After a federal immigration agent fatally shot a motorist near Biddeford, Maine’s leading Democratic Senate contenders have fully embraced a position once considered far outside the political mainstream.
The shooting marked the second time in a single week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement used deadly force on American soil, and at least the ninth death since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown.
Democratic hopeful Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, held a press conference outside Sen. Susan Collins’ office to draw a direct connection between the shooting and the senator’s budgetary authority.
“She’s got power, but she didn’t use it to rein in a rogue agency, and instead gave them a blank check to kill,” Shah said at the press conference on Tuesday.
Collins chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, a role she has long cited as a compelling reason for Maine voters to return her to Washington for a sixth term.
Jordan Wood, a former chief of staff to ex-Rep. Katie Porter and one of the Democratic contenders for the seat, called for ICE to be “abolished, and replaced with a new agency that protects and serves the people.”
Troy Jackson, a former Maine Senate president also seeking the Democratic nomination, posted on social media that “this rogue agency must be abolished” and that Collins “must be held accountable for funding this terror.”
All Democratic candidates vying for the Senate nomination called for ICE’s elimination during their first debate, held three days after the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old in Biddeford.
When moderators pressed candidates on concrete reforms achievable under the current administration, the contenders converged around requiring body cameras, banning agents from wearing masks, and stripping ICE officers of legal immunity.
Democratic strategist Josh Schwerin argued that the shooting fundamentally changes the political terrain heading into the general election, saying the tragedy “refocuses the conversation from Platner fallout to the real world impact of Susan Collins voting to give ICE tens of billions of dollars with zero reforms.”
The race was thrown into turmoil after Graham Platner, who had secured the Democratic nomination on June 9, dropped out following a sexual assault allegation, which he has denied, causing his party support to collapse within days.
Democrats privately acknowledge that the Platner scandal has complicated their efforts to unseat Collins, who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997 and is considered one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents up for reelection.
Collins has long maintained her position by carefully navigating the gap between her blue-leaning state and a Republican Party increasingly defined by President Trump’s priorities on immigration and federal spending.
The emerging Democratic strategy centers on binding Collins directly to ICE’s conduct, framing her committee chairmanship not as a source of constituent benefit but as personal responsibility for the agency’s use of deadly force.
