Three debates on October 15 closed out the campaign’s televised exchanges in two states that could help decide control of Congress. In Alaska, Sen. Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola accused each other of dishonesty over the Iran war and prices, and in Maine, Sen. Susan Collins and Troy Jackson held their fourth and final Senate debate. Maine’s 2nd District then produced its own hot final exchange between former Gov. Paul LePage and Matt Dunlap over health care, Social Security and LePage’s time in Florida. This dispatch covers what each candidate said, which claims could be checked and how coverage framed each debate.
Alaska Senate: Iran, Prices and Credibility
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is seeking a third term, and Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, debated at Alaska Public Media’s studios in Anchorage. The Associated Press reported that candidates had to win at least 5% in August’s open primary to take part and that the exchange was testy. Trump visited Wasilla and Vance visited Fairbanks before the debate, and Alaska last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 2008.
The Iran war led the night. Sullivan said the war should end soon, with the Strait of Hormuz reopened and a deal preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Peltola said an agreement is “so far out of sight” and noted the deaths of 20 military personnel. She blamed the Trump administration for higher fuel and consumer costs, and Sullivan argued that producing more Alaskan energy is the best way to lower bills.
AP also reported an exchange on Russia and Ukraine in which Peltola criticized the administration’s deal to buy Russian diesel and said the US should support Ukraine, and Sullivan said he strongly supports Ukraine and accused Democrats of cutting the military. A KSAT version of the wire story did not include that exchange, so this article cannot say which account of the report is complete.
Credibility was the sharpest theme. The candidates repeatedly accused each other of dishonesty, with Peltola saying Alaskans had had enough of lying and Sullivan saying she had character challenges. Sullivan also said Peltola appeared to read from note cards and asked whether she had received questions in advance, and a moderator said she had not. Sullivan called her congressional record ineffective, and Peltola called that revisionist history and credited the state’s three-member delegation with approving the Willow oil project. Both candidates said a third term for Trump would violate the Constitution.
Fact-check: The reports read here included no independent fact-checks and cited no polling. This article could not verify Sullivan’s assessment of Peltola’s congressional record or her claim about the Willow approval. Ossoff cited 21 US service member deaths in the Iran war during the Georgia debate, per the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, while Peltola cited 20, and this article could not reconcile the counts. KSAT placed the Willow remark in a Wednesday interview and not in the debate, which differs from AP’s account.
Coverage: Our Alaska Senate briefing covers the race itself. AP’s headline stressed the Iran and prices clash and called the debate testy. The Washington Examiner described neither candidate as landing a decisive blow.
Maine Senate: A Final, Fiery Debate
Collins, a Republican, and Jackson, a Democrat, met at the Gracie Theater in Bangor in a debate co-sponsored by Maine Public, NEWS CENTER Maine and the Portland Press Herald. Maine Public reported that Steve Mistler and Phil Hirschkorn moderated and that it was likely the candidates’ last face-to-face meeting. The October 8 and October 13 debates between the two were covered in our previous dispatches.
Trump was again the frame. Jackson argued that Collins helps a Republican majority that will not check Trump, and he warned about voter suppression and cited January 6. Collins said Jackson would be an automatic vote for Democrats. Jackson said Collins votes with Trump 96% of the time, and Collins replied that the number comes from a study covering only about a third of votes and that the real figure is about 72%.
A protester heckled Collins about data centers, and she suggested he was a Jackson supporter. Jackson answered “Oh shut up,” which the report described as more flippant than hostile. The protester was later identified as a Bowdoin College student. They found common ground on money in politics, with both opposing dark money. Collins backs full donor disclosure and Jackson wants the Citizens United ruling overturned.
On policy, Collins supports a bump-stock ban, what she called reasonable magazine limits and possibly raising the assault-weapon purchase age to 21. Jackson opposes raising the age and supports banning assault-weapon purchases without confiscating existing weapons. They split on the Supreme Court, with Jackson backing expansion, term limits and ethics reforms, and Collins saying expansion would make the court a political body.
Fact-check: The 96% and 72% figures remain disputed, and the report read here did not say which is accurate. Maine Public reported a figure of $75 million in dark money spending benefiting both candidates, attributed to moderator Mistler without a methodology. This article could not verify Jackson’s claims about voter suppression and January 6, or Collins’s description of herself as one of the most bipartisan senators. A report on the October 13 debate said Jackson’s first FEC report was due on October 15, and this article did not open that filing.
