Susan Collins and Troy Jackson clash over Trump and seniority in Maine’s first Senate debate

Reported by NBC News. The paragraphs below are the opening of that article, reproduced word for word — not a summary, and not the whole piece.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson debated for the first time Tuesday in Maine, trading attacks over President Donald Trump, the cost of living and abortion in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country .

Maine is central to Democrats’ path to the Senate majority as they try to capitalize on Trump’s unpopularity. Jackson tried to do just that Tuesday by tying Collins to Trump, name-checking him at least 20 times in one hour of debating on WGME-TV.

“It matters who you stand with,” Jackson said in his opening statement. “I don’t owe Donald Trump and the billionaires anything. I don’t fight for billionaires like she does.”

Collins, meanwhile, emphasized multiple instances when she opposed the Trump administration.

She also sought to localize the race and pitch her seniority — and her perch as chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee — as a boost to Maine. She touted $1.5 billion in federal funds that she has brought home to the state for 672 projects in the last five years, “from Madawaksa to Kittery, from Eastport to Rumford.”

“I’ve been able to bring home federal dollars to help ease the burden on our taxpayers,” Collins said.