Troy Jackson takes aim at Donald Trump and Republican Senator Susan Collins over rising costs affecting working families in Maine. Speaking about the affordability crisis, Jackson highlights soaring heating oil prices, higher fuel costs and the financial pressure on households, farmers, fisheries and small businesses. He warns that Trump's policies and the war in Iran are adding to the economic burden on ordinary Americans. Jackson also calls out billionaire influence, corporate power and cuts to healthcare assistance, arguing that government should put working families first.
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#TroyJackson #DonaldTrump #SusanCollins #MainePolitics #MaineSenateRace #RisingCosts #HeatingOilPrices #IranWar #CostOfLiving #WorkingFamilies #HealthcareCrisis #Billionaires #CorporateGreed #USPolitics #PoliticalNews
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NewsTranscript
00:02Well, thank you, brothers and sisters, for being here. I really, really appreciate it.
00:05And obviously for Senator Markey coming up, you know, I haven't been in this this awful long.
00:10I think today's day 99. But Senator Markey has, you know, been right there every step of the way.
00:18I tell you, one of the hardest working U.S. Senators I've seen so far.
00:25I mean, and and obviously it's, you know, thank you so much for being here, Senator.
00:32Before we get going, I want to thank Representative Sophie Warren, soon to be State Senator, for a great.
00:41I see Representative Coon over here, which. Murphy, I'm sorry. Look, I did that again.
00:49Well, Representative Murphy, I'm sorry. And which is, you know, obviously great that she's here.
00:56I don't know if I any other House or Senate members. OK.
01:00And I know that the former Representative Sean Flaherty is here running for town council.
01:10Just want to make sure that we always hold up House of Senate members here in Maine.
01:16We got Hannah, Matt Dunlap, Shelly. I mean, you know, this is making sure that we have a real great
01:22group of people
01:24that are going to win and change the world. And that's what this race for me is about.
01:29You know, I I'm going to be real quick here so we can get into questions.
01:33But, you know, I'm I met my first billionaire when I was in seventh grade and it didn't go very
01:38well then.
01:40And and and ever since then, I've watched power and influence hold people back, you know, make decisions that only
01:47was good for them,
01:48a handful of people. And, you know, I'm not trying to, you know, dramatize this or anything like that.
01:54I mean, right now what I'm seeing across the state is people that know that government is broken and they
02:00want change.
02:01You know, I spoke with someone this morning that actually had their son held up by ice and detained for
02:1148 hours.
02:12And the only way that he was able to get released was to self deport himself to Canada.
02:18I mean, he's a Maine citizen and that's what's going on right now.
02:22You know, people that are know that fuel prices are out of hand and they're going to get worse.
02:27People that know that, you know, we're going to lose three to five billion dollars in our health care, that
02:32we've lost SNAP benefits.
02:33I mean, these are the real, real issues that Mainers are dealing with.
02:38I mean, and it's worse than ever.
02:39And they know that, you know, we can have a change that makes government work for everyday people,
02:45that the billionaire class is not going to get what they want if we change the people that are, you
02:50know, capitulating to Donald Trump.
02:51And for me, I've been waiting for a time like this for a long time because I don't think government
03:05works for the people I care most about.
03:07I'm excited to work with somebody like Senator Markey.
03:09I think besides the fact that we take this government away from Donald Trump and restore it back in the
03:15hands of people,
03:16we also push the Democratic Party to do things that hasn't done forever that would make people's lives better.
03:22And that's what I'm really excited about, too, is we have a real opportunity to make this world work for
03:27people that deserve it.
03:29You know, people that know.
03:30Yeah.
03:34So anyways, I'll stop there and thank you so much, everyone, for coming.
03:39Thank you, everyone, and especially Representative Murphy.
03:44But seriously, thank you, everyone, for being here.
03:46I really appreciate it.
03:47Beautiful.
03:52Three days left to go.
03:58So thank you, Representative Murphy.
04:00Thank you, Sophie.
04:01Great job.
04:03And, you know, I came up here, actually, to benefit Maine just six weeks ago,
04:08after ICE murdered Juwan Guerrero in cold blood in Bitterford.
