Susan Collins will regret this descent into sleaze | Steve Collins
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One of the saddest developments of this year’s U.S. Senate campaign in Maine has been watching Susan Collins, a senator once renowned for civility and decency, damage her own legacy in an attempt to win a sixth term in office.
It has been obvious for months that Collins is pinning her reelection hopes on juicing turnout among voters who support President Donald Trump — something highlighted by her casual embrace of the Maine Wire’s sickening racism and vulgar politics.
Perhaps the clearest preview of this turn came during the late summer interview Collins gave to Politico, during which she pretended she wouldn’t sink to slamming her challenger, Democrat Troy Jackson, for his decades-long relationship with his partner.
“I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin,” Sen. Collins said. “I don’t know whether people know that or not.”
Gosh, senator. Thanks for not bringing that up.
The Senate Leadership Fund’s radio ad last week called Jackson a creep, adding, in a jingle, “If he’ll screw his own family, he’ll screw yours too.”
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Sen. Collins called for the super PAC that paid for the ad to take it down. But let’s be clear: This PAC wasn’t some obscure, disconnected outfit. It was an arm of Senate Republican leadership with ties to Majority Leader John Thune.
Two other events last week showed voters how rapidly Sen. Collins is losing her way.
After the Maine Wire posted clips of Somali citizens voting at Lewiston’s city hall, Sen. Collins weighed in on one of the right-wing website’s manufactured controversies by declaring that “only Americans should be voting in American elections.” Instead of defending the right of Somali-Americans to cast ballots, Sen. Collins chose to cater to the MAGA lie that foreigners are swarming the polls.
When Collins brought former Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia to Maine to laud her record, she had him stand beside her as she posed for a photo with the Maine Wire’s awful “sword of truth,” a prop that was previously waved around in front of mosque-goers in Lewiston. Collins is no stranger to the sword.
The Maine Wire displayed its “sword of truth” beside this cardboard cutout at a Republican gubernatorial debate in Bangor in March. (Staff photo)
Asked what Sen. Collins thinks it stands for, a Collins spokesperson said Monday in a memorable bit of PR: “The sword of truth symbolizes a willingness to take steps toward fiscal responsibility.”
(This spokesperson didn’t waste an opportunity to take a shot at me: “But we also believe that truth itself is very important — we know that when you were a reporter you used to put a premium on that; it seems that it has been less of a priority for you as a columnist.”)
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Make no mistake: Sen. Collins is trying to rouse Trump loyalists to vote for her in big numbers. As long as Trump is telling penny-pinching Americans they shouldn’t worry about rising costs, it probably won’t work.
Democratic candidates in Maine, as around the country, are soaring in the polls and feeling confident.
“We’re all peaking at the right time,” congressional candidate Matt Dunlap told a small crowd Sunday at the Auburn home of Jordan Wood, an unsuccessful primary challenger.
Dunlap, who is angling to defeat Republican Paul LePage in the 2nd Congressional District, said the president is at the heart of the campaign. Voters have a stark choice, he said: “We can either stop Trump or succumb to him.”
Sen. Collins had that choice, too. She’s opted to succumb. Her willingness to engage in slimy campaigning is going to tarnish her legacy.
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Tagged: columns, election 2026, senate 2026
Steve Collins became an opinion columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News in April of 2025. A journalist since 1987, Steve has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine and served. More by Steve Collins
