A Republican super PAC supporting Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) mistakenly aired an attack ad worth thousands of dollars in the wrong Portland, airing in Oregon instead of Maine.
“During a recent independent expenditure, our media vendor mistakenly placed approximately $25,000 in digital advertising in the Portland, Oregon media market instead of Portland, Maine,” a spokesperson for Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP), the nonprofit affiliated with GOP super PAC Defending Main Street, told The Hill.
“The error was identified, the ads were immediately stopped and corrected, and the vendor is refunding Defending Main Street the full amount of the misplaced spend,” the spokesperson continued.
“No donor funds will be lost as a result of the vendor’s error,” the spokesperson added.
Pro-Collins ads target wrong Portland in GOP super PAC mix-uphttps://t.co/SYGhJfX3q7
— The Hill (@thehill) October 12, 2026
The Hill explained further:
The mix-up was first reported by NBC News, which identified a Portland, Ore., resident writing on social media Sunday that she received “5 anti-Troy Jackson ads in the last 24 hours.”
ADVERTISEMENTAccording to Google Ads Transparency Center, the advertisements ran for four days and targeted various zip codes around the Portland, Ore., area. Before the ad was taken down, it was shown more than 1 million times to people across all demographics in Oregon.
An RMSP spokesperson also directed The Hill to statements from Sarah Chamberlain, the president and CEO of RMSP. In the statements to NBC News, Chamberlain said she was “absolutely furious” that the ad buyer, Cross Screen Media, made such a “ridiculous” error.
“Defending Main Street had nothing to do with this,” Chamberlain said, according to The New York Times.
“They screwed up,” Chamberlain added, mentioning the vendor’s parent company.
A Republican super PAC trying to influence a crucial Senate race in Maine spent thousands of dollars running an attack ad in the wrong Portland, targeting voters thousands of miles away in Oregon. https://t.co/jRNDBxnV0n
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 12, 2026
More from The New York Times:
The ad, titled “So Many Taxes,” says that Mr. Jackson supports raising taxes — a line of attack that Senator Susan Collins, a Republican seeking a sixth term, has repeatedly used in her re-election campaign. Ms. Collins is not named in the ad.
“It’s tough to make a living when you pay so much in taxes,” a narrator says in the video. “And taxin’ Troy Jackson made it that way.”
Mr. Jackson has countered that he supports tax increases only on wealthy individuals and large corporations.
People took to social media on Monday morning to share how bizarre it was to have seen the ad in Oregon. Later in the day, the Google listing for the ad appeared to have been fixed, to show ZIP codes in Maine.
ADVERTISEMENTMs. Collins’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for Mr. Jackson’s campaign, seized on the ad mix-up, saying Ms. Collins and “her allies are so out of touch with Maine, they apparently can’t find it on a map.”