04:16And I was there with hundreds of people out and concerned about what had transpired on sacred ground,
04:29here, where the American Revolution began, just a complete and total disgrace, all orchestrated out of the White House,
04:40all orchestrated out of Donald Trump's complete and total cavalier indifference to the constitutional rights of everyone in this country.
04:49So I saw that, and I could see how people were rising up just referring to what you said earlier
04:54about ICE.
04:56But let me just tell you, it's getting cold.
04:59It gets colder in Maine earlier than just about any place.
05:03And what I've been hearing here in Maine so far is, like, just three issues.
05:11The price of home heating oil is too high.
05:13The price of home heating oil is too high.
05:16The price of home heating oil is too high.
05:19So can you speak to that, Troy, and what its impact is upon the people of this great state?
05:27Yeah, well, I mean, I think everyone out here understands.
05:30But I think we're at 83 percent higher than we were just last year in heating oil.
05:35And that's, you know, as much as Senator Collins and Donald Trump would like to make it about renewable energy
05:41and things like that,
05:42that's directly because of the Iran war.
05:45I mean, that's when the prices started blowing up.
05:49And it means that people this winter are going to have an incredibly hard time to keep their home heated.
05:55And they'll probably have to miss something else or it won't happen at all.
05:59You know, I don't know how many people I've spoke to over the years that have, like, $1,100 or
06:03$1,200 social security benefit for the month.
06:07And now you're talking about, you know, $1,800, $2,000 to fill your tank.
06:11And I guarantee you there's months this winter that that won't go all month.
06:15And that's the real reality.
06:17And again, why did that happen?
06:21And why did heat funding happen?
06:23Because Donald Trump doesn't know what he's doing with the military and because billionaires needed more money.
06:29And that's what we're going to have here.
06:31And it's not just, I mean, the heating is the worst part by far.
06:35But, you know, you have the fishing industry, the farming and the forestry industry,
06:40diesel prices are the highest they've ever been.
06:43They have no ability to make that up.
06:45And I'm really, I know for a fact that we're going to lose many businesses because they can't make that
06:52up.
06:53There's no way that they can.
06:54Some of them have their homes tied into that for collateral.
06:57It's a real problem.
06:58And I don't understand, like, what we're doing there, why, other than making money for oil executives, you know, this
07:06is a real mess.
07:07And we've got to get out of Iran and get some of those clean energy jobs going again so that
07:12we can actually get off this boom and bust cycle of these wars and, you know, oil places fluctuating like
07:18this.
07:18Yeah, so we just saw that Exxon Mobil and the other oil companies are recording their largest profits in history.
07:33The oil industry, the oil industry, fossil fuel industry, and the rich are getting richer, but everyone else is paying
07:42a home heating oil bill, gasoline bill, electricity bill.
07:47And we know that in Venezuela, he's down there bragging about his oil deals, Trump.
07:55You know, over in the Iran war, it's all about oil.
08:01But can you just talk a little bit here about what ultimately the impact is as these oil company executives
08:09report that they are right now going to be in a situation where,
08:15if ever there were windfall profits at the expense of ordinary families, that it is occurring right now on November
08:231st of 2026 in the state of Maine?
08:27Yeah, I mean, I think Trump talked about this before he got into office this last time, that if, you
08:34know, they helped him out, helped him out in his campaign, he'd return the favor.
08:37And it certainly seems like this is what he's doing, returning the favor, because they're making obscene profits.
08:42It's, you know, we have, you know, people, I mean, Senator Collins and her husband have stocks in Phillips 66,
08:50so, I mean, that's going up.
08:52I mean, and she had a chance five times that she voted for the Iran war before she started voting
08:59against it, but, you know, here we are.
09:01And it obviously, you know, the people that have lost their lives going there are the number one thing.
09:08You know, that's going to be a high bar when I'm in the U.S. Senate to send somebody else's
09:13kids into war, especially I'm not going to send them there for oil, I'll tell you that.
09:27But, I mean, Maine is a cold-weather state, and, you know, I joked that up my way we have
09:32nine months of winter, and it's a joke, but it is.
