No incumbent Republican Senate candidate has fared worse than Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in debates. Her fundamental dilemma is simple: After years of feigning to follow in the tradition of Maine “independence,” her record reveals she has been a rubber stamp for the Trump regime’s worst nominees and policies.
In the first Trump term, she voted to confirm both Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, two obviously anti-choice justices selected in large part because they could be relied upon to reverse Roe v. Wade. She regrets nothing, as the New York Times reported in June:
“I do not regret that vote,” Ms. Collins, widely seen as the most vulnerable Republican senator up for re-election this year, said when asked about the episode by The Portland Press Herald. “I do disagree with Justice Kavanaugh’s vote.” . . .
“When I look at a justice, I look at their qualifications, their integrity, their background, their experience in reaching a decision,” she said. “Obviously, I’m disappointed in that decision.”
“Disappointed” does not begin to describe the reaction of millions of women and their loved ones. Thanks to Collins’s votes, women denied access to abortions have died, suffered serious health complications, and otherwise had their constitutional rights stripped from them. “Disappointed” does not capture the reaction of Maine pro-choice voters who believed her gibberish over the years about defending a woman’s right to choose.
Moreover, Collins now paints herself as a willing dupe, insisting Kavanaugh did not lie to her in saying Roe was settled law. “I do not feel that he lied, but I think that he should not have said it was settled law because, to me, that meant that it would not be overturned,” she lamely offered in a debate. “But to be fair, you cannot ask a nominee how he might vote on some hypothetical future case.” But she did ask him, hypothetically; he misled her, and she doesn’t regret her vote. Independent-minded Mainer or Trump rubber stamp?
Collins also voted to confirm Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has become an infamous anti-vaccine crank. In her most recent debate, she stated she does not regret voting for him, either. “I agree with him on some issues; I don’t with others,” Collins declared. “He was very helpful in expediting the release of the low-income eating assistance program.” Well, in that case, the deaths from measles, the thousands of contracted illnesses, the decimation of our national health research infrastructure, and the loss of hundreds of seasoned medical professionals are just the price of…expediting the release of a low-income eating assistance program?!? Maybe this is what she thinks it means to be an independent Mainer. But many voters now see this as a pathetic excuse for rubber-stamping yet another plainly unfit Trump nominee.
Speaking of food, the Big, Ugly bill cut roughly $186 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over 10 years, making it the biggest cut in the program’s history. The Center for Budget and Public Policy Priorities found, “We estimate that SNAP participation nationwide fell by over 5 million people (nearly 13 percent) between the law’s July 2025 enactment and June 2026, based on the latest month of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)… It’s very likely that nationwide, the number of children receiving SNAP has dropped by about 2 million since July 2025.” In Maine alone, well over 14,000 people lost SNAP benefits.
Collins has perfected the art of keeping her fingerprints off the worst, most egregious right-wing legislation, but not even she has been able to disguise her role in this one. As Maine Democrats pointed out at the time, when the bill could have been stopped in its tracks, Collins provided a key vote to move the bill from committee to the floor. “Collins ended up voting against the overall bill, but only after it was clear her vote was no longer needed to pass it,” academic and social services community leader Shawn Yardley pointed out.
Collins’s refusal to stop the Big, Ugly bill also has had tragic consequences for healthcare in Maine. “President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (HR 1), passed in July 2025, made massive cuts to Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy,” Mark Shaffer wrote in the Maine Morning Star. “Around 31,000 Mainers are expected to lose Medicaid due to new administrative burdens from the bill. Many people who lose Medicaid will have to rely on charity care at hospitals or take on debt, harming Mainers and hospitals alike.” Multiple Maine hospitals are at risk of closing due to Medicaid cuts scheduled to hit next year. (Some 9,100 Mainers have already lost coverage.) Collins only feigned “independence” when it came to the Big, Ugly bill. When it mattered, once again, she was a reliable rubber stamp for Trump’s radical MAGA agenda.
Pick a topic — the Iran war, ICE funding, Kash Patel’s nomination, etc. — and Collins was never “independent” enough to thwart Trump’s agenda. Faced with the devastating results of her votes supporting his policies, she has looked clueless and frankly deceptive in debates. Voters now have a chance to render their own verdict. If they’ve gotten sick of the phony pretense of “independent Mainer” they now have the opportunity to reject the rubber stamper and vote for someone who clearly opposes Trump’s extreme right-wing agenda.
