GOP Sen. Susan Collins nudges Trump to stay away from Maine
During her first debate against Democrat Troy Jackson, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) twice dodged a question on whether she would stump with Trump if her…
You want the honest version? Susan Collins just spent a full debate treating Donald Trump like a mild case of poison ivy. Twice asked if she’d appear with him in Maine, and twice she found somewhere else to look.
Commentary is separate from the original publisher's reporting.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Susan Collins seemingly had a not-so-subtle message for President Trump: stay away.
During her first debate of the cycle against Democrat Troy Jackson, Collins (R-Maine) twice dodged a question on whether she would stump with Trump if her were to swing through the Pine Tree State.
“I don’t think that President Trump is going to come to Maine,” she replied when asked. “He’s talking about going to a lot of different states. I’ve heard nothing from his office. And I’m not exactly his favorite senator.”
Pressed again, she replied, “I would say that he is not coming to Maine.”
On Monday, Trump indicated to reporters that he was planning to swing through Maine as part of his midterm blitz, but so far, no concrete plans for such a trip have emerged publicly.
“I think we’re going to Maine too. I’m going to Michigan in a week and a half,” Trump said.
Trump lost Maine to former Vice President Kamala Harris by about seven points in 2024. Maine has gone blue in all presidential elections this century. However, the state’s Republican senator has managed to hang onto her seat during that time.
Trump had loomed large over Collins’ debate against Jackson, who tried to blame her for some of the president’s policies, such as the war in Iran, the trade war with Canada, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Collins repeatedly distanced herself from Trump, underscoring how she opposed him on all three of those issues. She highlighted a study that found she “voted against my party more than any other senator on either side of the aisle.”
She also touted her efforts to mitigate problems she claimed came from Maine’s Democrat controlled state government and Trump. At one point, she noted how she negotiated to get salt removed from the tariff list, noting Maine’s dependence on imports from Canada to treat its roads in the winter.
“What about everything else? We can’t eat road salt,” Jackson fired back.
As Jackson tried to blame the people of Maine’s problems on chaos in Washington, Collins worked to redirect fire on him and state governance in Augusta.
“If you look at the policies that have driven up the cost of living in Maine, you have to look at Augusta. Maine has the fourth-highest electricity rates in the country. It has some of the highest housing costs in the entire country,” she said.
“It has extraordinarily high property taxes. Those are all due to Augusta’s failed policies under the failed leadership of Troy Jackson.”
Jackson, who relied heavily on a thick white binder full of notes during the verbal bout, led the state Senate from 2018 through 2024. But Collins highlighted his struggles to pass significant legislation.
Perhaps his biggest gripe against Collins was her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018. Jackson pressed her about what “will it take for you to admit you are ever wrong?”
“I clearly don’t agree with how Brett Kavanaugh voted on Roe v. Wade,” she said at one point. “I would point out that there’s only one of us on the stage who has always been pro-choice, and that’s me.”
Early in his political career, Jackson took staunchly pro-life positions, but later changed course and became pro-choice.
She also pointed out that she voted for all of the liberal justices on the Supreme Court.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
You want the honest version? Susan Collins just spent a full debate treating Donald Trump like a mild case of poison ivy. Twice asked if she’d appear with him in Maine, and twice she found somewhere else to look. That’s not a strategy; that’s a tell. The senator from Maine knows exactly who her base is, and she has decided they are a problem to be managed rather than a coalition to be led.
What makes this so transparent is the math of it. Collins won her last race against the national Democratic wave, partly by letting the left believe she was one of the "reasonable" Republicans. Fine. That’s a well-worn playbook for a Maine Republican, and it has kept her in office since the Clinton administration. But here’s the thing she keeps missing: the voters who actually show up in a GOP primary are not the ones she’s courting with this dance. She is running in a primary against Troy Jackson, and her answer to the Trump question was essentially, "Let's talk about fishing regulations." It was a dodge so deliberate it felt rehearsed.
We get that Collins is in a tough spot. Maine is not Alabama, and her general election coalition has always included independents who would rather chew glass than vote for a straight Trump ticket. But there is a difference between acknowledging your district and insulting the leader of your party. By refusing to even say the man's name, she handed her opponent the easiest attack line of the cycle. Jackson doesn't have to do anything but play the clip on repeat. The left will cheer it, the local papers will editorialize it, and the national Democrats will raise money off it. She managed to make herself look weak to the right and still won’t get any credit from the left, because the left knows a fake dodge when they see one.
Maybe Collins should take a lesson from the president’s playbook: you don't have to love every ally, but you do have to be willing to stand next to them on a stage. The "wait and see" approach on Trump is a dying art in the GOP, and for good reason. It doesn't persuade anyone, it just annoys everyone. If you can't stand next to the guy who delivered the policy wins your voters care about, then don't be surprised when they find someone who will. That’s not about loyalty to one man; it’s about basic political self-awareness. And right now, Collins is showing a deficit of it.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.