09:39I mean, you know, we're dependent on oil for heating.
09:43You know, heat pumps have been great, but, you know, in the coldest days, they don't furnish, and people need
09:49to have oil.
09:50And, you know, eventually, I expect we'll have that technology, but we don't right now, and it's really something to
09:56mess with people's lives.
09:59You know, it's not, when you lose your heat, obviously, you have the opportunity to freeze, but, you know, water
10:05pipes freeze and bust, and that's a whole other mess, and, you know, I've dealt with that so much in
10:10my life.
10:10I know what it's like for people.
10:13We just shouldn't have to worry about something like that, that, you know, as simple as heating your home.
10:18Okay, and when I would, I agree with you 100%.
10:22When I was a boy, my mother and father would take us for one week on vacation to Old Orchard
10:32Beach, and that's where we'd go.
10:35My father's from New Hampshire.
10:36My father loved cold ocean water.
10:41He loved it.
10:42And he could swim the entire length of the beach back and forth, back and forth, in the ice-cold
10:51water in June.
10:52Here, and Old Orchard.
10:56And we know that the fossil fuel industry, they're running a, they're running a kind of a science experiment in
11:03the Gulf of Maine.
11:04Right?
11:05It's getting warmer.
11:06The lobsters, they love, the lobsters, like my father, love cold water.
11:13And as it gets warmer and warmer out there in the ocean, can you talk a little bit, as a
11:19lobsterman, about what is happening and what we have to do in order to protect your industry?
11:24Yeah, well, I mean, I think, you know, working with the lobster industry a lot, I've heard that a bunch,
11:31how, you know, lobsters aren't there.
11:33They're moving further north to get to the cold water.
11:36We was just out with Senator Cantwell Friday hauling some lobsters.
11:41Show her the industry, too.
11:44It is.
11:45It's a real problem.
11:46And, you know, I think that for us to get off fossil fuel to try and help, you know, climate
11:52change, and we worked on that a lot as a legislature.
11:55I mean, we had made sure here in Maine that we had the opportunity to do offshore wind.
12:01We made sure that the lobster industry was protected because we were going to go outside of the 40-mile
12:06line.
12:08We also, you know, passed a bill in utilities to do the northern Maine transmission line, which I think is
12:15a real opportunity here for Maine because, you know, states like yours obviously have the same climate goals, and you
12:23need energy, and I think you're going to come to Maine to get it, and I want to charge you
12:26a lot for it.
12:28And I'm just going to introduce myself right now.
12:32I've offered to help moderate the questions.
12:35I'm Maureen Druin, Executive Director of Maine Conservation Voters, and I'm thrilled that the National League of Conservation Voters has
12:44endorsed Troy Jackson for the U.S. Senate.
12:46So I've worked with Troy for years in the legislature and also with Sophie Warren, and I'm just so grateful
12:54for their leadership.
12:55So thank you so much.
12:56Thank you, Maureen.
12:57And I don't want to interrupt any questions from the wonderful senator, and thank you so much for your leadership.
13:02But I do have some audience questions here.
13:04Would you like me to go to those or do you want more?
13:06Okay.
13:07Great.
13:08So just cutting to the chase, Troy, for undecided voters, what is the most important thing for these voters to
13:16know about you as they decide who to vote for on Tuesday?
13:20And this person writes, good luck.
13:24Well, thanks for that question.
13:27I mean, I think there's this real misconception with a lot of people out here that, you know, if you
13:33replace Senator Collins, we won't be getting the federal funding and stuff like that, which is totally inaccurate.
13:40I think Senator Markey probably talked that, too.
13:42I mean, first off, I think it's pretty clear that Senator Collins, if she was to win this race, she
13:49would be in the minority.
13:50So she's not going to chair the appropriations committee, but even still, the amount of money that she's brought into
13:57Maine is a pittance compared to what we're losing because of her votes.
14:08And people have to understand that.
14:10I mean, $3 to $5 billion in the big, beautiful bill for health care.
14:15I mean, we have a $12 billion budget in Maine.
14:18I mean, we're not going to make up $3 to $5 billion.
14:20I mean, people are going to go without hospitals that are going to be challenged, if not, you know, overrun.
