A Republican-aligned group accidentally paid for campaign advertisements targeting Troy Jackson—Maine’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate running against incumbent Susan Collins—to run in Portland, Oregon, instead of Portland, Maine.
The mistake originated from a Republican super PAC rather than the Republican National Committee. According to a representative for Defending Main Street Superpac, the error was made by their media buying vendor, Cross Screen Media, which has agreed to issue a full refund.
In October 2026, social media users began buzzing over a geographic blunder: political advertisements opposing Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson were reportedly popping up on screens across Portland, Oregon, rather than Portland, Maine.
The mix-up quickly circulated across platforms like Facebook and X. A post by the prediction market Polymarket highlighted the incident (archived), noting that voters on the West Coast were receiving anti-Jackson spots, fueling speculation that the campaigns had confused the two Portlands.
The online chatter proved accurate. While some social media posts vaguely attributed the gaffe broadly to “the GOP” or “Republicans,” public records from Google’s Ads Transparency Center confirmed that the digital spots—funded by the conservative super PAC Defending Main Street Superpac Inc—did indeed run in Portland, Oregon, and Washington state between October 8 and October 12.
A spokesperson for the super PAC confirmed the mishap in an email, pointing the finger at their media vendor, Cross Screen Media (a subsidiary of the 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 statement explained, noting that the vendor is processing a complete refund.
Campaign Context and Social Media Reaction
The advertisement in question took aim at Jackson’s legislative record regarding tax proposals in Maine:
Defending Main Street is an independent political action committee operating to support incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins as she campaigns for her sixth term in a notably competitive race against Jackson according to recent polls. Collins’ official campaign had no involvement in creating or placing the erroneous ads.
Data retrieved from Google’s transparency portal indicates that the Oregon flight ran for four days, accumulating between 1 million and 1.25 million impressions at a cost of roughly $15,000 to $20,000. A smaller simultaneous buy in Washington state reached up to 400,000 viewers for around $5,000 to $6,000.
“Once the mistake was flagged, the ads were pulled immediately, and the vendor is reimbursing the full expenditure so that no donor resources are wasted,” the super PAC representative stated.
Local residents on the receiving end of the misplaced campaign messaging quickly took to social media to share their confusion. On October 11, Oregon political observer Lillian Belle posted on X (archived) that she had received multiple anti-Jackson ads within a 24-hour window, joking that the campaign must have mixed up the cities.
When other users chimed in reporting similar sightings, Belle noted (archived) that while the digital targeting wasn’t entirely hyper-local, the mix-up provided plenty of amusement.