10/16/2026
BREAKING: A Republican super PAC desperate to save Susan Collins just set up to $25,000 on fire attacking Troy Jackson in the wrong state.
Defending Main Street, a GOP group tied to the Republican Main Street Partnership that Collins belongs to, bought a 30-second video ad blasting Jackson over taxes. There was just one problem. The ad ran in Portland, Oregon. Not Portland, Maine.
According to Google's ad transparency data, the group spent between $20,000 and $25,000 pushing the ad across hundreds of ZIP codes in Oregon and Washington from October 8 through October 11. It was served more than a million times to people roughly 3,000 miles away from the race. Not a single one of them can vote for or against Troy Jackson.
The PAC has now admitted the blunder, blaming its media vendor and saying the ads were pulled once the mistake was caught. And how was it caught? Oregonians started posting online about getting hammered with attack ads targeting a Maine Senate candidate they had never heard of.
The ad's message: "Maine can't afford Troy Jackson." Apparently Maine can't afford the GOP's geography skills either.
And the GOP knows it is in trouble. Since Jackson became the Democratic nominee in July, he has kept pace with Collins, and several recent polls show him holding a slim lead. That is why the attack ads are flooding in. Republicans are scared.
They are spending like it. They just might want to buy a map first.