Take Daily Mail's quiz and find out
By the time James Cox was first permitted to enter the polling station, Susan Collins had been his senator for a decade.
asserted
Collins → take → decade
Cox, now 38, voted for the veteran Republican several times – swayed by her pledge to fight for the rights of her Maine constituents.
asserted
Cox → vote → constituents
He is thinking of doing so again.
asserted
He → think → ?
'Susan Collins is more of a familiar face to me,' he told the Daily Mail, standing in his flannel jacket in the windswept street of Bangor – tiny Maine's third-largest city, with a mere 32,000 residents.
asserted
he → tell → residents
But he's heard word of a 'new' kid on the block.
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he → hear → block
'It was brought to my attention that Troy Jackson's actually been involved in the Senate and politics for over 20 years,' he said.
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he → bring → years
Does he know enough about him to trust him with his vote?
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he → know → vote
Cox's comments, with a week to go until the midterms, will sink like a stone in the Jackson camp.
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comments → go → camp
GOP incumbent Senator Susan Collins is running for a sixth consecutive term against Democrat Troy Jackson, a former logger and longtime local Maine lawmaker
James Cox, 38, a Bangor resident, told the Daily Mail he supports Collins because she's a familiar face and he does not know much about Jackson, although his top concern was ending the US war in Iran
The Daily Mail interviewed half a dozen Bangor residents the week before Election Day.
asserted
Mail → run → Day
Voters in the area consistently gravitated towards Collins over Jackson, sighting their unfamiliarity with the Democrat whose run a truncated campaign after his predecessor dropped out
Jackson, the 58-year-old Democrat logger-turned-politician, is hoping to unseat 73-year-old Collins, the longest-serving Republican woman in Senate history.
asserted
Jackson → gravitate → history
Collins, campaigning for her sixth term, is hoping that the majority of Mainers feel, like Cox, that she is a safe, well-known bet.
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she → campaign → Cox
Jackson's team, meanwhile, are wracked by concerns that his late entry to the race has hobbled him – especially because, in running against such a well-known politician, he needed all the time possible to get his name on everyone's lips.
asserted
he → wrack → lips
'Jackson served six years as the head of the state Senate, but he's not terribly well known by a lot of Maine voters, especially in the southern part of the state,' said Ronald Schmidt, professor of political science at the University of Southern Maine.
asserted
Schmidt → serve → Maine
'He needed every opportunity he could to introduce himself - before Senator Collins and the PACs supporting her began to do that introduction on their own.'
uncertain
Collins → need → own
Jackson was not confirmed as the Democrat candidate until July 25, after the previous nominee, Graham Platner, was forced to pull out amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
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nominee → confirm → misconduct
Platner had launched his election bid in August 2025, meaning that Jackson effectively lost a year of campaign time.
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Jackson → launch → time
'There was a lag in terms of organizing and in terms of finding the right tone,' said Schmidt.
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Schmidt → be → tone
'That being said, I think he still has a decent chance of winning, in part because of exhaustion with the Trump administration and the Republicans in Washington.
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he → say → Washington
'But in terms of the strengths of his campaign, that slow start definitely did hurt.'
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start → hurt → campaign
He dropped out after being the subject of rape and sexual misconduct accusations.
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He → drop → accusations
He has denied all wrongdoing
Platner faced intense scrutiny after reports revealed an active profile on the anonymous messaging app Kik and a scandal involving extramarital and sexually explicit texts.
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reports → deny → texts
Platner's Kik profile picture, viewed by the Daily Mail, showed the Democratic candidate posing shirtless and in only a towel
After Platner dropped out, Democratic candidate Troy Jackson, 58, a former logger and president of the Maine state Senate launched his campaign in late July
For some Maine Democrats, it's all agonizingly familiar.
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it → view → Democrats
Like Kamala Harris's supporters in 2024, Jackson's fans feel he has not been given time to establish himself.
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he → feel → himself
And, with the crucial contest currently too close to call, Jackson needed all the help he could get.
uncertain
he → call → help
Certainly, he has the Maine bona fides.
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he → have → fides
Born in the far north of the state to a 16-year-old teacher and her logger husband, Jackson's parents did not want their son to follow his father, grandfather and great-grandfather into logging.
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son → bear → logging
But age 11, in 1981, he went with his father to support striking loggers, only to see them forced to return to work or be fired and replaced by Canadians.
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them → go → Canadians
It had a profound impact on the youngster, who vividly recalled earlier this year the powerlessness his father Joe felt.
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father → have → powerlessness
'He couldn’t say anything,' said Jackson, speaking to a reporter before meeting with electricians at their union building in Lewiston.
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Jackson → say → Lewiston
'You lose your sense of pride, your sense of dignity.'
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You → lose → dignity
By the age of 19, Jackson was working full time as a logger – waking at 2am for 18-hour days in the woods, and leading protests for better working conditions.
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Jackson → work → conditions
When the protests failed, he entered politics – initially as a Republican, knowing that the Bush family had ties to the state, before switching in 2004 to run as a Democrat.
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family → fail → Democrat
A statue of the legendary North American lumberjack Paul Bunyan stands proudly in Bangor.
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statue → stand → Bangor
The area has deep ties to the logging industry
Jackson camapaigned alongside Senator Elizabeth Warren on Monday in Waterville, Maine.
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Jackson → have → Waterville
At the event he spoke out about growing corporate power undermining working class families and noted how he is against 'for-profit' higher education, two progressive platforms
In a state which prides itself as fiercely independent – one-third of voters refuse to declare themselves a member of either party – his switching sides has not concerned people.
And indeed, independence is something his Republican rival is desperate to play up.
Donald Trump's approval ratings are at record lows, and so Collins is now doing her utmost to distance herself from her party's leader.
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Collins → speak → leader
She voted to impeach him in January 2021, and voted against some of his Cabinet members in both terms – notably Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel.
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She → vote → terms
But she did vote to confirm Robert F Kennedy Jr, and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
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she → vote → Court
She supported Trump's policies 95 percent of the time in 2025, according to CQ Roll Call analysis, and voted to advance the Big Beautiful Bill in the Senate, but then rejected it in the final vote – a classic, performative Collins move, her critics say.
uncertain
critics → support → vote
Her campaign insists it shows her independent streak.
asserted
it → insist → streak
Is it working?
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it → work → ?
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
