Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Tie Collins to Trump - Maine Democrats reveal strategy ahead of November Senate election

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Tie Collins to Trump - Maine Democrats reveal strategy ahead of November Senate election · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: The stage is said. In Maine, Democratic former state lowmaker
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  Speaker 1: Troy Jackson will face off against long time Republican incumbent
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  Speaker 1: Susan Collins for the US Senate this November, a race
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  Speaker 1: that could be a key factor in democrats chances of
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  Speaker 1: taking back the Senate majority. And yesterday an interview with
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  Speaker 1: ms NOW is Chris Jackson she he pointed out. He
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  Speaker 1: pointed to the issues he believes will set him apart
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  Speaker 1: from Colins.
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  Speaker 2: I've been fighting for universal health care, scription drug coverage.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm a big labor person. I don't believe
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  Speaker 2: in contact cuts for wealthy people. I don't believe and
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  Speaker 2: I should come to Maine or any other state and
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  Speaker 2: create the chaos and hate and discontent and murder people.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, these are huge differences between me and Senator Collins.
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  Speaker 2: And that's why I think people are going to vote
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  Speaker 2: for me, because they want somebody that has their back
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  Speaker 2: instead of the wealthy elite.
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  Speaker 1: That was that was the Senate candidate now the Democratic
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  Speaker 1: nominee Troy Jackson, with ms now's own Chris Jansen and
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  Speaker 1: also joining us is Kirby Wilson. Politics that are the
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  Speaker 1: Portland Press Harold Kirby is good to see you again.
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  Speaker 1: I think we just saw you right, just yesterday twenty
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  Speaker 1: four hours. So I think my question with you, I
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  Speaker 1: want to start with the Democratic strategy in the race.
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  Speaker 1: It seems to me that they are they are trying
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  Speaker 1: to They are consistently pointing to a key stat which
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  Speaker 1: is that Susan Collins is voted with Donald Trump ninety
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  Speaker 1: six percent of the time. What was notable to me
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  Speaker 1: when preparing for this segment. I ran across your own
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  Speaker 1: polling about a month ago which found that Donald Trump
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  Speaker 1: was underwater I think twenty one points in Maine. So
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  Speaker 1: I think my question for you it's that connecting, you know,
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  Speaker 1: Trump to Collins. The Trump is that type of message?
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  Speaker 1: Is that with voters or are they still sorting through
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  Speaker 1: the debris of the platnir withdrawal.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think no matter who the Democratic candidate is,
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  Speaker 3: the Democrats were going to hope to tie Senator Collins
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  Speaker 3: to President Trump. The two stats that you cited are
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  Speaker 3: actually really interesting because Senator Collins has voted with Trump
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  Speaker 3: nineteen out of twenty times statistically, but that's actually sort
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  Speaker 3: of on the lower end of how often Republican senators
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  Speaker 3: vote with the president so you can kind of spin
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  Speaker 3: that number either way, right, Like Senator Collins could say, well,
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  Speaker 3: I'm actually one of the more moderate Republicans for voting
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  Speaker 3: even that percentage of the time. And as far as
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  Speaker 3: the other statistic about the about polling and stuff, she's
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  Speaker 3: with Trump's numbers, he's significantly underwater, but he's not more
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  Speaker 3: underwater than he is nationally, so he's not especially unpopular
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  Speaker 3: in Maine. Now.
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  Speaker 4: I think both of those.
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  Speaker 3: Things could change. And that polling was done before the
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  Speaker 3: ice officer killed a man, a twenty five year old
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  Speaker 3: man in Biddeford, about ten days ago. So I think
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  Speaker 3: the more national flare ups there are, the more between
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  Speaker 3: now an election day, the more opportunities Democrats will have
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  Speaker 3: to tie Senator Collins to the Trump administration and so
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  Speaker 3: you know, and if they're able to do so, I
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  Speaker 3: think they're in good shape.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, Senator Collins is always concerned, so maybe that
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  Speaker 4: works out of her favor. There's also some polling from
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  Speaker 4: University of New Hampshire that I thought was really interesting.
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  Speaker 4: Kirby Jackson seems to have a slight edge or a
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  Speaker 4: Collins among voters forty nine percent to forty six percent.
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  Speaker 4: We can see there that's just a three percent chain
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  Speaker 4: and the two point nine percent is the margin of error.
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  Speaker 4: So basically it is a tide race at this point.
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  Speaker 4: But he's also more way more popular among voters eighteen
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  Speaker 4: to thirty four, sixty seven percent to her thirty percent,
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  Speaker 4: And when you take both of those things one, it's
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  Speaker 4: three points enough for him at this point based on
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  Speaker 4: how how much she overperforms polls every single time. I
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  Speaker 4: think the shift from Sarah Gideon to her in polling
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  Speaker 4: and when it actually came out in November was double digits.
