00:00The control of the U.S. Senate could hinge on the state of Maine.
00:04Democratic candidate Troy Jackson, a former logger and liberal ally,
00:08is challenging longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins,
00:11aiming to win back rural and working class voters turned off by traditional politics.
00:17For the details from the campaign trail, we join our correspondent Dan Albright.
00:24If Democrats hope to retake control of Congress,
00:27Maine could be critical to their chances in the Senate.
00:31But can they win back rural and working class voters who have moved toward Donald Trump?
00:37Troy Jackson is betting that his background as a logger and longtime labor ally can help him do it
00:42in a race against one of the longest serving Republicans in the Senate.
00:47USA, not DSA! Let's go, DSA!
00:53At Thursday's final debate before the election,
00:56Senator Susan Collins led with seniority.
00:59This has required hard work, knowledge, and seniority.
01:04Jackson answered with class.
01:06Growing up as a working class person, I have all kinds of experience.
01:10I mean, I have the experience fighting for working class people.
01:13The divide is almost literal.
01:15Jackson was a union logger.
01:17Collins comes from a family that owns S.W. Collins Lumber.
01:21Cut snap benefits, cut heating assistance, a whole bunch of different things.
01:26That's so that billionaires in this country could have another income tax cut.
01:30In Herman, upstate, repair technician Doug Smith voiced a deeper frustration with the choices voters are given.
01:37They're not telling us what they can do for us.
01:39They're telling us what the other one did wrong.
01:41Even the Democrats, both of them, both parties are thieves.
01:46We need a complete new system.
01:48Economic frustration may also be scrambling old political loyalties.
01:53I have a couple of friends who are Republicans who are voting for Jackson.
01:56I'm not really sure why, but...
01:59Venture to guess.
02:00The economy. It's always the economy.
02:03Humane political scientist Mark Brewer says Trump's appeal to these voters went beyond traditional Republican cultural politics.
02:12Donald Trump has made front and center, right, that working class Americans have been abandoned.
02:20He spiked, Trump said it, by the elites of both parties.
02:23Neither party is serving you well.
02:25Jackson replaced Graham Plattner just four months out from the election after Plattner drew national buzz as a potential working
02:32class tribune before withdrawing amid sexual harassment allegations he denies.
02:38Brewer says Jackson may be less electric, but his biography is harder to dispute.
02:44Plattner was, you know, he built this persona and was widely, you know, seen as kind of this, you know,
02:50epitome of the working class.
02:51But if you kind of dug into his background even just a little bit, that started to fall apart, right?
02:56Whereas with Jackson, you can't argue with his working class bona fides.
03:02I mean, they're there.
03:02The question now is whether Jackson can turn that message into votes and whether Maine points to a path for
03:09Democrats elsewhere.
03:11From Bangor, Maine, Dan Albright, Telesor.
