Bitter personal attacks and Trump’s war in Iran highlighted in Thursday’s Senate debates in Alaska and Maine

Candidates faced off in heated debates Thursday night in two of the country’s most competitive Senate races , showing how bitter — and personal — each contest has become.

In Maine, Democratic nominee Troy Jackson told GOP Sen. Susan Collins to “shut up” after she suggested a protester was one of his supporters. And in Alaska, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan questioned Democratic opponent Mary Peltola’s “character” while citing allegations she mistreated staff.

“I think that Alaskans have had it up to here with the lying and dishonesty,” Peltola said during another exchange. “Dan, you should be ashamed of yourself.”

The races are unfolding thousands of miles apart but both critical to the Senate majority. Collins, a moderate Republican, is seeking reelection in a blue state, while Sullivan is running for another term in more GOP-leaning Alaska where Peltola, a former congresswoman, is well-known.

Both debates showed how much of a political liability President Donald Trump’s war in Iran has become for Republican incumbents. Sullivan said it “needs to end soon,” while Collins continued to insist Trump should have consulted Congress on the conflict.

Here’s a look at key moments from the debates.

Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

The fourth and final Senate debate in Maine grew heated as Collins and Jackson sharpened their attacks.

Within minutes, a protester shouted at Collins about the impact of data centers, forcing the debate to a brief halt.

“AI data centers are destroying our climate. They are poisoning our waters,” the protester yelled.

Following the incident, Collins said the protester “is obviously one of Troy’s supporters.”

“Oh, shut up,” Jackson replied, saying he did not know who the person was.

During the Collins-Jackson debate, both candidates tried to portray their opponent as corrupt, a major theme that has loomed over the hotly contested race and the midterms nationally.

Collins cornered Jackson for not sharing his FEC report with her on Wednesday, a promise he made at their debate earlier this week.

Jackson said he missed his self-imposed deadline because it took longer to process the donations from 200,000 people to his campaign than he expected.

“I had to make sure this report was right. It was my first one,” Jackson said.

Throughout the campaign, Jackson has framed Collins as being influenced by her donors and touted that he doesn’t take any corporate PAC money. Collins tried to flip the script on Thursday by dinging Jackson for running joint ads with his party’s Senate campaign arm, which does take money from corporations, and for not disclosing his donors.

Jackson said he did not control their donations to the Senate campaign committee but did concede his campaign has taken money from billionaires.

“That is accurate. But I haven’t made any deals like Senator Collins has with those billionaires. I don’t owe them any votes. I am going to tax those billionaires when I get to the US Senate. So, if they want to give me money during this campaign, I guess that’s up to them,” Jackson said.

When it was Jackson’s turn to ask Collins a question, he got personal. In defending his credentials and pushing back on Collins’ critique that he doesn’t have the right experience, Jackson exclaimed, “Is it just me that you look down on or is it working-class people overall?”

Collins doubled down on her criticism of the Iran war as the Maine Republican continues to distance herself from Trump.

When asked if Congress should have been consulted before Trump decided to go to war, Collins said, “Congress definitely should have been consulted.”

But Collins added that that the War Powers Resolution gave Trump the flexibility to act unilaterally within the first 60 days of the conflict, which she said is why she did not start voting to rein in Trump’s war powers until after those initial 60 days had passed.

Sullivan repeatedly had to grapple with issues where Trump has not made the race easy for him. The war in Iran, for example, has led to especially high fuel costs in Alaska.

Sullivan said he has opposed limiting Trump’s Iran powers because he supports the overall goal of preventing the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But he said the war “needs to end soon.”

“The energy costs from this war are too high, but … the best way to bring down costs with regard to energy in Alaska is to produce more energy by and for Alaskans,” Sullivan said, suggesting Peltola could not be trusted to support that.

Peltola blamed Washington politicians for “waging forever wars that are skyrocketing our costs.” And she scoffed at Sullivan’s pivot to the topic of domestic energy production.

“I have been a strong supporter of drilling in Alaska,” she said. “That is not the issue here.”

Sullivan continued to show daylight with Trump when asked about Trump’s plan to buy Russian diesel . He reiterated his opposition, saying, “I don’t think it’s a good ideal at all,” and noting he “just led the effort” to pass new sanctions on Russia in Congress.

Sullivan and Peltola clashed twice over a September story from The New York Times that alleged staff mistreatment by Peltola. In the article, her campaign pushed back on the suggestion she regularly abused her staff but said she occasionally “struggled to deal with her grief” after her mother and husband died in 2023.

“I do not think that this election is about me on my worst day, and I found so many of these allegations concerning and outright fabrications or mass exaggerations of the truth,” Peltola said at the debate when asked about the Times report.

Sullivan emphasized that the story was based on interviews with nine former staff members and at least 20 other people.

“It’s not Mary Peltola on her worst day,” Sullivan said. “It’s Mary Peltola over the course of a couple years with dozens of people weighing in on this.”

Sullivan brought up the Times story on his own earlier in the debate, saying Peltola has “treated young Alaskans horribly” and that it was “a character flaw.” Peltola called it “gossip” as Sullivan talked over her.

“It’s the New York Times,” he said. “Read the article.”

