Christian LaMontagne has started slowing his lobster boat down.
asserted
LaMontagne → start → boat
The 27-year-old fisher spends longer on the water when out hauling traps in Casco Bay, but the trade-off helps him save fuel at a time when costs have surged.
asserted
costs → spend → time
Before the US war with Iran began in late February, filling his tank cost about $350 a week.
asserted
filling → begin → 350
Now it’s doubled to nearly $700.
asserted
it → double → 700
“Last year at this time I had to go out and catch 40 lobsters to fill up my tank, this year it’s over 104,” LaMontagne said at Widgery Wharf in Portland, where his 34ft Wayne Beal boat is docked just steps away from the hum of tourists in the city’s Old Port.
asserted
boat → have → Port
Practically every part of Maine’s billion-dollar lobster industry has been squeezed by Trump administration policies like the Iran war and sweeping tariffs.
asserted
part → squeeze → war
Despite the economic pressures shaping his vote, LaMontagne remains undecided in the state’s tight Senate race.
asserted
LaMontagne → shape → race
One of the most closely watched contests of this midterm cycle pits Troy Jackson, the progressive lumberjack who mounted a breakneck 101-day campaign, against Susan Collins, the entrenched Republican incumbent seeking a sixth term.
asserted
who → watch → term
Democrats see Maine as critical to their effort to retake the upper chamber, though recent polling shows the nominees neck-and-neck heading into 3 November.
asserted
nominees → see → November
The race was beset by turmoil early on after the former Democratic nominee, Graham Platner, withdrew after a series of controversies, culminating in a sexual assault and rape allegation that he denied.
asserted
he → beset → that
Now with less than a week to go, pocketbook concerns increasingly blend into a broader judgment of Donald Trump’s second administration.
asserted
concerns → go → administration
And Maine’s conflicted voters may decide the election.
uncertain
voters → decide → election
In the final stretch of this often-acrimonious Senate competition, Jackson has cast himself as the working-class alternative to Collins’s three decades in Washington, arguing that her reputation for independence masks a voting record that ultimately benefits Trump.
asserted
that → cast → Trump
The federal funding that she has brought in is “a pittance compared to what we’re losing”, Jackson said at a recent campaign event for Maine veterans in Brunswick, adding that Collins “takes credit for an awful lot” but won’t take credit for helping pass Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he said is “crushing” the state.
asserted
he → bring → state
Jackson has also worked to yoke Collins more closely to Trump after a ProPublica report in September that revealed the FBI had investigated the senator over an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a campaign donor.
asserted
FBI → work → donor
The inquiry reportedly withered after Trump dismantled the justice department division handling the case.
uncertain
Trump → wither → case
He called the episode “corruption of the highest order”, while Collins’s office dismissed the report as “categorically false” and noted there were never any allegations of wrongdoing by the senator’s campaign.
“The reality is that 100% of the time, when Donald Trump needs her, Susan Collins is going to be there,” Jackson said during one of four televised debates this month, while also invoking the senator’s vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court, which later helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
asserted
which → call → 2022
Collins, whom Trump once derided as “absolutely atrocious”, argues that her willingness to break with the president and her party sets her apart from most Republicans.
asserted
willingness → deride → Republicans
“I decide my votes on what I believe is best for Maine and for America, not on whether or not any president, and I’ve worked with five, is for it or against it,” she said at a recent campaign stop.
asserted
she → decide → stop
On the trail, the senator points to her vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act, her vote to impeach Trump after the January 6 insurrection, her opposition to Pete Hegseth’s nomination as defense secretary and her support for a war powers resolution limiting military action against Iran without congressional approval.
asserted
senator → point → approval
(The Collins campaign did not respond to the Guardian’s request for an interview.
asserted
campaign → respond → interview
However, a New York Times analysis found that while Collins has broken with her party 17% of the time during the current Congress, roughly in line with her rate of defections during Trump’s first term, those breaks have rarely slowed the president’s agenda since his return to the White House last year.
asserted
breaks → find → House
One example was Trump’s signature domestic policy package that imposed steep Medicaid cuts, including billions affecting Maine.
asserted
that → impose → Maine
Although Collins opposed the bill’s final passage, she supported a key procedural vote that allowed it to reach the Senate floor.
asserted
it → oppose → floor
Collins is also the only Republican senator up for re-election in a state Trump lost in 2024, leaving her exposed to the broader backlash against the administration.
asserted
Trump → lose → administration
A recent Marist poll found that only 42% of likely Maine voters approve of Trump’s job performance, while 41% say their congressional vote is primarily a vote against him.
asserted
vote → find → him
“Jackson, in some ways, seems almost irrelevant,” said Dan Shea, a professor of government at Colby College.
asserted
Shea → seem → College
“I think it’s about whether or not [voters] can tolerate giving Trump one more vote in the Senate.”
asserted
voters → think → Senate
Meanwhile, Collins’s ability to secure concessions from the Trump administration may be her greatest boon on the campaign trail, and Jackson’s biggest disadvantage.
uncertain
ability → secure → trail
In recent weeks, she has touted a major Pentagon contract for the Bath Iron Works shipyard, the release of more than 300,000 barrels of heating oil to ease costs across New England and Trump tariff exemptions benefiting Maine industries caught in the US-Canada trade war.
asserted
she → tout → war
As a freshman senator, Jackson would face a steeper climb in directing federal resources to the state, particularly if Democrats remain in the minority.
asserted
Democrats → face → minority
Faced with the reality of rising costs and an unpopular president, Collins’s former supporters are weighing their options.
asserted
supporters → face → options
Beyond gas, heating oil has emerged as another flashpoint in Maine, where nearly half of households rely on it to make it through the winter.
asserted
half → emerge → winter
The average price of a gallon now exceeds $6, a record high, according to the state’s department of energy resources.
uncertain
price → exceed → resources
“I put in 131 gallons of oil.
asserted
I → put → oil
It wasn’t even filling the tank, and it was $729,” said Cheryl Clukey, 77, a retired school principal from Augusta.
asserted
Clukey → fill → Augusta
“I’ve never had that before, and I’m scared.”
asserted
I → have → that
Clukey, who has voted for Collins in the past and was raised Republican, said the senator’s 30 years in Congress are “enough”.
asserted
years → vote → Congress
Yet many supporters appear motivated less by Jackson himself than by opposition to the president.
asserted
supporters → appear → president
“I would have voted for anybody who could put brakes on Trump.
uncertain
who → vote → Trump
…and 29 more, not listed.
The Aporia