14:28And, you know, we've lost heating assistance money.
14:32We've lost SNAP benefits.
14:33I mean, this is all money that went back into our economy that's gone.
14:37And so what do I want people to know?
14:40Well, first off, I want you to know that government's going to get better if I win this because I
14:45don't care about Donald Trump and I don't care about the billionaires.
14:48And they do.
14:54And the one thing that I've always remembered is how angry and frustrated I was when government didn't work for
15:03me, didn't work for my family, didn't work for my community.
15:06And I've never forgotten that.
15:08And I'm never, I don't want anyone else that I actually represent to look at me and think the same,
15:15I did the same thing to them.
15:16And so for me, delivering is going to be the number one goal.
15:20Constituent service is going to be the number one goal.
15:23Yeah.
15:23So, Troy, if I can, Troy, in the quote, unquote, big, beautiful bill, Trump cut Medicaid by $1 trillion.
15:36He cut the Affordable Care Act subsidies by $300 billion, eliminated the tax breaks for wind and solar, slashed educational
15:49funding for kids who need it the most, and then used all that money for a trillion dollar tax break
15:58for millionaires and billionaires.
16:02Can you talk about what the impact on Maine is to have those kinds of programs in jeopardy?
16:08Yeah, well, like I said, I mean, we're going to see more birthing centers closed, more, I mean, possibly hospitals,
16:14nursing homes.
16:14I mean, like I said, the state can't make that up, and we're already struggling with getting more money in
16:21education so that, you know, property taxes don't blow up like they are.
16:25I mean, we did universal school meals here in Maine, and because of the cuts to SNAP benefits, if we
16:31want to keep the universal school meal program, we're probably going to have to charge more on property tax, which
16:37is unfair.
16:37But, I mean, either way, it's a lose-lose situation if we cut, you know, universal school meals or if
16:44we raise property taxes on people, and that's because Donald Trump and Susan Collins and the rest of the Republicans
16:51prioritized Elon Musk over our kids and over our property tax payers.
17:00So we have a question about data centers and the proliferation of data centers and how energy-hungry they are
17:09and how they require a number of natural resources.
17:13And there's also this proposal to put data centers on public land.
17:17So can you just talk a little bit about corporate responsibility, both for data centers and also what's happening to
17:24America's public lands?
17:27Well, I mean, this state obviously depends on tourism, depends on our public lands, and, you know, we have some
17:35unbelievable places.
17:36I mean, here, I mean, this is probably not, but, you know, these marshes are unbelievable.
17:41Acadia National Park, I mean, up my way, the Allagash Waterway, I mean, you know, we have some unbelievable things
17:48in the state, and we depend on them.
17:50We depend on people to come, enjoy them.
17:53We depend on people to recreate on them.
17:55And from what I understand, you know, Trump is taking some of that money from there, diverting some of that
18:01money so he can do the ballroom, and he can fix the reflecting pool.
18:09You know, and I guess there is a proposal to put data centers on some of the public land, which
18:16is idiotic.
18:18So, I mean, I think that's a big part of what they've refused to regulate data centers.
18:23I mean, I don't, I'm sure Senator Markey feels the same.
18:26I don't want billionaires writing the rules on data centers or on AI, because I know what that's going to
18:31be like.
18:33When, you know, when data centers come into communities, they just consume vast amounts of electricity.
18:42You know, there could be a thousand megawatt, a data center.
18:46Well, if you think of, for our purposes, the Seabrook nuclear power plant, it would consume all of the electricity
18:55from the Seabrook nuclear power plant.
18:57One data center.
18:58Just think of that.
19:00And what is the impact if a data center is coming in and gobbling up all that electricity in terms
19:06of the cost for everyone else in their electricity bills at their kitchen tables as they're trying to figure it
19:13out?
19:14And the same thing is true for the pollution that might go up if they're not using renewable nuclear power.
19:22They're using natural gas.
19:24They're using coal-burning plants.
19:26It leads to more pollution, more asthmas in people.
19:30And the amount of water they have to consume.
19:32It needs a lot of water as well.
