Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took her populist pitch to Maine on Thursday, rallying behind Democrat Troy Jackson’s bid to unseat Sen. Susan M. Collins and making the case for a politics built around working-class voters.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said Mr. Jackson would push back on Washington’s habit of treating military spending and foreign conflicts as givens while balking at the cost of expanding healthcare and other domestic priorities that would help people.
“It is about time that we flip that equation and start asking, how can we afford war after war after war?” she said, pointing to the U.S. conflict with Iran and military aid to Israel that has been used in the war in Gaza. “How can we afford these things when our folks at home can’t eat, can’t go to the doctor and can’t rebuild a bridge to get to work.”
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The liberal lawmaker from New York said Ms. Collins is a member of the “ruling class” who’s afraid of having a “waitress in the House and a logger in the U.S. Senate.”
Maine is a prime pickup opportunity for Democrats, who need to net four seats to retake the Senate. Polls show a competitive race, but Republicans point out that Ms. Collins, chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has beaten expectations before, surviving races where surveys said she was in trouble.
Before the event, Maine GOP Chair Jim Deyermond said the visit underscores how Mr. Jackson is aligned with the radical vision of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“AOC and Troy are extreme politicians,” he said. “Reject their dangerous, expensive policies.”
At the town hall in Portland, Mr. Jackson said he “couldn’t agree more” with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez that it’s time to change the spending culture in Washington.
He called for less spending on foreign wars, ending “blank checks” to a government run by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and vowed to support Medicare For All.
“It is just incredible how they made people feel like asking for healthcare is too much in this country,” Mr. Jackson said.
He also vowed to raise taxes on billionaires, “abolish” Immigration and Customs Enforcement and repeal President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill to reverse its future Medicaid cuts, which some independent analysts say could leave millions of Americans without coverage.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez also repeated her call for congressional investigations into the Justice Department, the FBI and other federal agencies that she said have been weaponized against the public.
“We need to hold them accountable. I’m talking subpoenas, I’m talking investigations. I’m talking if necessary, and if the evidence leads us there, to court,” she said. “Because I don’t care if you are a criminal on Main Street or a criminal on Pennsylvania Avenue.”
The stop also fits a bigger storyline: Ms. Ocasio-Cortez keeps testing how far her influence reaches amid speculation about a 2028 presidential run.
She recently campaigned in Michigan with Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who is out to prove that the liberal politics he shares with her can win in a battleground state.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has put her money where her mouth is, too.
She recently transferred $1 million to the Abdul for Michigan Victory Fund, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Michigan Democratic State Central Committee.
The cash backs up her argument that candidates like Mr. El-Sayed and Mr. Jackson are a new generation of Democrats focused on economic inequality, healthcare access and taking on wealthy interests in politics.
Other Democrats eyeing the White House are also picking their spots in big midterm races.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, campaigned in Michigan with Mr. El-Sayed in September, appeared this week with Nevada gubernatorial nominee Aaron Ford and is set to campaign in Georgia with Sen. Jon Ossoff.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has made stops in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has campaigned in Iowa and New Hampshire and plans to appear with Mississippi Senate nominee Scott Colom next week.
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