Susan Collins says Troy Jackson ‘struggles to control his temper’ after resurfaced police report

A 1988 misdemeanor from when Troy Jackson was a teenager is now doing the rounds in a Maine Senate race, and Susan Collins didn't have to say much to make the point land. Asked about it, she noted he "struggles to control his temper." That's it. No shouting, no attack ad music. Just a calm observation that lets voters draw their own conclusion about a man asking them to send him to Washington.

Jackson's campaign will call this ancient history, and thirty-seven years is a long time. But the reason old arrest records resurface in campaigns isn't nostalgia. It's because character patterns tend to repeat, and voters intuitively know that. If Jackson has spent decades since then building a reputation for evenness and restraint, this story fades in a week. If people who've dealt with him nod along and say yeah, that tracks, it sticks around a lot longer than a week.

Collins, love her or not, has built a brand on being the low-key, unflashy incumbent who doesn't need to yell to win an argument. Watching her calmly needle an opponent's temperament without breaking a sweat is a pretty effective contrast, whether or not it was calculated that way. Maine voters have seen this movie before with Collins. They know how to read a quiet jab when they see one.

None of this decides the race. But it's a reminder that in an America First moment where voters are exhausted by chaos and posturing in Washington, temperament isn't a side issue. It's on the ballot right alongside policy, and campaigns that pretend otherwise usually find out the hard way.