Democrat Troy Jackson has defeated Republican Susan Collins in Maine, ending a congressional career that spanned nearly three decades and giving Democrats a Senate seat they had not held since 1995.

Jackson took 53 percent of the vote with 76 percent of precincts reported early on Wednesday, while Collins had nearly 46 percent, according to Decision Desk HQ. The result was called by multiple US outlets as Democrats swept a series of Senate races across the country.

Collins had been one of the last remaining Republicans willing to break with her party on high-profile votes, and her defeat removes a distinctive voice from the chamber.

How the race turned

The campaign was dominated by cost-of-living arguments and by attacks on Collins' record. Ads repeatedly highlighted divisive votes, including her 2018 support for Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court — a vote that helped expand a conservative majority which later overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

Jackson, a state senator and logger by trade, built his campaign around economic grievance and a blunt style that contrasted with Collins' reputation for caution. Supporters argued that her seniority had not translated into enough for the state.

"All these things are costing the state way more money than Susan Collins can ever bring in," one voter told NPR.

Collins did have a record of voting against Trump administration policies, and she positioned herself as a check on the White House. But in a year when voters were focused on prices and on control of Congress, that argument did not hold.

A shrinking centre

The result also says something about the kind of politics that still wins in New England. "We have lost a lot of the centrists, and one of the reasons is we need people who will work across party lines," one Republican critic of the outcome told NPR.

Collins' brand was built on that cross-party identity. Her defeat suggests that in the current environment, being a swing vote is no longer a reliable shield — especially when the other side can frame every compromise as complicity.

Jackson's allies reject the idea that his win is purely partisan. "[Jackson] is going to be an automatic vote for the Democratic position no matter what," one voter said, voicing a criticism rather than a compliment. That framing was used against him during the campaign; the result suggests it did not stick.

What it changes in Washington

The practical effect is a Senate seat that moves from Republican to Democratic control, adding to a wave that also flipped seats in Texas, North Carolina and elsewhere. With 35 of 100 seats contested this cycle, the balance of the chamber was always going to be decided by a handful of states — and Maine was one of them.

Jackson's victory does not by itself settle control of the Senate, but it removes one of the Republicans' most recognisable incumbents and gives Democrats a recruit with an unusual profile: a state legislator from a rural district who campaigned as an economic populist rather than a Washington insider.

His first tests will come quickly. The Senate returns after the election with a crowded calendar, including spending deadlines and nominations. A new senator arrives without committee seniority and with a mandate built on affordability rather than foreign policy or procedure.

The Collins legacy

Collins was first elected to the Senate in 1996 and became known for procedural independence and for occasionally decisive votes. She voted against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act in 2017 and against some Trump nominees, and she was frequently the subject of national attention when a single Republican vote mattered.

That record made her a target from the left without fully reassuring the right — a position that became harder to defend as the party's base demanded loyalty.

Her defeat closes a chapter in Maine politics. The state had not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1995, and the result marks a generational shift in a state that had kept returning a Republican moderate even as the rest of New England moved away from the party.

The race also drew attention to the mechanics of the wave: Democrats picked up Senate seats in Texas and elsewhere, while the party's gains in the House reflected the same pattern of suburban and small-city voters moving away from the Republicans. Markets reacted immediately, with the dollar sliding as investors weighed what divided government means for spending and taxes. The new senator from Maine will take his seat in a chamber whose balance was decided by races like this one.

The Maine result also matters for how the Senate works day to day. Collins was one of the few Republicans whose vote could not be taken for granted, and her departure removes a negotiating partner that both parties had learned to work with. Jackson inherits a seat, not a faction: he will need to build relationships quickly in a chamber where seniority decides committee assignments and where a single member can slow legislation to a crawl. Democrats will welcome the seat; they may find the senator harder to fit into a caucus that has moved left since Collins was first elected.

The result also lands alongside other election-night stories, from the Democratic takeover of Congress to earnings pressure on chipmakers and the Binance hack investigation.