Scoop: GOP Super PAC hits Jackson on transgender issues
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
A super PAC working to reelect Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is plowing $1.1 million into an ad campaign attacking Democrat Troy Jackson for supporting state legislation that allows transgender women to be housed in women's prisons.
Why it matters: The ad is the latest example of Republicans using visceral attacks on transgender policies to draw sharp contrasts with Democrats on a hot-button cultural issue.
- But for the first time this cycle, Republicans are taking the transgender issue into a blue-state Senate race.
Driving the news: The strategy behind the two-week blitz from Pine Tree Results is clear: drive Jackson's negatives higher.
- "As Senate president, Jackson signed the bill requiring state prisons to house biological men if they identify as female with women prisoners," the narrator says.
The other side: "Susan Collins and her allies are desperately trying to change the subject because she can't defend her own record," said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson for Jackson.
- "She voted with Donald Trump 96% of the time," Gottlieb said. "No amount of dishonest fearmongering is going to distract Mainers from that."
Zoom out: In 2024, Democrats felt blindsided by GOP attacks on transgender people participating in women's sports, which contributed to two Senate losses in red states.
- This cycle, Republicans are again zeroing in on the issue, but most of their ads have been airing in states or districts Trump won.
In Texas, Republicans have recirculated a 2021 floor speech from state Rep. James Talarico in which he declared that "God is nonbinary" and expressed his love for trans children.
- In Iowa, Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) welcomed state Rep. Josh Turek to the general election with an ad accusing him of supporting children changing gender without parental consent.
- And in Ohio, Sen. Jon Husted has accused former Sen. Sherrod Brown of supporting "boys in girls' sports," reprising an attack that Sen. Bernie Moreno successfully used against Brown in 2024.
Zoom in: In Maine, both sides have ample resources to try to define the other candidate on the air.
- On the ground, Collins is running a ribbon-cutting campaign, touring the state and highlighting the projects she has helped fund as chair of the Appropriations Committee.
- A Democratic group affiliated with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) launched a $4.4 million ad buy accusing Collins of caving to President Trump, criticizing her for supporting his Supreme Court nominees who overturned Roe v. Wade.
- And an abortion rights group launched a $250,000 campaign hitting Collins on reproductive rights, Axios reported Monday.
