Days before primary, Jackson and Shah spar over outsider attack ads, abortion views 

After months of mostly avoiding direct attacks, Democratic gubernatorial candidates Troy Jackson and Nirav Shah spent Thursday denouncing a pair of outside attack ads, though largely standing by the criticisms those ads raised about their opponent.

Both ads were paid for by out-of-state political groups that have committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic primary.

At back-to-back press conferences, Jackson and Shah denounced the negative turn the race has taken while making it clear they still believed each other’s records and campaigns were fair game for attack.

The ad targeting Jackson, paid for by Washington, D.C.-based political action committee 314 Action, questioned the former Maine Senate president’s record on abortion rights, alleging his support for abortion access has shifted over time.

The ad targeting Shah was funded by the Working Families Party, a progressive minor political party based in Brooklyn, and attacked the former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director over his ties to outside interests and wealthy donors.

“My aversion, and the tactics that I am particularly calling up, are these 10-second ads that are snippets and headlines rather than substance and fact,” Shah said at a press conference in Portland Thursday. “They are designed to scare, they are designed to divide, they are not designed to educate.”

Jackson was more upset about what he called “outright lies” about his record on reproductive rights than the attack ads, which he said are to be expected because of the recent University of New Hampshire poll showing that he was practically tied with Shah for first place. 

“Mainers just can’t trust Troy Jackson on abortion,” the ad states, pointing to his 100% approval rating from a pro-life group earlier in his political career and his prior admission that he had struggled with the issue. The ad also makes the claim that Jackson “even stuck to his pro-life position after Roe v. Wade was overturned,” without acknowledging that he has since sponsored and supported several bills enshrining access to abortion, and has also received a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

Jackson said he has not tried to hide his previous votes, “but what I have been very clear is, for the last 10 years I have been right there, being the one that time after time held up abortion access for people in the state.”

He also accused Shah and his backers of trying to distract from other campaign issues.

“The same dark money, anti-labor special interest groups attacking me are backing Dr. Nirav Shah, because he represents, in my opinion, more of the same,” he said. “The same old rigged game that makes the rich, the well-connected, richer on the backs of working Mainers.”

Shah and Jackson have been at odds with each other before. Jackson and two other allied candidates — Shenna Bellows and Hannah Pingree — denounced another ad supporting Shah that was partially paid for by pro-school choice group Education Reform Now, in addition to 314 Action. 

Reproductive rights records 

Over the past decade, the former Senate president has mostly been a staunch supporter of abortion rights. He co-sponsored a 2023 law that allows patients to access abortion care later in pregnancy when it is deemed necessary by a medical professional. In 2022, he introduced legislation that became law that requires state-regulated insurance plans to cover prescription contraceptives. 

Pointing to those successes as well as his support for Maine’s recently enacted shield law protecting healthcare providers, Jackson said, “my record’s been sterling over the last 10 years.”

“In fact, I’ve been the person that’s been fighting the hardest on these issues while he wasn’t even in the state of Maine,” he added, referring to Shah’s time working in the Biden administration.

In their campaigns for governor, both Jackson and Shah have expressed support for enshrining reproductive rights in the state constitution. Jackson also said he plans to add funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion healthcare providers directly into the state budget if elected.

Shah recently announced a day one executive order that, among other things. will enforce Maine’s shield law that protects providers, publish a public reproductive health access guide, and review insurance barriers to reproductive care.

Healthcare professionals defend candidates 

Dr. Emily Hill, a family medicine and palliative physician in Portland, spoke at the press event besides Jackson. She said that she’s “saddened in a race that has been cordial and kind that certain groups have to stoop to new lows that are outright false and spread misinformation about healthcare access and delivery here in our state.”

“I know that we can trust Troy Jackson on abortion,” she said.

During his press conference, Shah denounced the ad by 314 Action for its negative tactics, but said he still has questions about his opponent’s support of reproductive rights. He pointed to Jackson’s prior record, pointing to the 100% ratings he received from pro-life group Maine Right to Life in 2003 and 2010 and his votes for bills establishing fetal personhood and a 24-hour waiting period for abortions in 2011, in addition to his admission of “struggling with abortion” to Maine Public in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision rolling back the federal right to abortion. 

“I think it’s a relevant inquiry as to where Sen. Jackson is with respect to abortion rights,” Shah said. “Until I was asked yesterday, I had not commented upon his record around reproductive health and reproductive freedom thus far, but this is a reasonable line of inquiry.”

Eliza Lee, a Shah supporter and mental health professional, said at the event that she respects that Jackson “changed his opinion on abortion.”

“I’m glad he came around, but I think it’s just all about voters having the full history, and being able to ask questions and have all the information that we deserve as voters, and especially as women, around abortion,” Lee said, who noted that she had a late-term abortion.“But I just always am a little skeptical when politicians switch, as a woman who has been through it personally.”