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  Speaker 4: And how likely is it that he's able to galvanize
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  Speaker 4: these young voters in a way that's actually really really
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  Speaker 4: helpful for him here?
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  Speaker 3: I think there's a great chance he's going to do
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  Speaker 3: well with young voters, and in fact, Maine had the
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  Speaker 3: second highest turnout in twenty twenty four among young voters.
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  Speaker 3: But the problem in Maine is there's just not that
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  Speaker 3: many of them. Maine is statistically the oldest state in
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  Speaker 3: the country, and this battle, this campaign battle is largely
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  Speaker 3: going to be fought on the airwaves. Trying to reach
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  Speaker 3: older voters via traditional media means, you know, TV, newspapers, radio,
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  Speaker 3: so I think there's a great chance that Senator or
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  Speaker 3: that state Senator Jackson can galvanize young voters. I'm just
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  Speaker 3: not sure it's going to make up for the margins
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  Speaker 3: that you know you pointed to that. I think the
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  Speaker 3: interesting thing to point to in that University of New
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  Speaker 3: Hampshire poll is the Democratic candidate for governor is running
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  Speaker 3: fourteen sixteen points better than her Republican opponent. Jackson is
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  Speaker 3: running three points better than Collins. To me, that implies
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  Speaker 3: the existence of a lot of Democratic voters for governor
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  Speaker 3: and Republican voters for senator. They're voting for both at
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  Speaker 3: the same time. If Jackson can cut down on the
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  Speaker 3: number of those voters, I think he'll do a lot better.
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  Speaker 3: You saw it in twenty twenty, Sarah Gideon lost by
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  Speaker 3: nine points, the same year that President Biden won by
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  Speaker 3: nine points.
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  Speaker 5: Kirby, I'm wondering if you can sort of give us
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  Speaker 5: a vibe check of the room yesterday, because obviously the
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  Speaker 5: sampling of people who were there is not necessarily reflective
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  Speaker 5: of the entire main electric It's very keyed in, up
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  Speaker 5: to date, high propensity group of people. Try jack but
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  Speaker 5: you know, nevertheless, they are reflective of some of that
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  Speaker 5: excitement that we've been seeing all along here and in
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  Speaker 5: that vibe check a little bit more specifically, what were
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  Speaker 5: the issues that you heard from your conversation with these delegates,
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  Speaker 5: the people that were participating in this process yesterday, and
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  Speaker 5: you know, does that align with the priorities and the
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  Speaker 5: platform that we saw Troy Jackson put out yesterday according
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  Speaker 5: to his campaign.
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  Speaker 3: So we put out a policy survey for all of
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  Speaker 3: the candidates who ran for Senate in this truncated, less
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  Speaker 3: than two week process, and we found that there was
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  Speaker 3: almost no daylight between the candidates on key issues Medicare
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  Speaker 3: for all, abolishing ice, their stance on Israel, it was
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  Speaker 3: all very similar. So when you get six hundred plugged
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  Speaker 3: in Democrats and Maine in a room, they're going to
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  Speaker 3: agree a lot on policy. The difference in the candidates
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  Speaker 3: is both how they present and also how they plan
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  Speaker 3: to attack Senator Collins. And I think you saw some
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  Speaker 3: key differences there between Jackson and his predecessor, Graham Platner,
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  Speaker 3: who withdrew from the race. Platner attacked Collins a lot
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  Speaker 3: on personal terms. She's personally corrupt, he said, She's part
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  Speaker 3: of the system of Congress that enriches members instead of
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  Speaker 3: you know, the everyday workers, every day people. And Jackson,
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  Speaker 3: although there was a flavor of that to what he said,
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  Speaker 3: he's focusing a lot more on the policy stuff and
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  Speaker 3: trying to tie her to Donald Trump. Now Platner did
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  Speaker 3: that as well, but I think Jackson is leaning a
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  Speaker 3: lot more heavily towards that end of things, and I
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  Speaker 3: think voters are probably going to respond a little bit
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  Speaker 3: more to how the national environment plays out here as
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  Speaker 3: opposed to attacking Senator Collins in personal terms, because Collins
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  Speaker 3: has been around for thirty years, right Like, people in
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  Speaker 3: Maye know her and they don't see her as corrupt.
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  Speaker 3: They just don't.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Harvey Wilson, so knowledgeable. Thank you so much for
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  Speaker 4: sharing that with us, and we will continue to have
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  Speaker 4: our eyes on main and have you come back to
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  Speaker 4: explain it all. So thank you for coming back to
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  Speaker 4: the weekend