AOC stumps for Jackson as high profile figures descend on Maine ahead of election

Seated next to Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson in Portland, Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York described his attempt to oust longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins as a battle about class. 

“The House and the Senate have always been institutions of the ruling class. What this institution tries to do is protect it from being intruded upon by working class Americans,”  Ocasio-Cortez told a packed State Theatre. “So they call people communists, they call them this, they call them that. But really what it is is they’re afraid of a waitress in the House, and a logger in the Senate.” 

Ocasio-Cortez, who worked as a server before running for Congress in 2018, joined Jackson, former logger and president of the Maine Senate, for a “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall on Thursday organized by More Perfect University, a progressive campus program launched in April by the media organization More Perfect Union to counter conservative campus groups such as Turning Point USA. 

The stop highlighting Maine’s U.S. Senate race, which is seen as key to Democrats flipping the balance of power in their favor, is one of several the program is making across the country ahead of the midterms. 

Fielding questions directly from attendees, Ocasio-Cortez and Jackson’s answers underscored their alignment across various issues, including Medicare for All and abortion rights. Ocasio-Cortez called out Collins for her vote for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who had a hand in overturning Roe v. Wade, and telling the crowd the best way to support women is to vote for Jackson.

Jackson has not always held progressive stances, having changed his mind on abortion during his time in office, which he pointed out on Thursday. But he is now among the progressive candidates rallying against economic inequality and billionaire influence who are vying for seats in U.S. Congress. 

“When you have someone like Troy go to the United States Senate and call everything for what it is, it disrupts and makes it harder for everyone to get away with all of the glad-handing that goes on,” Ocasio-Cortez said. 

Ocasio-Cortez is one of several national figures who have visited Maine in the final weeks leading up to Nov. 3 to weigh into Maine’s U.S. Senate race. Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts joined Jackson at the No Kings protest over the weekend, and independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont campaigned alongside him earlier this month. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, former U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia joined Collins on the campaign trail.

Collins gets help with her independent pitch

As Manchin and Collins, former colleagues, visited local businesses on Wednesday — Simones’ Hot Dog Stand in Lewiston, the New Balance factory in Norway, among others — he praised her as the “soul of the Senate.” 

Manchin switched from a registered Democrat to independent in 2024, after having long been known as a moderate. Collins has been pitching herself as an independent voice as she tries to secure a sixth term. Vice President JD Vance helped her with that during his visit to Maine in August, and Manchin did so on Wednesday. 

“She’s not a Trump senator, she’s not a Republican’s senator or a Democrat’s senator,” Manchin said. “She’s an American Senator that represents her state of Maine, and that’s who she is — the most, the most independent-minded person I’ve ever met.”

Jackson has tried to tie Collins to President Donald Trump, arguing she is loyal to him when it counts. Ocasio-Cortez also made that case Thursday. 

The only GOP senator seeking reelection in a state Trump lost in 2024, Collins has been trying to distance herself from the president. That tight rope walk was evident on Wednesday, when Manchin directly blamed Trump for the state of the economy and Collins skirted the question. 

“There are lots of reasons why people are struggling,” Collins said, before pointing to higher inflation under former Democratic President Joe Biden. 

Manchin is now an advisor for Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm tied to past paper mill closures in Bucksport and Jay. (Also, Apollo Global Management’s CEO and founder Marc Rowan has contributed to Pine Tree Results, a pro-Collins super PAC.)

The sitting president is always a factor in midterms elections, perhaps more so this year with Trump’s approval rating at historic lows. Both Jackson and Ocasio-Cortez were asked during the town hall what their day one agendas would be if Democrats take back the House and Senate. 

While Jackson said overturning Trump’s signature spending package to claw back funding for healthcare, Ocasio-Cortez pointed to the president’s “absolute weaponization of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation.”  

“Day one, we need to be opening investigations into the heads of every single one of these agencies,” she told the crowd. “I’m talking subpoenas. I’m talking investigations. I’m talking, if necessary and if the evidence leads us there, to court.”

Gen Z isn’t choosing a side. They’re choosing issues.

Young voters

Lola Fulham-FitzGerald, 15, brought her brother Cosmo Fulham-FitzGerald, 23, to the town hall on Thursday, which was the first campaign event either had ever attended. 

“It’s been a very long 10 years of every adult I know saying, ‘It didn’t used to be like this,’” Cosmo said, referring to the Trump era of American politics. He was 13 when Trump was first elected. Lola was five. 

“I’ve never experienced a world where it has been different,” Lola chimed in. 

The youngest generation that can vote, Generation Z, now roughly 14 to 29 years old, is disproportionately independent. Not to be construed as moderate, this growing bloc of the electorate has soured on both parties as they view the government as failing to protect and address their needs. 

Young voters could be consequential in midterms across the country and particularly in Maine, which CIRCLE, a nonpartisan research organization at Tufts University, considers the top state where these voters could sway Senate outcomes. 

Both Lola and Cosmo Fulham-FitzGerald are sick of the negative ads that have blanketed the state, largely paid for by outside interests. 

“I’d rather see, ‘This is what I can do or am going to do.’ I want to see personal genuine interest,” Lola said, adding that that is why the town hall appealed to her. 

Jackson and Ocasio-Cortez shared stances on a range of issues throughout the town hall, calling for regulations on Artificial Intelligence and data privacy and more funding for public transportation, with Jackson saying he would like to see more trains connecting the state.

When a transgender college student said many in the trans community feel abandoned by the Democratic Party, Ocasio-Cortez said, “I think it’s what people hate most about politics, which is politicians who will jump on this side or that side of the line at a moment’s notice.”

When Maine Morning Star asked Collins about why she feels she is best fit to represent young Mainers during a campaign stop in Naples last month, the senator pointed to the same reason she thinks Mainers overall should support her: her power, particularly to ward off cuts from the Trump administration that would have harmed them. 

The senator listed her work preventing Trump from imposing caps on need-based federal financial aid for students known as Pell Grants, as well as preventing a freeze in admission and funding cuts to the Job Corps program, a free career training program for low-income young adults, among other efforts. 

“What we need to do is make sure that our young people have the tools and the support to get the skills that they need, so they can stay in the state of Maine,” Collins said.

Progressive push

Renee Caisse, a 20-year-old student at the Maine College Art and Design, wants to see more progressives in U.S. Congress, but also wants progressives not to cave to pressures of the Democratic establishment. 

“Sometimes the party may not be on their side,” Caisse told Maine Morning Star. “I want more progressive candidates to hold their ground.”  

Ocasio-Cortez said at the beginning of the town hall that there are a lot of consultants in Washington who would advise him to not sit beside her, as she is viewed by some as a polarizing figure. 

“I’m sure you probably heard some variation of that,” Ocasio-Cortez said to Jackson. “And it takes a lot to say, ‘You know what, no, I know my people. I know who I am and I’m gonna do things my way.’” 

A specific stance Caisse hoped Jackson and Ocasio-Cortez would stay firm on was opposition to U.S. aid to Israel. During the event, another attendee asked, “America or Israel first?” Both responded, “America first.” 

Jackson said no more blank checks to Israel. Pointing to all of the money the U.S. spends on foreign conflicts, Ocasio-Cortez said, “One of the things that I find so mind-boggling is that whenever we want to expand healthcare in this country, Medicare in this country, education, everyone’s first question in Washington is, ‘We have no money. How are we going to pay for this?’ As though the richest nation in the history of the world is a pauper.”

She added, “It’s about time that we flip that equation.”

After Ocasio-Cortez gave that response, Jackson said, “Why wouldn’t I want to sit alongside someone that just talked like that?”