As Senator Susan Collins launches yet another re-election campaign despite promising to only be a senator for 12 years, Mainers are asking a simple question: after nearly 30 years in Washington, what does she have to show for it?
Mainers are seeing Susan Collins for what she really is: a failed, out-of-touch politician who’s spent too long in Washington and broken too many promises. Time and again, she’s refused to stand up to Donald Trump – and the consequences are piling up. Prices keep rising, health care keeps slipping away, and MAGA extremists like RFK Jr. are gaining power with her help. Now, as she launches her re-election campaign, rural hospitals across Maine are preparing to shut their doors – and working families are left paying the price.
“Susan Collins has spent nearly 30 years in Washington making promises she never keeps and Mainers are left paying the price,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Danny Abbas. “The economy is a dumpster fire, Mainers are losing access to health care, and Collins just keeps siding with the same MAGA extremists and billionaire donors she’s always protected. Her record is clear: she’s had her chance, and she failed. Mainers know it’s time for a change.”
She voted to advance the GOP’s Big Ugly Bill – a Trump-backed monstrosity that slashed Medicaid for over 400,000 Mainers and gutted food assistance, all to hand billionaires another tax break. That vote put hospitals in Ellsworth, Aroostook, and other rural communities at risk of closure, forcing families to face the terrifying prospect of losing access to emergency care, all so Collins could stay in good standing with Trump. And it didn’t stop there. Collins’ refusal to stand up to the Trump administration also made life more expensive for over 51,000 working Maine families, after it gutted the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program by firing its entire staff.
And it’s not just Medicaid. Collins recently caved (again) to MAGA pressure, providing the key vote to confirm dangerous extremists like RFK Jr. and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought. In doing so, she handed power to the same far-right operatives who stripped her authority as Appropriations Chair – a role she’s long touted, but now serves as proof of her growing irrelevance in Washington. Across Maine, protests have erupted as voters grow increasingly outraged by Collins’ relentless sellout to corporate donors and MAGA Republicans.
Susan Collins has had her chance — and here’s what she did with it: 30 years of caving, selling out, and siding with MAGA extremists:
- Voted to advance the “Big Beautiful Bill” out of committee, leading to Medicaid cuts and threats of hospital closures in Ellsworth and Aroostook.
- In 2025 alone, she voted eight times against extending Affordable Care Act subsidies to lower health care costs for Mainers. She even said doing so would be a “poison pill.”
- Said she had no regrets voting to confirm conspiracy theorist RFK Jr. despite public health risks and bipartisan warnings.
- As ICE stormed Maine after its recent murders in Minnesota, Susan Collins defended ICE and voted for funding without any conditions or reforms. Collins even defended Kristi Noem as other Republican Senators called for her ouster.
- Opposes banning congressional and presidential stock trading, which is supported by 95% of Mainers, all while her own stock portfolio continues to be one of the best-performing ones in Congress.
- Said she had no regrets voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, even after he torched reproductive rights.
- Bankrolled by Leonard Leo, architect of the far-right SCOTUS majority, and attended a fundraiser at Leo’s $4 million mansion.
- Refused to stand up to the Trump administration and made life more expensive for over 51,000 working Maine families, after they gutted the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
- Voted to confirm Trump loyalist and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, who stripped her power as appropriations chair and has publicly said the appropriations process should be “less bipartisan.”
- Funded by dark-money straw donors linked to GOP megadonors.
- Defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting after pressure from Trump allies.
Published: Feb 10, 2026