Maine voters punished Senate over immigration crackdown and fatal shooting
Troy Jackson defeated Susan Collins in a state where ICE operations and the death of a Colombian father reshaped the political mood.
By Jillian Foster ·
Troy Jackson defeated veteran Senator Susan Collins on Tuesday, ending her three decades in the U.S. Senate. The result reflected a sharp shift in Maine’s political landscape, driven largely by anger over federal immigration enforcement.
A fatal shooting in Biddeford in July became the central symbol of that anger. Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian immigrant and father of a three-year-old, was killed by an ICE agent during a traffic stop. The officer, David Brouillette, was a new recruit with prior allegations of violence and mental health struggles on record. The incident intensified a ten-month period of heavy detention activity in the state.
In January, the Trump administration launched a surge dubbed Operation Catch of the Day. More than 200 people were detained during that initial push, most with no criminal history. The operations continued in quieter forms throughout the year, targeting delivery drivers, health care workers, and corrections officers.
Kristin Jortberg, a 67-year-old retired teacher in Biddeford, voted for Collins in a previous election. She described the senator as independent but said she felt Collins was accepting the status quo. Jortberg left an I voted sticker at a memorial for Durán Guerrero on Wednesday, marking the site of the shooting with a jersey from the Colombian national soccer team and the words Para ti, meaning For you.
Democratic turnout surged in areas historically affected by the crackdown. In Biddeford, Jackson captured 66 percent of the vote compared to Collins’s 34 percent. In 2020, the Democratic candidate had won the city by a 10-point margin. In Lewiston, Jackson beat Collins by 8 points, a reversal from Collins’s 2-point win in the previous cycle.
Charlie Dingman, chair of the Maine Democratic Party, called aggressive ICE enforcement a decisive issue. He argued the shooting revealed a lack of moral center in the federal government. Lance Dutson, a Republican strategist, noted that Collins appeared to align more closely with the party right flank in the months before the election. He said this made it easier for voters to link her to the administration’s treatment of immigrants.
On Monday night, protesters spray-painted the words BLOOD on her HANDS in bright red on the sidewalk outside Collins’s Biddeford office. Jackson declared on stage in Portland that he would fight to abolish ICE, citing agents who terrorize neighbors and rip families apart.
