Augusta, ME – Today in the Portland Press Herald, columnist Steve Collins argues that “if Susan Collins wins, Donald Trump wins.” According to the column, Senator Collins “has failed to rally her party to stand for something beyond loyalty to a would-be tyrant.”
Read more here:
Portland Press Herald: If Susan Collins wins, Donald Trump wins
By Steve Collins
October 8th, 2026
Earlier this week, Sen. Susan Collins’ campaign summed up Tuesday’s debate between her boss and her Democratic challenger Troy Jackson: “It was clear from the beginning that Sen. Collins is running to serve Maine, and Troy Jackson thinks he’s running against Donald Trump.”
It doesn’t bother me at all if Jackson thinks he’s running against the president. You know who else shares that notion? The president.
The way I see it, Jackson also has an agenda to serve Maine that’s at least as good as what Collins envisions […]
More important, though, is that hindering President Trump is the best thing any Maine senator can do for our state, nation and the wider world.
There are many reasons to retire Collins. […] But looming over every calculation is a more stark reality: an unfettered president who is enabled by a spineless Congress.
Collins has occasionally offered polite objections to Trump’s most egregious actions but she has failed to rally her party to stand for something beyond loyalty to a would-be tyrant.
[…]
We need to ask ourselves: At what point does her institutional clout come at the expense of the democracy we cherish? Voters have to weigh whether Collins has grown too entrenched, too distant from her constituents and too beholden to her party and the president.
That’s what matters.
During last month’s Republican Midterm Convention in Texas, Trump said at least three times that voters this fall need to pretend “I’m on the ballot.”
What Trump meant by his insistence that he is “on the ballot” is that voters should send GOP politicians — including Collins — to the Capitol to continue to do his bidding … or at least stay out of his way. For him, sadly, the measure of a senator is how compliant she is to the whims of the White House.
During this week’s debate, Collins said she is “not exactly” Trump’s favorite senator, to which there is some truth.
It is equally true, however, that the president wants her to secure another term. Like everyone else, Trump recognizes that a “concerned” Collins is far better for him than a dedicated foe like Jackson.
Collins wants Mainers to see her as a moderate, reasonable and independent leader in the mold of former Sens. Olympia Snowe and William Cohen. That vision has grown ever more hollow as Collins faced the difficult task of dealing with Trump. As he runs amok in Washington, she has, sadly, proved that she isn’t up to the challenge of protecting the prerogatives of the Senate and defending the laws it has enacted.
We can appreciate that Collins has delivered plenty of federal help to Maine without sending her back into a crucial fight in which she has already capitulated.
If Collins wins, Trump wins.
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