Troy Jackson joins protests in Mechanics Park in Biddeford after a man was killed in a shooting involving federal immigration agents Monday morning. Jackson is running to replace Graham Platner as the Democrat's nominee to challenge Sen. Susan Collins in November. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)

The rules had just been established for Democrats to choose a new nominee for the Maine Senate race after their original nominee withdrew last week.

Candidates made plans to gin up support in the two-week sprint toward an unprecedented statewide nominating convention on July 25, maneuvering behind the scenes to recruit delegates for county meetings this weekend and positioning themselves publicly to take the reins of an energized base.

Then a federal agent shot and killed 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national, in Biddeford on Monday, sparking widespread protests — and forcing candidates to pivot.

The fatal shooting — the second in the country over the last week — has brought the issue of immigration enforcement to the forefront of Maine’s Senate race, potentially making it the defining issue of the snap Democratic primary for the right to challenge Sen. Susan Collins.

On Tuesday, former Senate President Troy Jackson joined fellow candidates Paige Loud, a social worker, and Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, at a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Scarborough.

It was the third protest at which Jackson had appeared in the last two days.

In Biddeford on Monday, he walked with protesters as they marched to Collins’ office to voice disapproval. Police eventually arrived at the scene and shooed the protesters out.

“Enough is enough,” Jackson said in a video of himself outside Collins’ office. “We need to abolish ICE. You know, people who support having this type of rogue agency need to be replaced also.”

About a half-dozen candidates are trying to replace Graham Platner as the party’s nominee to take on Collins in the fall. Platner withdrew from the race on Friday after being accused of sexually assaulting a Maine woman in 2021 — an accusation he denies.

Democrats are criticizing Collins, who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee, for voting to fund Trump’s immigration agenda. In June, she supported the Secure America Act, a budget bill that allocated $70 billion for ICE through the end of Trump’s term. (She also voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a 2025 law that essentially tripled ICE’s budget.)

New ICE funding became a flashpoint after Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown this year, which also reached into Maine and prompted protests after agents arrested hundreds of people here, most of whom had no criminal record. Democratic opposition to the funding without substantial reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement led to a 75-day partial government shutdown.

Republicans, with Collins’ help, eventually passed the funding using a procedure that required a majority vote, rather than supermajority. Collins criticized Democrats at the time for allowing the agency to be shut down, noting its purview goes beyond immigration enforcement.

In recent days, Collins’ spokespeople have defended her vote, noting that a separate funding bill included $20 million for the expanded use of body cameras, $2 million for de-escalation training and $20 million for increased oversight of detention centers.

“It’s unfortunate that Democrats who are desperate to be appointed to run for the Senate are using a tragedy to further their political aspirations,” said campaign spokesperson Blake Kernen in a statement. “Anyone calling for abolishing ICE is calling for the agency to cease critical efforts to combat human trafficking, child exploitation, forced labor and international drug smuggling.”

The Department of Homeland Security told The Associated Press that only half of ICE field offices currently have body cameras. The federal agents involved in Monday’s shooting in Biddeford were not wearing them.

Collins’ work fell far short of Democratic demands to substantially reform — if not abolish — ICE.

“This is the 11th person shot by this administration,” Loud said at Tuesday’s protest in Scarborough. “It is time to abolish ICE and prosecute publicly — publicly — the officers that are murdering our neighbors.”

Shah also criticized Collins’ support of ICE funding on Monday, saying he would support shutting down the federal government to oppose funding the agency.

Before the shooting, Shah had been planning to roll out a suite of policy positions, largely focused on affordability, the economy and healthcare. When he heard about the incident Monday morning, he raced to Biddeford to attend a demonstration, which made him about a half hour late to his own policy rollout in Freeport.

On Tuesday, Shah, the son of immigrants, was back in Biddeford, where he held a news conference outside Collins’ office.

“There is a straight line from Senator Collins to the lawlessness we saw yesterday,” Shah said in a written statement. “She confirmed ICE’s leaders, she funded its abuses and she chairs the one committee in Washington with the power to put conditions on every dollar the agency gets. But three times, she gave ICE a blank check instead of demanding accountability.”

Other candidates also pivoted from their plans. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows went to Biddeford to show support for the community, saying her campaign had expected to focus on county-level organizing for the upcoming convention.

In a written statement Tuesday, Bellows highlighted her refusal to give federal agents unmarked license plates, a decision that caused Republican state lawmakers to consider a push to impeach her earlier this year.

“The fatal shooting in Biddeford by federal agents was a tragedy and it’s far past time to get ICE off our streets,” Bellows said. “There should be no secret police in our state.”

Jordan Wood, a former Capitol Hill staffer, opened a news conference in Lewiston on Monday by addressing the Biddeford shooting before turning to other topics. He later attended a vigil in Biddeford.

In a written statement Tuesday, Wood said the killing had “awakened Maine.”

“Susan Collins voted just last month to give ICE another $70 billion, and her response to his death was two sentences,” he said. “I’m running to abolish ICE, prosecute out-of-control agents and end Donald Trump’s lawlessness. Defeating Susan Collins in November is how Maine answers this.”

On Monday, Collins initially limited her response to the shooting to calling for a “full and impartial investigation” and noting which agencies were investigating.

But she went a step further on Tuesday, after Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, disclosed that Guerrero was not the subject of the warrant that immigration enforcement officers were trying to execute when he was killed.

“While the investigation of the Biddeford shooting is not yet complete, it raises sufficient critical questions that I spoke with DHS Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops,” Collins said on X Wednesday.

Around the same time, national outlets reported that ICE would no longer conduct most vehicle stops until further notice.

It’s unclear whether the shooting will stay on voters’ minds until November. But for now, it is allowing Democrats to try to tie Collins to Trump. An analysis by CQ Roll Call found that Collins votes with Trump 95% of the time.

Gregg Shapiro, the chair of Biddeford’s Democratic committee, said residents’ outcry in the streets was the biggest he had seen since the “No Kings” protests earlier in Trump’s second term.

“We had hundreds of people engaged all day, and many faces that I haven’t seen,” Shapiro said. “Sadly, but maybe in a good way, the events of yesterday will help get people and keep people engaged right up until Election Day and beyond.”

Staff Writer Ethan Wolin contributed to this story.