19:34That comes out of communities and has a tremendous impact.
19:39So we just can't allow these billionaire tech guys to be in some kind of witness protection program where they're
19:46not testifying before Congress,
19:48where they're coming in and they're being made accountable for what their revolution that's making them trillionaires
19:55is going to have as an impact upon ordinary families.
19:59And so that's really on the ballot this year.
20:02Are we going to have those hearings?
20:04Are we going to pass the legislation that ensures that we have accountability in terms of how AI affects privacy
20:12of kids,
20:13how it affects workers, how it affects workers in the factories in which they work?
20:20Are they just going to be turned into robots or automatons?
20:24The impact which it is having upon our environment.
20:29It's all on the ballot.
20:31And right now, there are no federal safeguards that have been put in place.
20:35And the industry, they want to pass a federal law to say there can be no state laws either,
20:43just to give them a free path to do whatever they want in communities.
20:46All of that is on the ballot.
20:49Troy.
20:52I mean, to Representative Murphy and Representative Warren's point,
20:56they actually passed the bill of moratorium here for data centers in Maine.
21:02Did a great job.
21:03Unfortunately, we couldn't override the governor's veto.
21:08But I mean, and that's what they will say.
21:11Well, you can't do this on the state level.
21:13It's got to be done on the federal level.
21:14But then they argue that you can't do it on the federal level.
21:17I mean, they don't want any regulations.
21:19And this, like you said, as far as being on the ballot, it's on the ballot.
21:22It's on the ballot.
21:23And it's also on our TV right now because, you know,
21:27these people are spending money to make sure that Susan Collins gets reelected
21:32so that they continue to have no regulations.
21:34And I've been very clear.
21:36I mean, AI has a place.
21:38But we want to make sure workers are protected.
21:40We want to make sure their environment is protected.
21:42We want to make sure that there's safeguards into how far this can go.
21:46Because you've probably studied this more than I have at this point.
21:51I mean, there are some real scary things out there from some very qualified people
21:55about what AI could do to our society if we don't have those safeguards.
21:59Yeah, we need to make sure.
22:01We need to make sure.
22:05We need to make sure that AI doesn't substitute for a human being
22:11in making decisions on launch of nuclear weapons.
22:14We need to make sure.
22:15Kind of important.
22:16That it's human beings and not AI that are deciding how these biopathogens can be accessed.
22:23So there's safeguards all across the book that we're going to have to put in place.
22:31And we're going to have to do so soon.
22:33So to a certain extent, Trump and Elon Musk and his AI billionaire buddies,
22:40they're all on the ballot.
22:42They're on the ballot.
22:43But are they going to be forced to have the guardrails, the protections for every other family?
22:49When the automotive industry started, there were no airbags.
22:55There were no seatbelts.
22:57The auto industry didn't want to put it in.
22:58But society said, we want safeguards for people as they're in these vehicles driving around.
23:05And they're saying the same thing right now about AI and its impact on the safety for families for the
23:1321st century.
23:14So thank you.
23:16Great.
23:18So we have another question here about Congress as it relates to the environment and climate.
23:22So the question from the audience is, Congress has a responsibility to act as a check and balance to the
23:30executive branch.
23:31Given the damage this administration has done to the Environmental Protection Agency, science, climate work, the rule of law, and
23:39others,
23:39what will you do to hold sitting Republicans accountable for their failures to do their job?
24:15That are right now reaping the largest profits in history.
24:20And again, it's the people sitting here today.
24:23They're paying the price.
24:25That is a tax on you.
24:27That's a tax on your families.
24:30As Troy was just saying about home heating oil bills, if it costs 750 bucks to fill your home heating
24:38oil tank once,
24:40and it goes up 83 percent, you're not paying 1,400 bucks to fill it once.
24:45And in Maine, you have to fill that tank more than once.
24:47So if you pay it twice, that's a tax.
24:50That's a tax of upwards of a doubling of what you would have to pay and could be between $1
25:00,000 and $2,000 more that you have to pay than you had to pay last winter.
25:04And when you look at the price of gasoline, if it's up $1.30, $1.40, $1.50, every time
25:10you're filling up the tank,
25:12it might as well be Trump at the pump looking at you as you're looking at that price, huh?
