Maine Senator Susan Collins Now Announcing Reelection Run

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By Ward Clark

The 2026 midterms are getting well and truly underway now, and we're starting to see newbies and incumbents alike declaring their intentions. Case in point: In a move that surprised no one who watches national politics, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) has announced her reelection bid for that Maine Senate seat. This is a seat she has been parked in since 1997.
She's not wasting any time in pointing out why she's running.

Senator Collins isn't a rock-ribbed conservative, holding a lukewarm lifetime rating of a hair over 43 from the CPAC Center for Legislative Accountability.

While the Cook Political Report has the seat rated as a "Lean R," the RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average shows Collins trailing her likely Democrat opponent, oysterman Graham Platner, from four points to one point - but the available polls were taken in November and December of 2025, well before Senator Collins announced for re-election.

Susan Collins is generally considered a squish by her more conservative colleagues in the Republican caucus.

Even so, Republicans should hope for her reelection; here's why, and I'm going to tell you.

First: Look at Maine's Congressional delegation. Collins' fellow Senator is a Democrat - Senator Angus King (D-ME). Both of Maine's Representatives are Democrats: Chellie Pingree (ME-01) and Jared Golden (ME-02). Susan Collins may well be the only kind of Republican that can get elected to a statewide office in Maine.

Second: A squishy Republican in a Senate seat is better than a committed Democrat. The balance counts, and sometimes, like now, party trumps (hah) person. The party that holds the majority largely controls the committee assignments; they control which legislation moves and which doesn't, and they effectively control the agenda. 

Third: Every Republican seat held is a refutation of woke Democrat politics. Every seat held is a thumb in the eye of the AOCs, of the Chuck Schumers, of the Jasmine Crockett's who would cheerfully take our nation to rack and ruin. Every Republican seat held matters. We'd all love to see a staunch fiscal conservative, staunch pro-Second Amendment Republican in that seat - but Maine being what it is, we can't have that.

We want to hold the Senate. We have to hold the Senate. Right now, the signs are, well, OK. They could be better. We need to work the margins. We need to expand the vote. But we also need to get out our base, and if you're reading these words here, you're likely a member of the Republican base. Get out and vote. If you have to bite your lip, if you have to cross your fingers, if you need to make an ancient Romany hand-signal to ward off evil, do so, but then make sure you vote.

Sometimes, party trumps person. This is one of those times.

I don't say these things with any pleasure - trust me, I'm a constituent of Alaska's supposedly-Republican Senator Princess Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). But sometimes we have to take what we can get. This is one of those times. If you're a Republican in Maine, bite your lip, remember the big picture, and vote for the Republican. We can't afford to lose even one seat this year.

Original Here

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