Some Maine voters are rethinking their support for Susan Collins after pay-to-play allegations

Allegations that Sen. Susan Collins participated in a pay-to-play scheme could resonate with the swing voters Maine’s senior senator needs to win a sixth term.

It’s too early to tell what impact ProPublica’s reporting will have on the closely watched U.S. Senate race in Maine. But several voters in a recent New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll said the report pushed them more toward Democrats.

Last week, Portland resident Tara Wheeler said she was barely inclined to support Democrat Troy Jackson. Wheeler said she struggled with her decision because she personally benefited from Collins’ ability, as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to bring in federal funds.

But after ProPublica’s explosive report Tuesday about a failed federal investigation into whether Collins helped steer defense contracts to a company in exchange for political donations, Wheeler said his choice was clear.

“I’m very pro-Jackson,” Wheeler, a 44-year-old Democrat, said without hesitation Monday. “I just didn’t expect that from Susan Collins. … It immediately pushed me over the edge.”

The ProPublica report details illegal campaign contributions Navatek CEO Martin Kao made during Collins’ 2020 campaign. Kao claimed that Collins would not meet with him unless he made a donation. He sent a $150,000 check to a pro-Collins super PAC using a limited liability company because federal contractors are prohibited from donating to candidates. And Kao claimed that Collins helped steer tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts to his company.

The super PAC, called 1820 PAC, was controlled by Scott Reed, a friend and former business partner of Collins’ husband, Tom Daffron. Collins’ financial disclosures show Daffron received at least $1,000 for consulting work last year at Chesapeake Enterprises, where Reed is president.

This cycle, Reed is president of Pine Tree Results, a super PAC spending millions to re-elect Collins.

A Collins campaign spokesperson said Monday that Daffron had nothing to do with Pine Tree Results and had not done any lobbying since her marriage to Collins in 2012.

Collins’ office and campaign have denied ProPublica’s “outrageous” allegations, accusing the news organization and its opponents of taking the word of a convicted felon who was trying to get his prison sentence reduced. They also argued that Collins and his team had been cleared by the Biden administration.

But ProPublica pushed back on that response and defended its reporting, saying its story was based on a trove of documents, not just Kao’s words. And they noted that their reporting focused on a new, broader set of allegations made by Kao after Collins’ re-election in 2020. This new investigation ended when President Donald Trump took office in 2025 for a second term.

Collins campaign spokesperson Blake Kernen said the senator’s office has not been contacted by the FBI since the initial investigation into Biden ended in 2021. “We will continue to vigorously refute these false and desperate attacks,” Kernen said in an email.

The allegations threaten to erode Collins’ support among swing voters, who played a crucial role in his victory in 2020. A CNN exit poll showed about 13% of Democrats supported Collins.

On Friday, Collins rallied her supporters in Gorham, asking them for help fighting what she described as a “smear job.”

“Let’s debunk these lies and show Maine people that integrity still matters,” Collins said, according to a video posted online.

Jackson’s campaign criticized Collins on social media and highlighted the allegations in a press release.

But the story is unlikely to move die-hard supporters on either side.

Melanie Mitchell, a 55-year-old Republican from Arundel, believes Collins was cleared by the Biden administration. She called Jackson a “cringe,” saying he couldn’t do anything positive for Maine as a junior senator.

“Susan Collins is a senior senator,” Mitchell said. “It brings so much money to Maine.”

But Margaret Daigle, a Democrat from East Millinocket, is rethinking her support for Collins. She said the ProPublica article reminded her of the last-minute attacks on Hillary Clinton over her handling of classified emails during the 2016 presidential race.

Daigle, 73, said “it’s annoying” that the allegations came out so late in the cycle. She said she might not know who she is voting for until she enters the voting booth and closes the curtain.

“I’m still undecided, it’s crazy,” Daigle said. “It will play out until the end.”