In a televised debate on Tuesday, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine did her level best to distance herself from Donald Trump, a man who has lost Maine three times and whom she would very much like to keep at arm's length for at least one more election cycle.

The 73-year-old, who has been in the Senate since 1996, made the unusual boast for a Republican that she had voted with Joe Biden more than 90% of the time when he was president. She also noted she has voted against her own party more than any other senator - a distinction that plays well in a state that has backed a Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1992.

"I'm not exactly his favorite senator," Collins said of Trump, when moderator Gregg Lagerquist mentioned the president might pay a campaign visit to Maine. One assumes she has already checked whether the White House switchboard has her on hold.

Jackson, 58, a veteran former state legislator getting his first broad audience since replacing Graham Platner as the Democratic candidate, was having none of it. Platner, a former harbor master, withdrew in July after facing sexual assault allegations, which he denied, leaving Democrats scrambling to replace a candidate who had built momentum on a populist progressive platform.

Jackson painted Collins as a Trump loyalist, saying she voted with the president 96% of the time. He also hammered her 2018 vote for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, tying it to the court's subsequent overturning of Roe v Wade, which had guaranteed the national right to abortion for half a century.

"Tonight is about who you stand with when it matters," Jackson said in his opening statement. "Eight years ago today, Maine women went to DC and begged Senator Collins not to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, but she did it anyways. He helped overturn Roe v Wade, and today she says she has no regrets. Would you trust her to pick the next supreme court justice?"

Collins went to unusual lengths to differentiate herself from Trump on a range of issues, including the war with Iran, which she said she voted to end nine times, calling it "not well thought out." She also stressed her differences with the president on rural healthcare and tariffs against Canada, with which Maine shares a border.

"I have been the most outspoken opponent of the tariffs on Canada," she said. "Canada is not China. It's our neighbor and our friends."

Polls show the two candidates running neck and neck - which is either a sign of Maine's independent streak or a sign that voters are still deciding which version of Susan Collins they're getting.