Augusta, ME – Today, Susan Collins’ campaign is “facing a wave of backlash” after her campaign’s new ad “belittle[d] working-class Mainers.” The critics even included a former Collins staffer, who “accused Collins and her allies of displaying their ‘disdain for little people,’ before concluding with four words: ‘The race is over.’”

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MeidasTouch News: Susan Collins’ ‘Tone-Deaf’ Attack Ad Sparks Firestorm Days Before Election

By Brett Meiselas

October 27, 2026

• With just one week until Election Day, Republican Sen. Susan Collins is facing a wave of backlash over a new campaign advertisement that critics say belittles working-class Mainers and exposes the elitism her opponents have long accused her of harboring.

• The 30-second ad features longtime Maine television personality Bill Green, who praises Collins before taking aim at her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson, a former logger who went on to become president of the Maine Senate.

• “Now, I also know Troy Jackson, but we’re not talking about buying a cord of wood here,” Green says. “We’re sending someone to the U.S. Senate, and Troy doesn’t have the tools he needs to be effective.”

• The remark has sparked outrage, with critics accusing the Collins campaign of looking down on blue-collar workers in a state where logging has deep economic and cultural roots.

• And some of the harshest criticism is coming from a former Collins staffer.

• Sam Patten, a former Collins staffer and former Maine Wire editor, delivered a blistering assessment of the advertisement.

• “I didn’t believe this ad was real,” Patten wrote, explaining that he contacted Maine television stations to confirm it was actually airing.

• “For more than 30 years, Susan Collins has carefully concealed her intrinsic arrogance because she is very smart and knows well that in Maine politics that would be fatal,” he continued. “With this ad, she gave that act up.”

• Patten accused Collins and her allies of displaying their “disdain for little people,” before concluding with four words: “The race is over.”

• Jordan Wood, a Maine political figure and former congressional candidate, was similarly stunned.

• “Bill Green’s latest ad for Susan Collins made my jaw drop,” Wood wrote. “A pathetic end to both of their careers. Mainers will reject these despicable attacks next Tuesday.”

• The Maine AFL-CIO also condemned the advertisement, accusing Collins of losing touch with the people she represents.

• “Susan Collins has spent so much time in Washington she thinks working-class Mainers are beneath her,” the organization wrote. “We don’t need anymore millionaires in Congress.”

• The labor group praised Jackson as “a true blue collar Mainer who will put working people first!”

• Other Mainers called the advertisement “shameless elitism” and “disrespectful of the hard-working people of Maine.”

• One resident pointed out the irony of the campaign invoking firewood when families are struggling with heating costs.

• “Susan’s campaign won’t talk about buying a cord of wood because they know Mainers are looking for any way to heat their homes this winter,” the commenter wrote.

• The controversy comes at a critical moment for Collins, who has spent decades cultivating an image as an independent-minded Republican with broad appeal.

• The advertisement was seemingly designed to portray Jackson as unqualified while reinforcing Collins’ experience in Washington. Instead, critics have seized on it as evidence that the longtime senator has lost touch with working-class voters.

• Jackson’s journey from logger to Maine Senate president offers a particularly striking contrast to the suggestion that his background somehow makes him less qualified for federal office.

• Whether the backlash translates into votes remains unclear. But with Election Day on November 3, Collins’ campaign now faces an unwelcome controversy over an advertisement the senator personally approved.

• And in the eyes of at least one former staffer, the damage may already be done.