pushed around. Voters can judge whether the party's vetting process is broken or whether it never existed in the first place.
