Augusta, ME – This week, a report in the Daily Beast revealed that Susan Collins’ re-election campaign spent more than $163,000 on private jets over the past year. According to the Daily Beast, “as the vulnerable GOP Senator begged supporters for gas money to fuel a statewide tour,” her campaign spent six figures on “the kind of luxury air travel more often associated with celebrities and CEOs than a Senate race in Maine.”
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The Daily Beast: Must-Win GOP Senator’s ‘Presidential Level’ Private Flights Exposed
By Farrah Tomazin
September 14, 2026
Susan Collins’ re-election campaign spent more than $163,000 on private jets over the past year—even as the vulnerable GOP Senator begged supporters for gas money to fuel a statewide tour, The Swamp’s Farrah Tomazin can exclusively reveal.
As the 73-year-old Republican fights to hold onto one of the most closely watched seats at November’s midterms, federal finance records reveal three of her political committees spent $163,563 between 2025 and 2026 to buy the kind of luxury air travel more often associated with celebrities and CEOs than a Senate race in Maine.
The figures come two months after the Daily Beast revealed Collins begged supporters for as little as $5 to fuel her re-election campaign—despite voting several times to uphold the Iran war, and her husband Thomas Daffron, 83, holding thousands of dollars’ worth of oil and gas stocks.
“Organizing a tour of this scale takes a lot of coordination, enthusiasm, and quite literally fuel,” an email from Team Collins read at the time. “Will you chip in just $5 today to help us put gas in the tank and keep our team moving forward?”
The biggest private jet bills went to Florida-based Exclusive Charter Service, which counts Coldplay, Machine Gun Kelly and Carlos Santana among its clients.
The service urges customers to “get accustomed to the luxe private jet life,” with perks such as 24/7 jet charter, VIP catering, and global ground transportation.
The other major vendor was Advanced Aviation Team, which advertises “presidential-level service” and was founded by former White House Travel Office directors who worked for George W. Bush and Barack Obama. […]
The optics of lavish expenses could be awkward for a politician in an increasingly working-class, anti-elite political environment such as Maine.
Collins’ opponent, Troy Jackson, 58, is a former logger and state senate official who was elevated after progressive firebrand Graham Platner withdrew from the race amid a series of abuse scandals.
Jackson has already said the GOP Senator will massively outspend him in the race, while Democrats have seized on the fact Collins’ campaign has been boosted by donations from billionaires. As the Daily Beast revealed last month, some include former associates of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The three PACs that used the private jet services between 2025 and 2026 were Susan Collins for Maine, the Dirigo leadership PAC, and Collins for Senator. According to the FEC filings, Dirigo, for example, paid $58,392.67 to Advanced Aviation Team in April for “PAC air charter.”
At its advertised rates, Advanced’s super-light jets start at $8,890 an hour, while super-midsize jets run as high as $12,610 an hour before discounts. That means Collins’ $58,393 payment alone represents roughly five to seven hours of charter time at those rates. […]
With 50 days until the midterms, Collins is facing one of the toughest reelection fights of her career, with recent polls showing her neck-and-neck with Jackson. The Democrat holds a narrow 48-44 lead in the latest YouGov poll, while other recent surveys have found the race effectively tied.
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