Troy Jackson, in just 101 days, bested the Republican, preventing her sixth Senate term: ‘You can’t eat road salt’

The political demise of Susan Collins – a fixture of Maine and Washington politics for three decades – recalls the famous line in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises about how one of the novel’s characters experienced bankruptcy: gradually, then suddenly.

In the run-up to Tuesday’s stunning Democrat “blue wave” election triumph, it seemed obvious that Collins’s 30-year tenure as Maine’s Republican senator was vulnerable to the challenge of Troy Jackson, the Democrats’ explicitly working-class candidate as voters prepared to unleash pent-up anger with Donald Trump’s presidency.

The historic Democratic victories in the 2026 midterm elections were more than just a rebuke of Donald Trump and his Maga movement – they are a five-alarm fire for the Republican party itself, which may be on the verge of collapse. The sweeping wins in GOP strongholds like Texas, Iowa and Kansas reveal an electorate that is fed up and eager for change. But that anger could turn on Democrats – quick. Now that they run Congress, what can the fractured Democratic coalition achieve? And will they do enough to keep voters on their side in 2028? Kai Wright and Carter Sherman break down what we know about this once-in-a-lifetime election and how this new Congress has the potential to be the most consequential since Reconstruction