Two of Maine’s nearly two dozen candidates for governor are set to face off this month in a one-on-one debate, and they’re already sparring over accusations of racist rhetoric.

Democrat Troy Jackson and Republican Bobby Charles will meet Feb. 25 at the Franco Center in Lewiston. Some details, including the time, who will moderate and whether the debate will be televised, are still being worked out.

The clash comes after Jackson, a longtime lawmaker and former president of the Maine Senate, issued a challenge to Charles. Jackson said he was frustrated with what he considered to be racist narratives Charles has pushed about immigrants, including Somali American politicians in Maine.

“I’ve listened to him continually trying to scapegoat Somali people and I thought somebody needed to stand up for them,” Jackson said in an interview Thursday.

Charles, a lawyer and former U.S. assistant secretary of state, made a series of inflammatory social media posts and videos last year targeting Rep. Deqa Dhalac, D-South Portland, a Somali American whom he has described as a “radical Somalia-first” lawmaker.

He says Jackson’s accusations of racism are hogwash.

“Democrats always scream racism whenever they don’t want to address an issue,” his campaign said in a statement announcing Charles had accepted Jackson’s debate challenge. “They use labels to shut people up. Their labels don’t work on me. I will always defend the truth, defend our law enforcement officers and defend the families living with the consequences of failed leadership.”

In his statement, Charles said he would debate Jackson “on ICE and the corrupt ‘Somali-first politicians’ whose policies have contributed to chaos and rising crime.”

Charles last fall accused Dhalac of prioritizing Somalia over Maine, and circulated a petition trying to remove her from office. His accusations appeared to come in response to a video of Dhalac that was shared on social media by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in which she referred to Somalia as “our country.”

The clip cut short Dhalac’s full response to an interviewer’s question about how people in Somalia reacted to her becoming mayor of South Portland in 2021.

More recently, Republicans in Maine called on legislative leaders to remove Dhalac from a committee assignment because she formerly worked for a nonprofit affiliated with a health care company that has been accused of fraud.

Charles and other Republicans have repeatedly highlighted the connection to Somalia when talking about the fraud accusations against the health care company, Gateway Community Services, which was founded and is led by Abdullahi Ali, a Somali American.

When Dhalac announced last week that she won’t seek reelection, citing a “hostile and unsafe” climate for elected officials of color, Charles seemed to celebrate the news in a Facebook post, misspelling her last name.

“Breaking news: Somali-first Deqa Dhlac won’t seek re-election!! The tides are turning in Maine! 2026 is going to be the year we take this state back!!” Charles wrote.

Jackson criticized Charles’ characterizations as perpetuating a false narrative that immigrants are responsible for more crime and fraud than other populations.

“I don’t know if there’s any fraud,” Jackson said. “If there is, obviously we want to investigate it. But it’s not Somali fraud. It’s fraud. There’s fraud across the United States and we don’t call it white man fraud, we call it fraud.”

Both Jackson and Charles are looking to succeed Gov. Janet Mills, who is termed out of office after this year.

Mark Brewer, a professor and the chair of the political science department at the University of Maine, said the circumstances around their debate are “highly unusual.” Brewer said he could not recall another instance in Maine of a one-on-one debate organized by candidates.

There are potential risks and benefits for both candidates, Brewer said. As with any debate, there’s a risk one of the candidates could perform poorly or say something he regrets.

But in a field of nearly two dozen contenders for governor, the debate also presents an opportunity for both to boost their name recognition — particularly on the Republican side, where there isn’t a clear front-runner in the primary, Brewer said.

Jackson will have the chance to appeal to the more progressive wing of the Democratic party, who are likely to be the voters most put off by Charles’ comments.

“I can certainly see why both of them would be more than happy to do this,” Brewer said.