STATEWIDE (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- After Monday night's Senate debate between incumbent Senator Angus King, state senator Eric Brakey, and Zak Ringelstein, included bashing and claim-slinging.
NEWS CENTER Maine fact-checked two of the claims Mainers are talking most about leading up to the election.
"You've run as an independent, you tell us you're an independent, but you vote 92 percent of the time with Chuck Schumer," said Sen. Brakey.
"Senator Angus King works with Trump 47 percent of the time, votes with Trump 47 percent of the time, is a complete and utter disgrace," said Ringelstein.
Those claims are difficult to verify, in part because many Senate votes can be procedural or sometimes ceremonial: teasing out specifically which votes are on issues that affect voters can be tough. NEWS CENTER Maine looked at King's voting record on a specific issue: health care.
According to the independent website, fivethirtyeight.com, Senator King voted overall with President Trump about 45.6 percent of the time. When looking specifically at health care-related measures, King voted the opposite of President Trump's stance on five out of six votes, including voting no on varying repeals of the Affordable Care Act.
King and President Trump voted in step on a measure to expand private care options for veterans.
Another one of the top five most Googled political topics in Maine since 2017 is guns.
"Here in Maine we have the strongest second amendment protections in the entire country. We're also ranked the safest state in America. In fact, four out of the top five safest states in America are constitutional carry states," said Sen. Brakey.
In a U.S. News and World report article, Maine was rated the safest state. Maine ranked second in the country in a similar WalletHub report.
Brakey's claim is true: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Idaho, which are in the top five of that U.S. News report, all have constitutional carry laws. Whether that right to carry directly affects safety -- Ringelstein and King disagree.
"Do we really want to be a society where people have guns in schools and churches?" King said.
"Criminals don't obey gun laws. You can pass whatever laws you want, criminals won't follow it. We might as well make Maine a murder-free zone, in fact, I think we already have," said Brakey. "But people are still committing crimes. They don't follow the laws. Law-abiding citizens do. You're disarming law-abiding citizens with these laws."