Let’s deny Maine’s 12% gift to Donald Trump | Opinion
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Dan Rabata of Cape Elizabeth is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel.
A September New York Times/Siena poll found that “in Maine, 12% of voters who said they preferred Democrats to control the Senate also said they planned to support
Ms. Collins.”
With both the Maine Senate race and control of the Senate rated as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report, that split may be decisive in handing Senate control to Donald Trump — again.
Sen. Susan Collins understandably wants us not to pretend that Trump is on the ballot. That ship has sailed. He is the issue, the elephant in the room. Given Trump’s plummeting popularity and negative polling on every major issue, Collins has no choice but to tear up the Trump signs on her lawn.
Trump desperately needs to retain Senate control. Losing it opens up all kinds of difficulties for him. No more confirmations of unqualified hacks. Release of all the Epstein files. Investigations of corruption. Subpoena power. Control of legislation. Votes to end his war. Accountability. Trump knows he is in serious hurt if Collins loses her seat and with it the Senate majority.
What cards can she play to distance herself from Trump? That’s tricky.
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She could cite roll-call data showing that she has cast the deciding vote 56 times against her own party. Not particularly impressive against the 144 times when she cast the deciding vote in line with her Republican majority. And not impressive at all against how those same 200 votes would have gone with a Democratic senator in her seat.
How about her high-profile stances against Trump’s nominees? Hasn’t her “moderation” served to rein in some of the worst excesses of Trump/MAGA? Even though she voted for Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., didn’t she stand up against Pete Hegseth, Amy Coney Barrett and Todd Blanche? She did. Did it matter? No, all were confirmed by a Republican-controlled Senate.
Are her occasional positions against unpopular GOP priorities genuine or “independent only when it doesn’t make a difference”? Does it matter? Not much, since the outcome is almost always the same: her opposition does not carry the day. When it does, it is usually damage control to mitigate the chaos created by her own party.
Example: First come the Trump-initiated and deeply unpopular Canadian tariffs. Then follow a couple of exceptions to avoid complete disaster, leaving behind a Maine more negatively affected than nearly all other states. Even if her moderate, bipartisan impact is minimal, isn’t it better than nothing? Shouldn’t we applaud it as an example encouraging other Republicans to move in that direction?
Unfortunately, the contrary evidence is clear. Even GOP incumbent Sens. Cassidy and Cornyn, who rarely departed from the party line, have suffered primary losses to significantly more “MAGA” challengers. In this hyperpartisan climate of bend-the-knee fidelity to the Trump agenda — one that is decidedly unfriendly to Maine interests — Susan Collins’ ability to influence what happens in today’s Senate is greatly diminished.
Given the enormous stakes, the strategic imperative is to flip the Senate. Anything less is a lost opportunity. I urge the 12% to reconsider. They may achieve a costly Pyrrhic victory — one that wins a lesser objective but overlooks and loses the greater objective.
We can’t have it both ways. A vote for Susan Collins (regardless of what she does in her individual capacity) endorses continued Republican control of a Trump-compliant Senate. One may even admire her for her past efforts but a vote for her — however well-intentioned — is a vote for the very Trump-controlled agenda of chaos, cruelty and corruption that the 12% despise.
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Tagged: columns, election 2026, senate 2026
