A Republican organization paid for an ad targeting Troy Jackson, Maine’s Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate and incumbent Susan Collins’ opponent, to air in Portland, Oregon, instead of Portland, Maine.
A Republican super PAC, not the Republican National Committee, paid for the ad. A spokesperson for the super PAC, Defending Main Street Superpac, said media vendor Cross Screen Media had made the mistake. We await confirmation from the vendor and its parent company.
In October 2026, a rumor spread that Republicans had inadvertently paid for a campaign ad targeting Troy Jackson, Maine’s Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate and incumbent Susan Collins’ opponent, to air in Portland, Oregon, instead of Portland, Maine.
Posts multiplied on social media making the claim, including on Facebook and X. One X post by the betting platform Polymarket said “Anti-Troy Jackson ads intended for Maine voters are reportedly appearing in Oregon, sparking speculation that advertisers confused Portland, Maine, with Portland, Oregon” (archived):
The post included maps of the states of Oregon, on the West Coast, and Maine, on the East Coast.
The claim is true, although some social media users were imprecise about who paid for the ads, saying it was “the GOP” or “Republicans” as a whole. A review of Google’s Ads Transparency Center revealed the anti-Jackson ad, paid for by Republican super PAC Defending Main Street Superpac Inc, aired not only in Portland, Oregon, but also Washington state, between Oct. 8 and Oct. 12.
A spokesperson for Defending Main Street Superpac acknowledged the mistake in an email to Snopes, saying it had originated with the super PAC’s media vendor, Cross Screen Media, whose parent company is 1903 Group.
“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,” the email read. The spokesperson added Cross Screen Media was refunding the ad buy.
We reached out both to Cross Screen Media and to 1903 Group to confirm and we will update this report should we receive a response.
Ad buys and social media chatter
The ad in question attacked Jackson for seeking to raise taxes in Maine:
The super PAC is an independent political advocacy group that supports Collins, who is seeking her sixth term in the Senate (she was first elected in 1996). Collins’ campaign had no say in the ad’s content, nor where it aired. Polls revealed that Collins and Jackson were in a tight race.
Data from Google’s Ads Transparency Center showed that the ad ran in Oregon for four days and was seen between 1 million and 1.25 million times there. The buyer spent between $15,000 ad $20,000. The ad also ran in the state of Washington during that time, and cost between $5,000 and $6,000, for 350,000 and 400,000 views.
“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. No donor funds will be lost as a result of the vendor’s error,” the super PAC’s spokesperson told Snopes in the email.
Meanwhile, internet chatter indicated that people in Oregon had seen the anti-Jackson ad. On Oct. 11, an account on X named Lillian Belle, whose bio reads “Obsessed with Oregon Politics. Ask me about Oregon and the Judiciary,” said (archived) “I’ve gotten 5 anti-Troy Jackson ads in the last 24 hours. I choose to believe they mixed up Portlands.”
Someone responded to this post, saying (archived) “Ive gotten so many this week,” to which Belle responded “Interesting that it’s not just me.”
Asked if the ads were “digital or cable,” Belle said (archived) “Digital which isn’t that precise but still a lol [laugh out loud]”
For further reading, Snopes has covered several rumors about the 2026 U.S. elections, including a false claim that voting ballots are disqualified with poll workers mark them.
