AUBURN — Maine candidates for governor Troy Jackson and Bobby Charles faced off in a heated debate Wednesday night, tackling questions about immigration, affordability and drug addiction — while also taking plenty of swipes at each other.
Jackson, a Democrat and former Maine Senate president, and Charles, a Republican and former U.S. assistant secretary of state, met at the Hilton Garden Inn in Auburn for an unusual one-on-one debate that was organized by the candidates more than three months before the party primaries on June 9.
The hour-and-a-half forum offered an opportunity for the two to boost their campaigns in a crowded race that features nearly two dozen candidates vying to replace Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who is term-limited and is running for the U.S. Senate.
Jackson originally challenged Charles to debate as a way of calling out what he has characterized as racist rhetoric from Charles, particularly surrounding the Somali American community in Maine.
That included a series of social media posts Charles made last year targeting Rep. Deqa Dhalac, D-South Portland, who is from Somalia and whom he has described as a “radical Somalia-first” lawmaker.
“He’s been going around calling people a drain on society and that they’re part of the problem,” Jackson said Wednesday night. “It’s just constant race-baiting with this guy.”
During several rounds of back-and-forth between the candidates, Jackson, a longtime lawmaker, also accused Charles of failing to understand how the Legislature works and of making hypocritical statements. Charles, for his part, said Jackson didn’t address problems while he was in office and called him “a poster child for what has gone wrong in this state.”
Jackson, who served three consecutive terms as Senate president until 2024, also took a shot at Mills during the debate, saying part of the reason he’s running for governor is because he hasn’t seen eye to eye with her and opposed her vetoes of several bills.
“I’m running for governor so I can get things done, because I couldn’t with her,” Jackson said.
The debate was not open to the general public, although the Jackson campaign said he wanted it to be. Instead, both sides agreed to a limited audience of 50 people by invitation only and also streamed the debate on social media. The in-person crowd included volunteers and campaign supporters, as well as elected officials and politicians, including Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline, Portland Mayor Mark Dion and Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle.
The discussion, moderated by Andy O’Brien, communications director for the Maine AFL-CIO, and Carroll Conley, former executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, focused largely on immigration, affordability, drug addiction and corruption in government.
It came a few weeks after a surge in immigration enforcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Maine that authorities said resulted in more than 200 arrests.
Charles, who has been supportive of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the recent operation when asked about it Wednesday. “I support ICE fully and unequivocally because they have operated under the Constitution,” he said.
Jackson took issue with the operation, citing news reports of ICE falsifying court records, and argued he has been more forthcoming than his Democratic competitors in laying out plans to counter ICE activities.
Jackson also called Charles out for a federal report that he said showed Charles “had all kinds of problems” while he was working for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, at which point one of Jackson’s supporters waved copies of the report in the air and Jackson encouraged the media to take copies.
“Whatever that report is, I’m interested to see it because I was brought in … to clean up that place and you know what I did? I did that,” Charles said.
On a question about affordability, Jackson said he would prioritize property tax reform, lowering prescription drug costs and child care, while Charles said he wants to eliminate the state income tax and pull back “all the mandates, the hundreds, that generate high property taxes.”
In a crowded field of candidates for governor, Wednesday’s debate could boost both Jackson and Charles.
New polling from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released Tuesday found Charles leading among likely Republican primary voters with 28% support while Jackson was in third among likely Democratic primary voters with 16% support.
Wednesday’s debate had hardly wrapped up before Charles issued another challenge.
In a post on social media Wednesday night, Charles said he is inviting Nirav Shah, former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to debate. Shah was leading Democrats in the latest UNH poll, with 25% of support among primary voters.
