WELLS — During one of his first campaign stops on what’s scheduled to be a jam-packed Labor Day weekend, Troy Jackson met with residents of a mobile home park to discuss the upcoming election.

Yet the conversation at Blueberry Ridge Mobile Village was less about the Democrat’s campaign for the U.S. Senate and more about the residents’ success getting a local ordinance on the November ballot to cap annual rent increases based on the rate of inflation.

“When we come together, we can do great things — you’ve shown it right here,” Jackson told a few dozen residents, who gathered Saturday morning in Diane Whiteside’s backyard, sitting in fold-out lawn chairs and drinking Dunkin’ coffee.

Housing affordability is a major issue for Mainers this election cycle, as they prepare to decide this fall between Jackson and senior Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican seeking her sixth term. Pressure has been mounting, particularly in mobile home parks, where residents all over the state have complained about increasingly unaffordable lot fees and their struggles to address problems with park infrastructure.

The Blueberry Ridge residents told Jackson about their water quality problems. Several people said they’ve had little success getting in touch with Phillips International, the out-of-state company that owns their park. Phillips did not respond to a request for comment Saturday afternoon.

At one point, Whiteside handed Jackson a jar of dark brown water that she said came out of her faucet on July 15.

Water is one of few services covered by rent, Whiteside said. She told Jackson she’s gone from paying $435 a month to $625 over three years.

“I’m on Social Security, you know, a fixed income,” Whiteside told Jackson. “I can still work, and I do have to work, to pay the bills. But I may not be able to work forever.”

Wells is one of several Maine communities where mobile home rental control ordinances have made it onto the upcoming ballot. Others, including Sanford and Brunswick, have already passed such measures.

“I feel strongly that, if needed, the state should be able to come in, to take these places over,” Jackson told the crowd. He said the state should be able to hold onto certain sites until residents can take over, “so you don’t see these private equity (firms) coming in and making a killing on these parks.”

Maine recently passed a law giving residents the right of first refusal when their parks go up for sale. Residents of the Hidden Circle mobile home park in Jay were the first to take advantage of this law in August.

On the federal level, Jackson said “I will lend my voice every day,” and he told resident Lynzy Kosmes that he is “one hundred percent” willing to go after the out-of-state companies buying and running Maine’s parks.

“I want to see them investigated,” Kosmes said. “I want audits, and I want regulations.”

One resident suggested that Jackson could look to U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, for guidance. Hassan has publicly criticized companies that have acquired parks in her state and quickly raised lot fees for residents.

Jackson didn’t mention his opponent during Saturday’s event. He told reporters later that he looks forward to the upcoming debates, and that he plans to ask Collins “why she votes with Donald Trump 96% of the time, why we’re in Iran wasting money there while we don’t have a health care system,” and “why she’s not willing to use her powers as chair of appropriations to pushback on ICE, to push back on tariffs.”

A spokesperson for the Collins campaign, Shawn Roderick, said that Collins has secured more than $65 million for affordable housing and $164 million for water infrastructure since 2021 while serving as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

That includes $1.3 million in 2023 to connect a mobile home park in Camden to the local sewer system. Roderick said Collins advanced $2.1 million earlier this year for drinking water at a mobile home community in Freeport. Roderick said “housing became harder to afford” during Jackson’s time in the State House, including his term as Senate president.