Maine Woman Says Troy Jackson Duped Her Into Playing Role in Political Ad
Steve Robinson
Robinson Report
October 29, 2026
A Scarborough woman says a videographer told her she would be appearing in an ad for Sen. Susan Collins, so she was surprised to see her face appearing in campaign advertisements from Graham Platner’s replacement, Troy Jackson.
Kelly Kusnirak, a longtime Republican who owns a laundromat business in the Scarborough area, says footage she recorded last spring for what she believed was a Collins campaign video is now being used in a digital and streaming ad supporting the Democratic challenger.
According to Kusnirak, a videographer approached her at her business around March or April, identified himself as shooting for the Susan Collins campaign, and asked if she would participate. She agreed.
At the time, Jackson had not yet replaced Democratic nominee Graham Platner, who removed himself from the ticket amid allegations of sexual assault. The Maine Democrats concocted a small convention of insiders to fill the vacancy, and Jackson handily secured the several hundred votes it took to become the nominee.
But long before Platner faced sexual assault allegations, and before the world knew that Jackson had fathered two children with his second cousin, a Democrat Party videographer duped Kusnirak into filming what would become a kind of “deep fake” endorsement for Collins’ opponent.
“I said yes because I support Susan,” Kusnirak said in a statement and in a follow-up video provided to The Robinson Report. “I had no idea that months later my face and my words would show up in an ad for her opponent. I feel like I was duped.”
In the original short ad, which carries a disclaimer that it was “Paid for by CFFE PAC” and “Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee,” Kusnirak sits at a table in front of Speed Queen washers and dryers. On-screen text identifies her as “Kelly, South Portland, ME.” She says: “As far as affordability in Maine, nothing is affordable in Maine. Rent is not affordable. Buying a house is not affordable. But do our wages go up? Do we have good jobs in Maine? No.”
Kusnirak is never asked whether she thinks the state government, where Jackson has been a top Democratic lawmaker and six-year Senate President, has had anything to do with the cost of housing and stifled wage growth. Or… if she was, that video was left on the cutting room floor.
An overlay attributed to Center for American Progress Action states that “Costs are going up for almost everything Maine families need, and Sen. Susan Collins is making things worse.” The ad then cuts to Jackson at a podium with the message: “Susan Collins is too expensive for Maine. Vote Troy Jackson for Senate in November.” The website listed is familyfriendlyeconomy.org.
CFFE PAC, the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, is a progressive group that focuses on issues such as higher taxes and more government intervention in the economy. It has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in independent expenditures supporting Jackson in the Maine Senate race.
The PAC’s executive director is Sondra Goldschein, a former director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The group is funded, in part, by Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, and multiple funds controlled by Arabella Advisors and the George Soros network. The PAC has spent nearly $2 million boosting Jackson, but it’s not clear how much of that spending went to tricking Collins voters into filming pro-Jackson ads.
Kusnirak says she only learned her footage had been used when a friend saw the ad. In a longer response video filmed in the same laundromat and ending with the “Susan Collins – our senator” branding and a “Paid for by Collins for Senator” disclaimer, she states she is “not a Troy Jackson supporter at all.”
“I definitely feel like I was misled because when I did finally see the ad, I was like, oh wow, look at that banner, Troy Jackson,” she says. “I was surprised to see that it was for Troy Jackson. Totally did not expect that. I thought it was going to be for Susan Collins.”
She continues: “If they’re willing to mislead me, how far will they go? And, you know, when will it end?”
In the same video, Kusnirak attributes Maine’s affordability problems to state-level decisions rather than Collins: “The economic problems we have in Maine right now are pretty much the result of our legislature in Augusta that has been in control for the past eight years.” She adds that Collins “always puts Maine first when she makes decisions that affect Maine and she does more for Mainers economically on certain issues than the legislature in Augusta has done.”
. . .
Kusnirak said she is speaking out so other Mainers are not misled the same way.
“If they’re willing to trick me into being in one of his ads, they’re willing to trick you into voting for Troy Jackson,” she said. “These are dirty tricks, and I think Mainers deserve better. I want to set the record straight: I am voting for Susan Collins.”