Augusta, ME – In case you missed it, a new report in the Washington Post emphasizes how in the last Senate debate, Susan Collins could not “cite a vote against her party that changed the outcome.” According to the report, Collins’ “difficulty finding an answer” comes as “polls show Maine voters feel Collins isn’t tough enough on the Republican president.”

Read more here:

Washington Post: Sen. Susan Collins struggles to name a time she stopped Trump

By Dan Merica

October 16, 2026

• Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins invoked her vote against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday night when asked during a debate whether she could cite a vote against her party that changed the outcome.

• The one issue? The vote did not change the outcome, and Hegseth was confirmed.

• “There are several examples of that,” Collins said. “At one point, I had organized people to vote against Secretary Hegseth. As you undoubtedly have read, at the very last minute, one of our Republicans changed his mind. Otherwise, he would’ve been defeated for that job.”

• “So that didn’t change the outcome,” the moderator said.

• “But it would have had that person stayed there,” Collins replied.

• Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), who is retiring, changed his mind on Hegseth at the last minute, a decision he has since called the “biggest regret” of his career.

• The exchange — and Collins’s difficulty finding an answer — underscores a central question in the Maine Senate race: Does Collins, a Republican in a state that disapproves of President Donald Trump and has grown bluer in recent years, stand up to her party enough to earn the independent streak she has staked her career on?

• Polls show Maine voters feel Collins isn’t tough enough on the Republican president, who is deeply unpopular in the state, leading some to plan to vote against her solely out of anger at the president.