Republican Sen. Susan Collins distanced herself from President Donald Trump during her first Maine Senate debate with Democrat Troy Jackson, saying she maintained her political independence by repeatedly voting against Trump’s agenda and saying she was “not exactly his favorite senator.”
Democrats are trying to flip Maine’s Senate seat as they push to take control of the Senate. Trump lost the state in 2024, giving Democrats hope of defeating the five-term moderate Republican, who was targeted by Democrats in previous elections and survived.
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During the hour-long debate, Jackson focused largely on trying to link Collins to Trump. He began the evening by pointing out that she had voted critically to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee who ultimately helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Collins supports abortion rights and said Kavanaugh assured her it was established law, but she recently said she doesn’t regret her vote to uphold it.
“Would you trust him to choose the next Supreme Court justice?” asked Jackson, a former state legislator and logger.
He also repeatedly discussed his procedural vote to advance the president’s 2025 tax and spending bill — although Collins ultimately broke with his party to vote against it.
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Collins countered that she voted against Trump more than Joe Biden when the Democrat was president, and that she opposed Trump on tariffs, immigration enforcement and the war in Iran.
“I have voted against my party more than any other senator on either side of the aisle,” Collins said.
The focus on Trump comes as only 31% of American adults approve of the Republican’s handling of the presidency, according to a September AP-NORC poll. That’s well below his approval when he took office last year.
The president began holding rallies across the country in an effort to help Republican candidates win in November, asking voters to pretend to be on the ballot. During Tuesday’s debate, a moderator noted that Trump had floated the idea of campaigning in Maine and asked Collins if she would stand with him if he did so.
“I’m not exactly his favorite senator,” she said, adding “I would say he’s not coming to Maine.”
Collins, who said she did not vote for Trump in 2016, voted to convict the president after he was impeached in 2021 for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. In January, Collins joined a handful of Republican colleagues in supporting failed efforts to limit the president’s ability to unilaterally use force in Venezuela. The move prompted Trump to declare on social media that they “should never be elected again.”
Collins argued that his seniority and experience in the Senate has generated money and resources for Maine, saying, “Leadership matters in Washington.”
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She also spent Tuesday evening trying to focus attention on the high cost of energy and housing in Maine on Jackson, arguing that he played a greater role in making a difference when he was president of the state Senate and criticizing the “failure of Augusta policies” as a way to connect Jackson to the state’s struggle to solve affordability problems.
Other moments showed how both candidates approached their appeal to Maine’s working-class voters. For example, Collins has touted his ability to remove elements of Trump’s trade war with Canada, including pulp, concrete and road salt. Jackson jokingly replied “we can’t eat road salt.”
Jackson and Collins are scheduled to participate in three more debates later this month.
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