This week, Senator Susan Collins launched the first negative campaign ad from a Maine Senate candidate this cycle. For years, Collins has decried the use of negative campaign ads, but now, with plummeting popularity and polls showing her “hemorrhaging women voters,” she’s resorting to using the exact type of misleading attack ads that she used to disavow.
With just 25 days to the Republican filing deadline, it’s clear that Susan Collins would rather smear potential Democratic opponents than talk about her record of voting with Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Collins still refuses to say whether she’ll vote for Trump, but Mainers deserve to know where she stands.
In case you’d forgotten why Senator Collins isn’t eager to run on her record, here’s a refresher:
1) According to CQ, Senator Collins voted with Donald Trump 94% of the time.
2) Senator Collins has been a key vote for Donald Trump on everything from the tax plan that gave corporations and the wealthy trillions in tax breaks to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh and every one of Trump’s judicial nominees in 2017 and 2018 -- even those “deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association.” She joined with Mitch McConnell to acquit Trump in the impeachment trial, after voting 12 times against including witnesses and evidence.
3) Donald Trump has said he's 100% behind Senator Collins' reelection.
4) Staffers for the president’s reelection campaign “worked to get her on the ballot” by collecting signatures door-to-door and at Trump events.
Collins must answer: will she vote to reelect the president?
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