Augusta, ME – In case you missed it, new reporting in the Bangor Daily News finds that across Maine, voters who Susan Collins “has counted on to outrun her party” are “shifting sides” as they consider “her moderate reputation more image than substance.”

Read more here:

Bangor Daily News: Democrats who have carried Susan Collins to victory may be slipping away

By Benjamin Kail

September 14, 2026

• Bob Masciarelli has split his ticket to back Republicans before.

• The 70-year-old Democrat from Yarmouth is the kind of voter U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has counted on to outrun her party in Maine’s liberal-leaning Portland suburbs. But he isn’t sure she can do it now against Troy Jackson […]

• “He’s a union guy, he’s the candidate [Democrats] need,” he said near the Freeport Farmers Market on Friday. “We need to do something to change direction.”

• Freeport sits on the edge of the suburbs in which Collins has built her career by outrunning the top of her own ticket. […]

• Jackson and Maine Democrats have tied Collins to President Donald Trump and his agenda, from the Iran war to high prices squeezing consumers. Polls show a diminishing group of Democrats in her coalition in a polarized era. […]

• A poll released by CNN this week found a small Jackson lead with self-described moderates splitting evenly and independents narrowly favoring Jackson. Collins just drew 4% of Democrats, the same share of Republicans crossing for Jackson, and 46% of voters call their Senate vote a message opposing Trump, versus 17% who call it support for him.

• Both signal less crossover room than Collins has had before. The Jackson campaign cites former Collins voters shifting sides and counts her as overwhelmingly voting with Trump. Democratic ads in the race are trying to drive this message home, with one that began running on Saturday featuring a woman who says she voted for Collins in the past.

• “More and more former Collins voters are supporting Troy Jackson, who will always fight for them and put Maine first,” campaign spokesperson Cheyenne Gallivan said. […]

• In Hampden, a Bangor suburb where Collins outran Trump by 11 points in 2020, 37-year-old Josh VanSantvoord said […] he considers her moderate reputation more image than substance.

• He pointed to her votes for two of Trump’s three Supreme Court justices, both of whom voted to overturn federal abortion rights, calling many of her breaks with Republicans “hall passes.”