25:17That's Trump at the pump.
25:19You're paying that bill, too.
25:21You're paying it for the electricity bill that you're paying as well.
25:26So we just need to ensure that we're making all of that cabinet slash cartel accountable,
25:36that we're having the hearings, that we're making it clear to the American people that this is a policy which,
25:43yeah,
25:44worsens climate change, but it also creates an affordability crisis, you know,
25:50that people are getting tipped upside down at the pump and having money shaken out of their pockets by the
25:57oil companies.
25:58And they're smiling all the way to the bank.
26:01So that's really, from my perspective, what has to happen.
26:06And we have to have a Democratic majority if we're going to make them accountable.
26:10Troy, yeah.
26:14Well, I mean, I think this is the one thing I can assure people that we can definitely get done.
26:20is we can take Congress back.
26:23I mean, that, I mean, it's like the total abdication of your job as a U.S. senator or congressperson,
26:32that you have oversight.
26:34I mean, that's what, you know, in the main legislature, I mean, that's what we would do.
26:38It didn't matter if it was a Democrat or a Republican.
26:40It was about making sure that the laws were upheld.
26:43It was making sure that we vetted candidates.
26:44And if there was something wrong that happened, that we brought people in
26:48to make sure that the public knew that we were on their side.
26:53And right now, like, it's just totally whitewashing whatever Donald Trump wants.
26:58I mean, one of these debates that I had with Senator Collins,
27:01you know, she actually said that tariffs are a function in Congress.
27:06And I said, yes, that's absolutely right.
27:08And you've given it up to Donald Trump.
27:10Just like, so, so, I mean, that's the one thing that I know that with the president
27:18that will probably veto, you know, many, many things.
27:21That's the one thing I know for certain that I can promise people is that we can do oversight.
27:26You know, we can hold people accountable.
27:27We can vet those candidates.
27:29We can be a functioning government, which we don't have right now.
27:33I mean, no way in hell.
27:35Yeah, could I ask you, Troy, you know, in the United States Constitution,
27:44they made it very clear in Article I.
27:46Article I is the Congress.
27:49Article II is the presidency.
27:52Up here, if you remember, I don't want to go back too far in history,
27:57but Maine was part of Massachusetts, as you know.
28:01And the revolution began here in Maine and Massachusetts.
28:05And it began just by saying, very simply, no taxation without representation.
28:12And so they put the power to tax in Article I with the Congress
28:18because tariffs are a tax.
28:22And we're close to Canada, too, in Massachusetts,
28:26but we're not as close as Maine is in terms of the impact of tariffs
28:30as a tax on people in Maine.
28:34So could you talk about that, how the tariffs, the taxes,
28:38are impacting the people in Maine?
28:41Well, I mean, I don't think the framers of our Constitution
28:44ever imagined somebody like Donald Trump.
28:47But they certainly understood what was possible.
28:51And that's what I think is happening.
28:53I mean, he's putting tariffs on things that Congress can't do anything about
28:59because Republicans won't, and you don't have the majority.
29:03And he knows when those tariffs are going on.
29:06He knows when they're going off.
29:07I'm sure that he or other people close to him are playing the stock market.
29:12And that is really, in my mind, why this is happening.
29:16And, you know, he can take things off, like we've seen with road salt,
29:20which, you know, was great, but he can't eat road salt.
29:27But I think, you know, this is really hurting people up and down the state
29:31and across the country.
29:32I mean, people that can't get aluminum,
29:35people that can't get, you know, parts out of Canada,
29:38people that can't have their products go into Canada.
29:40I mean, the forest industry in my area almost all depends on wood going to Canada.
29:48Farmers depend on fertilizer coming back into Maine.
29:52Fishing is the same thing.
29:53I mean, in parts, for most of the equipment we use today, all comes out.
29:58Tourism is nonexistent in many parts of the state.
30:01Cross-border shopping.
30:02I mean, this is a real, real problem for us.
30:05You know, and we picked a fight with Canada, of all people,
30:11you know, one of our closest allies and trade partners.
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