Belongs to the Republican Party The super PAC had some difficulty finding Maine on the map.
The Defend Main Street super PAC spent thousands of dollars creating an attack ad to an audience thousands of miles away from its target Senate race in Maine.
The ad attacks Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson over taxes and the cost of living in Maine.
“Maine cannot afford Troy Jackson and all his taxes,” the ad reads.
“It’s clear these people know nothing about Maine.”
The group, which calls itself “the most effective independent spending organization supporting the Republican establishment,” paid for the ad to attack Jackson, who is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Both candidates have made cost of living a central issue in their campaigns ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The only problem with the ad: The video ad the group paid for was shown more than 1 million times in the wrong Portland.
According to Google, the ads were shown not to an audience in Portland, Maine, the state’s largest city, but to a digital audience in Portland, Oregon, more than 3,000 miles away and three time zones away.
Andy O’Brien, a political operative who supports Jackson, said the confusion could be an embarrassment to super PACs that aim to elect so-called moderate Republicans like Collins, but would likely shield Maine voters from the latest wave of ad spending in the state.
“We have billionaires with no ties to Maine spending millions of dollars to buy the election of Susan Collins, so it’s pretty hilarious to see them dumping their money in the wrong Portland,” O’Brien told The Intercept. “It’s clear these people know nothing about Maine because they’re targeting the wrong Portland.”
“I’m glad they’re wasting money in Oregon instead of continuing to waste money in Maine.”
Representatives for the Jackson and Collins campaigns and a spokesperson for Defend Main Street did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The group is affiliated with the Republican Avenue Partnership, a nonprofit of which Collins is one of nine members of the Senate. The Republican Main Street Partnership was originally designed to support moderate Republicans who, along with much of the rest of the Republican Party, have moved to the right in recent years.
busy main street
The race between Collins and Jackson has become one of the most high-profile races in the country in the run-up to the midterm elections. Jackson is a longtime Maine politician who succeeded Graham Plattner after Plattner exited amid sexual assault allegations.
The campaign helped make Maine one of the top places for political spending this cycle, according to the Portland Press Herald.
However, defending street advertising did not have the effect that sponsors had hoped for. The ad buy first came to light after an X user reported seeing multiple anti-Troy Jackson ads in Portland, Oregon.
“I’ve received 5 anti-Troy Jackson ads in the last 24 hours. I choose to believe they are confusing Portland,” wrote the user, who goes by the name Lillian Belle and posts about progressive politics in Oregon. “I heard I’m not alone, haha.”
Data from Google Ads Transparency Center appears to confirm this suspicion, showing that Defending Main Street spent $20,000 to $25,000 to place the 30-second ad in hundreds of ZIP codes in Oregon and Washington between October 8 and 11.
“At least now residents of Portland, Oregon, can enjoy some of the trash we see every day,” said Maine politician O’Brien.
Correction time: October 12, 2026 at 2:04 pm ET
A previous version of this article misstated the number of time zones between Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine; it was three, not two.