“I feel like she only votes against her party when she knows it doesn’t count.”

Augusta, ME – According to new reporting in the Washington Post, the moderate Democratic voters who powered Susan Collins’ victory in 2020 are turning against her this year as they see her aligned more and more with Donald Trump.

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Washington Post: Democratic voters who used to back Susan Collins aren’t so sure anymore

By Liz Goodwin and Alexei Koseff

Saturday, August 8, 2026

• Susan Collins, the Republican senator and political powerhouse, has built her victories in this blue state on voters like Kim Bridgham.

• “I just gave her the benefit of the doubt,” the 62-year-old Democrat said of her decision to vote for Collins in 2020, while simultaneously backing Democrat Joe Biden. “I tend to be somewhat moderate, and I used to believe that she was a moderate.”
  

• But the shock-and-awe second presidency of Donald Trump has shaken Bridgham and left her with a very different impression of Collins. Like other Democrats, Bridgham has been aghast at the president’s aggressive deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as his expansive use of executive power that she said is eroding democratic checks and balances. […]

• The [Biddeford] shooting is just the latest event in the second Trump administration that’s strained the relationship between the senator and the moderate Democrats and liberal-leaning independents who have been core to her victories, according to interviews with more than two dozen Maine voters. The high cost of goods and gas — and a sluggish economy — also pose a challenge as Collins runs for a sixth term against Troy Jackson…

• Split-ticket voters — many of them women who saw Collins as a role model — forgave the senator after she voted in 2018 to confirm Brett M. Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice. But some have struggled to see her in the same light in Trump’s more aggressive second term. The high-profile times she’s broken with Trump — most recently, over his attorney general pick Todd Blanche, as well as his defense secretary, on the Iran war, and on his signature bill to cut taxes and some social services — have not been enough for them, given she usually votes with her party.

• “When she voted for RFK Jr., I totally lost it,” Bridgham said of the vaccine skeptic who now leads the nation’s health agencies. “I feel like she only votes against her party when she knows it doesn’t count.” […]
  

• Just 6 percent of likely voters who identify as Democrats and 42 percent of independents plan to vote for Collins in the fall, according to a recent University of New Hampshire poll. That would be lower than how Collins has performed with the groups historically. Overall, 49 percent of likely voters said they planned to vote for Jackson, with 46 percent backing Collins, and 3 percent saying they are undecided. […]

• Up the coast, in Penobscot, Margaret Shaw, a 74-year-old retired teacher, said she plans to vote against Collins in November.

• The Democrat once consistently supported Collins, whom she regarded as part of a “sisterhood” that defended women’s rights.

• “I’m watching the country devolve before my eyes, and so I’m far more vocal and I’m thinking about it,” she said.

• Shaw, who calls the senator’s office often to voice her opinion, wishes Collins would break with Trump more forcefully.

• “Can’t she speak out? Can’t she be like John McCain?” she asked.

• Others are thinking more about their bank accounts as they weigh their votes.

• “She’s taking money from other people and she’s not giving it to us poor people,” said Theresa Boisot, 56, an independent voter who backed Collins in 2020 and Donald Trump in 2024.

• Boisot, who receives disability payments and lives in Westbrook, said she regretted her vote for Trump, who she said has not done enough to help the economy.

• “I just don’t like Trump, and I don’t like Susan Collins, and I think they both need to hit the road,” she said.

• Beth Hutchinson, a 58-year-old independent voter from Brooklin, said she is not sure if she will vote for Collins again in the fall. […]

• “She should be retired. I’m sorry,” Hutchinson said. “I am retiring this year. She’s worked longer than I have. Really, lady. It’s time, go home.” […]
  

• In Scarborough, at the town council meeting in late July, dozens of residents expressed their support for closing or relocating the Maine ICE facility, and just a handful spoke against the effort. The fight has renewed anger among liberals who say Collins is too aligned with the unpopular president in their blue state.

• “Susan Collins isn’t going to do anything,” said one Scarborough resident who spoke. “She just voted to give ICE more money. … We need warriors on this.”