周四晚，在全国竞争最激烈的两场参议院竞选中，候选人展开了激烈的辩论，这表明每场竞选都变得多么激烈和私人化。

在缅因州，民主党候选人特洛伊·杰克逊在共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯暗示一名抗议者是他的支持者后，让她“闭嘴”。而在阿拉斯加州，共和党参议员丹·沙利文质疑民主党对手玛丽·佩尔托拉的“人品”，并援引了她虐待工作人员的指控。

“我认为阿拉斯加人已经受够了谎言和不诚实，”佩尔托拉在另一次争论中说道。“丹，你应该感到羞耻。”

这两场选举相隔数千英里，但都对参议院多数席位至关重要。温和派共和党人柯林斯在民主党占优势的州寻求连任，而苏利文则在共和党倾向更明显的阿拉斯加州竞选连任，前国会议员佩尔托拉在该州颇具知名度。

两场辩论都表明，特朗普总统对伊朗发动的战争对共和党现任议员来说已成为多么大的政治包袱。苏利文表示这场战争“必须尽快结束”，而柯林斯则继续坚持认为，特朗普本应就这场冲突咨询国会。

以下是辩论中的几个关键时刻。

Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

在缅因州举行的第四场也是最后一场参议院辩论中，柯林斯和杰克逊的攻击愈演愈烈，气氛变得异常激烈。

几分钟后，一名抗议者向柯林斯大声喊叫，谈论数据中心的影响，迫使辩论短暂中止。

“人工智能数据中心正在破坏我们的气候。它们正在污染我们的水源，”抗议者高声喊道。

事件发生后，柯林斯表示，这名抗议者“显然是特洛伊的支持者之一”。

“哦，闭嘴，”杰克逊回答说，并表示他不知道那个人是谁。

在柯林斯和杰克逊的辩论中，两位候选人都试图将对方描绘成腐败分子，这一主题一直笼罩着这场竞争激烈的竞选以及全国范围内的中期选举。

科林斯质问杰克逊，为什么他没有在周三向她提供联邦选举委员会的报告，而杰克逊在本周早些时候的辩论中做出了这一承诺。

杰克逊表示，他错过了自己设定的最后期限，因为处理来自 20 万人的竞选捐款比他预期的要花费更多时间。

“我必须确保这份报告准确无误。这是我第一次写报告，”杰克逊说。

在整个竞选过程中，杰克逊一直指责柯林斯受捐款人影响，并宣称自己不接受任何企业政治行动委员会（PAC）的捐款。周四，柯林斯试图扭转局面，抨击杰克逊与他所在政党的参议院竞选机构联合投放广告，而该机构确实接受企业捐款，并且杰克逊也没有披露自己的捐款人信息。

杰克逊表示，他无法控制这些人向参议院竞选委员会的捐款，但他承认自己的竞选活动确实接受了亿万富翁的捐款。

“没错。但我没有像柯林斯参议员那样与那些亿万富翁达成任何交易。我不欠他们任何选票。等我进入美国参议院，我就要对这些亿万富翁征税。所以，如果他们想在竞选期间给我捐款，我想那是他们的自由，”杰克逊说道。

轮到杰克逊向柯林斯提问时，他却咄咄逼人。为了捍卫自己的资历，并反驳柯林斯关于他缺乏相关经验的批评，杰克逊高声说道：“你瞧不起的只是我一个人，还是整个工人阶级？”

科林斯加倍批评伊朗战争，这位缅因州共和党人继续与特朗普保持距离。

当被问及特朗普决定发动战争之前是否应该咨询国会时，柯林斯说：“绝对应该咨询国会。”

但柯林斯补充说，《战争权力决议》赋予特朗普在冲突爆发后的前 60 天内单方面采取行动的灵活性，她说，这就是为什么她直到最初的 60 天过去后才开始投票限制特朗普的战争权力。

苏利文不得不反复应对特朗普在竞选中给他制造的诸多麻烦。例如，伊朗战争导致阿拉斯加的燃油成本居高不下。

沙利文表示，他反对限制特朗普对伊朗的权力，因为他支持阻止伊朗获得核武器的总体目标。但他表示，这场战争“必须尽快结束”。

“这场战争的能源成本太高了，但是……降低阿拉斯加能源成本的最好办法是让阿拉斯加人自己生产更多能源，”苏利文说，暗示佩尔托拉不会支持这一点。

佩尔托拉指责华盛顿政客“发动旷日持久的战争，导致战争成本飙升”。她还对沙利文将话题转向国内能源生产的做法嗤之以鼻。

“我一直坚定支持在阿拉斯加钻探石油，”她说。“这不是问题的关键所在。”

当被问及特朗普购买俄罗斯柴油的计划时，沙利文继续表明与特朗普的立场截然不同。他重申了自己的反对立场，表示“我根本不认为这是一个好主意”，并指出他“刚刚领导了”在国会通过对俄罗斯实施新制裁的行动。

苏利文和佩尔托拉曾两次就《纽约时报》9月份的一篇报道发生冲突，该报道指控佩尔托拉虐待员工。在报道中，佩尔托拉的竞选团队反驳了她经常虐待员工的说法，但表示她在2023年母亲和丈夫去世后，偶尔会“难以承受悲痛”。

“我不认为这次选举是关于我最糟糕的一天，而且我发现这些指控中有很多都是彻头彻尾的捏造，或者对事实的严重夸大，”佩尔托拉在辩论中被问及《纽约时报》的报道时说道。

苏利文强调，该报道是根据对九名前员工和至少 20 名其他人的采访撰写的。

“这不是玛丽·佩尔托拉最糟糕的一天，”苏利文说。“这是玛丽·佩尔托拉在几年时间里，在几十个人参与讨论和评价之后所呈现出的样子。”

在辩论早些时候，苏利文主动提到了《泰晤士报》的报道，称佩尔托拉“对待阿拉斯加年轻人非常糟糕”，这是“性格缺陷”。佩尔托拉称其为“流言蜚语”，而苏利文则打断了她的话。

“这是《纽约时报》的文章，”他说。“读读这篇文章吧。”