Millions of dollars is being spent on supporting candidates and attacking opponents in the Maine Senate race, as the Democrat Troy Jackson attempts to unseat the three-decade incumbent Susan Collins. Data from AdImpact—a media analytics firm—shows over $1.6 billion has been spent on advertising associated with 2026 Senate races, led by Ohio at $407 million, Texas at $281 million and Maine at $195 million. Axios analysis of the figures revealed that, on a Per-capita basis, Maine’s Senate race is proving to be the costliest in the nation, with Republicans spending $96.99 per adult compared to $69.52 by the Democrats.
This comes under a month out from Election Day, and as both candidates struggle to secure a concrete edge over their opponent. Most surveys have Jackson with a slight lead, though Collins has overcome significant polling disadvantages in the past and gone on to win reelection handily. Newsweek has contacted both campaigns via email for comment and is awaiting responses.
According to AdImpact’s figures adjusted for population size, Republicans and Democrats are spending enough to give each voting-age resident $166.51. The Pine Tree State is followed by Alaska at $134.65 and Iowa at $66.96—two Senate races which are also in toss-up territory. And while Republicans are exhibiting a far greater willingness to spend—and better fundraising abilities—the disparity is especially noticeable in the case of the contest between Collins and Jackson.
An estimate from The New York Times in July found that the five-term senator has benefited significantly from her party’s major campaigning arms, which had by then already committed $113 million toward her reelection bid. This figure has swelled significantly, with much of the support coming from GOP groups like the Senate Leadership Fund—the party’s most prominent super PAC—and the Maine-focused Pine Tree Results PAC. The former, according to the Maine Morning Star, had by June spent $29 million on ads supporting Collins—then running against Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race in July.
Pine Tree Results PAC, formed specifically to back Collins’s reelection bids, has spent over $12 million last year and in 2026, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The incumbent senator has also received backing from organizations like Stronger Maine and Elon Musk’s America PAC. And a June analysis of Federal Election Commission (FEC) finance data by Maine Monitor found that dozens of billionaires had together donated $9.8 million to supporting Collins since the beginning of 2025.
This week, it was also revealed that another super PAC, Defending Main Street, had spent around $25,000 in advertising against Jackson in Portland, Oregon rather than Portland, Maine. The group told Newsweek these ads were "immediately stopped and corrected" once the mistake was noticed, and that the vendor behind the mistake would be refunding the group the full amount. Jackson’s campaign has yet to submit a quarterly financial disclosure report to the FEC—a product of his late entry into the race—and has only a few days to do so to give Mainers insight into his camp’s own fundraising practices ahead of the vote.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