Coverage: Maine Public’s headline called the debate final and fiery, and its report treated the heckler exchange as a notable moment. Our Maine Senate briefing covers the race itself.
Maine’s 2nd District: LePage and Dunlap
LePage, a Republican, and Dunlap, the state auditor and a Democrat, met in an hourlong final debate at WABI’s Bangor studio, presented with WAGM, to replace the retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden. WAGM listed Jon Small and Kelly O’Mara as moderators. The pair had debated once before on WMTW, and Maine Public reported that LePage declined invitations from Maine Public, the Portland Press Herald and NEWS CENTER Maine.
The Portland Press Herald reported that health care opened the sharpest exchange. Dunlap attacked PL 90, a high-risk insurance pool from LePage’s time as governor, and LePage said it cut premiums by 76%. Dunlap said that was not true, and LePage told Dunlap he had been lying a lot during the campaign.
Social Security brought a second clash. Dunlap said LePage had called Social Security welfare in a 2014 press release, and LePage got the last word in an exchange that ran about a minute and a half. Dunlap also challenged LePage’s time in Florida and his new Maine driver’s license. LePage called himself a “snowbird,” said he never spent a full year in Florida and said he paid taxes in Maine.
On Iran, LePage called for regime change using the Navy and Air Force without boots on the ground, and Dunlap asked how that could work without American troops in combat. Dunlap said the war is the main driver of high heating oil costs, and LePage challenged that while agreeing that federal heating assistance should rise. Dunlap said universal health care would save money on average, and LePage said it would cost astronomical sums. Both discussed the Canada trade war, with LePage favoring a return to negotiations and Dunlap saying he would act as a check on Trump’s tariff powers.
Fact-check: The 76% premium claim and Dunlap’s reply were reported without resolution, and this article could not verify either. On Social Security, Maine Public reported in 2014 that a release from LePage’s office had listed Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment insurance as welfare, pure and simple. LePage’s campaign said at the time that he did not view Social Security as welfare and that Democrats had misrepresented him. This article could not verify the details of LePage’s driver’s license or residency, or the heating oil claim.
Coverage: The Press Herald headline said the two debated hotly for the final time. Its only poll was a September University of New Hampshire Survey Center survey that put Dunlap ahead by six points, and it described the race as going down to the wire.
View from Outside the US
Canadian outlets have covered Maine mainly through trade, and the Canada trade war came up in the second district debate. A Reuters report carried by BNN Bloomberg said Canada accounted for 69% of Maine’s imports and 41% of its exports in 2025, and that Canada’s retaliatory tariffs of 15% to 50% on about $20 billion of US goods took effect September 8. Those figures date from mid-September, and the reports read here did not describe trade as a major topic in the Maine Senate debate. This article did not find a foreign report on the Alaska debate.
Note on Scope
This dispatch relies on published reports rather than full transcripts or video, so word choices and some figures are as reported. Reporting is current as of October 17, 2026. This article could not open CNN’s takeaways from the Alaska and Maine Senate debates or the Yahoo News account of the second district debate, so each debate rests on one or two accounts. No independent fact-checks of any of the three debates were found, and no social media reaction attributed through a named outlet was found. These are the major debates this article found between October 15 and the morning of October 17. Other debates may have been held, and this article does not judge who won any of them.
Related Links
- Associated Press: Sullivan and Peltola clash over Iran and high prices
- KSAT: Sullivan and Peltola clash over Iran and consumer prices
- Maine Public: Key takeaways from the final debate between Collins and Jackson
- Portland Press Herald: Dunlap and LePage debate hotly for the final time
- WAGM: Dunlap and LePage face off in final televised debate
- Maine Public: This week is stacked with debates in Maine’s races
- News From The States: Takeaways from the third Collins-Jackson debate
Discussion Questions
- Have you ever watched a political debate? How did it affect your view of the candidates?
- Why do candidates accuse each other of dishonesty so often, and does it persuade voters?
- When two candidates give different numbers, like 96% and 72%, how should a voter decide who is right?
- Should a candidate be asked about words in a press release from a decade ago? Why or why not?
- How much does it matter where a candidate has lived, such as time spent in another state?
- Is it fair for a candidate to refuse some debate invitations and accept others?
- What does it say about a debate when the most memorable moment is a heckler?
- Why might a candidate in a state far from Washington, like Alaska, focus on energy and prices?
- Can two candidates who agree on some issues, like dark money, still disagree about who should win?
- Imagine you are a debate moderator. What three questions would you ask the candidates in your state’s race?
