Lobster industry caught in Maine’s political headwinds before US midterms

For half a century, day after day, he has taken his boat and headed into the cold waters of the North Atlantic off the coast of the US state of Maine , hauling the crustaceans from the ocean and bringing them ashore. From there, they are loaded onto trucks, sent to processing facilities and shipped to restaurants around the world. Horner has voted for United States President Donald Trump three times and stands by his vote. He supports the president’s rollback of environmental regulations affecting commercial fishing operations like his own. While he supports Trump on one policy, however, he’s disappointed in another – the president’s antagonistic approach to Canada, which borders Maine and is deeply entwined with the state’s lobster industry. “I never heard anything about all this Canadian animosity in the campaign. The race for the US Senate seat is tight. Jackson, the former president of the Maine State Senate, holds a very slight advantage. Collins has built a reputation in the Senate for voicing concerns about Trump’s policies and rhetoric but supporting his agenda when it comes time to vote. Collins has voted in line with Trump’s position on 92 percent of Senate votes during his second term, which began in January 2025. Jackson has alleged Collins has not done enough to address the underlying causes of heightened prices for Mainers in the lobster industry and beyond, including tariffs. “Troy spent most of his life working along the Canadian border, so he knows how important this relationship is to Maine’s economy, and he sees Trump’s tariffs for what they are: a tax on Maine families and small businesses,” a spokesperson for Jackson said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera.