Sen. Susan Collins fired back at her Democratic Senate challenger after a decades-old police report accused Troy Jackson of breaking down a door, punching a man, and pushing his longtime partner, raising fresh questions about whether Maine Democrats vetted their replacement nominee at all.
Collins, kicking off a statewide bus tour in Kittery, Maine, on Friday, told reporters she would not comment directly on the 1988 police report but offered a pointed assessment of Jackson's fitness for office. "Based on widespread reporting, it appears that he struggles to control his temper," the Republican senator told Fox News Digital.
The remark landed days after the Bangor Daily News published details from a March 12, 1988, police report describing a violent late-night confrontation in Fort Kent, a small town in Maine's rural northern tip. Jackson, then 19 years old, allegedly went to a home around 2 a.m., kicked in the door after the occupant told him to leave, grabbed the man by the throat, and punched him in the face hard enough that the victim's glasses cut his skin. A friend broke up the fight.
The same report contained another allegation: Jackson's longtime partner, Lana Pelletier, told responding officers that Jackson had "pushed her around." Pelletier now says she does not remember making those statements and calls them inaccurate.
Jackson did not dispute that he went to the residence or that fists were thrown. His campaign told Fox News Digital the case was resolved with a $50 fine. Background checks cited by Fox News show no criminal record beyond that single 1988 incident.
In a statement, Jackson acknowledged the altercation but drew a firm line on the domestic-violence question:
"Nearly forty years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now. But let me be clear: I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman."
He added that the incident "in no way reflects the man I am today or the life I've led in the years since."
Pelletier issued her own statement defending Jackson and pushing back on the police report's account of her words. She said she and Jackson have "built a life and family together" and that she knows "the person he has been through the decades since, both as a caring partner and father." The two share two adult children. Records described in reporting identify Pelletier as Jackson's second cousin.
Pelletier also turned the statement into a counterattack, saying Jackson "has grown to be a passionate advocate for Mainers and dedicated his life to making things better for our state while Susan Collins has been in Washington enriching herself at our expense."
The 1988 police report was not the only accusation to surface. On Thursday, conservative-leaning outlet Maine Wire reported that an unnamed man from Allagash, Maine, a tiny community near Jackson's home territory, alleged he witnessed Jackson strike Pelletier in a separate incident years ago. No date, additional detail, or corroboration for that claim appeared in the reporting.
Jackson has not publicly addressed that allegation. The claim remains single-source and unverified beyond the witness's account.
But the accumulation of reports has given Republican campaign committees an opening. The Republican National Committee posted on social media that "Troy Jackson is Graham Platner 2.0: Violent and unhinged." The National Republican Senatorial Committee went further, posting on X and directing its message at Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Kirsten Gillibrand: "Is this incredibly disturbing report of violence and abuse not enough for you to drop Troy Jackson?"
The NRSC also published a series of posts aimed at Democratic senators and nominees who had endorsed Jackson, asking whether they would "call on Troy Jackson to drop out."
Collins herself drew the comparison to Platner, the embattled oysterman who won the June Democratic Senate primary in a landslide, then dropped out last month amid rape allegations he denied. Maine Democrats chose Jackson as their replacement nominee just a couple of weeks ago.
"From my perspective, it seems that vetting is very important," Collins told reporters Friday. "We learned the failure of vetting with Graham Platner. But that's really up to the Democrats."
An unnamed Democratic strategist who works on Senate races offered a blunt assessment to Fox News Digital, asking to remain anonymous to speak freely: "This is a bit of a rocket vetting process. Maine Democrats have made their choice, and they're just going to have to ride with it."
The 1988 assault report is not the only controversy trailing Jackson since his nomination. The Washington Examiner reported that Jackson also allegedly threw a water bottle during a heated meeting with a female colleague while serving as Maine Senate president. Other reporting has flagged mortgage improprieties, questions about financial disclosures, and late state income taxes, though details on those matters remain thin.
Breitbart noted that the pattern of controversies, from the 1988 assault charge to the workplace conduct allegations to the financial questions, has piled up rapidly in the compressed timeline since Jackson's nomination, giving the campaign little room to get ahead of any single story.
Jackson, a former state Senate president and one-time logger, has styled himself as a working-class champion. He was once a conservative Republican who switched parties more than two decades ago and has said he supports abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in a prior cycle. His record has raised its own red flags well before the 1988 police report made headlines.
A Fox News poll released Wednesday showed Jackson holding a narrow edge over Collins, a gap within the survey's sampling error. The Washington Examiner put the numbers at 48 percent for Jackson and 47 percent for Collins.
The Maine Senate seat is among roughly a dozen races that will determine whether Republicans hold onto their slim Senate majority. Collins is the only GOP incumbent running for re-election in a state President Trump lost in 2024, making her seat one of Democrats' top targets.
Jackson, asked about vetting concerns last month, dismissed the scrutiny as a Collins campaign tactic. "I think a lot of this obviously is Sen. Collins trying to make sure she can win the election on a really bad record," he told Fox News Digital. He pointed to his two decades in the Maine legislature as proof he had already been tested.
That argument grows harder to sustain with every new headline. Jackson's campaign platform depends on voters seeing him as a trustworthy outsider fighting for working families. A police report describing a door kicked in at 2 a.m., a man grabbed by the throat, and a partner allegedly telling officers she had been pushed around complicates that pitch, no matter how long ago it happened.
Maine Democrats picked Jackson in a rush after their first choice imploded. They may now be learning that speed and vetting pull in opposite directions, and voters are the ones left holding the bill.
