Augusta, ME – Today, Susan Collins will hit the campaign trail with Joe Manchin, her former Senate colleague who also voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh. Manchin serves as a top advisor for a giant private equity firm that bankrupted paper mills in Jay and Bucksport, costing more than 1,000 Mainers their jobs.

In response to Collins campaigning with an anti-abortion private equity board member, Misha Linnehan, spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party, released the following statement:

“Today, Susan Collins is campaigning with fellow Brett Kavanaugh supporter Joe Manchin, just down the river from the paper mill his private equity firm put out of business. Manchin and Collins may have caucused with different parties, but when it comes to betraying Maine women and selling out Maine workers, Mainers know they’re one and the same.”

Joe Manchin is a top advisor for a private equity firm that bankrupted two mills in Maine, costing more than 1,000 Mainers their jobs:

• After Manchin left the Senate, he took a job as an advisor to Apollo Global Management, an enormous private equity company. He also became a board member of one of their subsidiaries, where he remains to this day.

• From 2006 to 2020, Apollo ran two of Maine’s largest paper mills into the ground in Bucksport and Jay. Apollo bankrupted both mills, sold them for scraps, and eliminated more than 1,000 jobs in the two towns.

• The shuttered paper mill in Jay is the proposed location for a new data center, although the project has recently stalled.

Manchin is not the only member of the private equity firm that is supporting Collins’ campaign:

• Billionaire and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Collins PAC, including $100,000 in the most recent fundraising quarter.

After she voted to help private equity companies, private equity money has become the bedrock of Senator Collins’ re-election campaign:

• Collins cast a decisive vote to advance legislation benefiting Wall Street private equity companies right after a different billionaire private equity CEO funneled millions to a PAC backing her campaign.

• During the 2026 campaign cycle, she has received more money from private equity than any other politician in America.