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Republican Sen. Susan Collins is nicely conscious of the robust path forward as she formally kicks off her 2026 re-election marketing campaign in blue-leaning Maine.
Collins is the highest goal for Senate Democrats as they attempt to win again the chamber’s majority in November’s midterm elections.
“Chuck Schumer has made me as soon as once more — that is the third time he is completed this — his primary goal,” Collins stated in an interview with Fox Information Digital quickly after she introduced her re-election bid, as she pointed to the longtime prime Democrat within the Senate.
Collins took to social media a few hours earlier to declare, “GOOD NEWS! I’m ALL-IN for 2026.”
LONGTIME REPUBLICAN SENATOR MAKES A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, departs the chamber on the Capitol in Washington, on July 24, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photograph)
Democrats have lengthy focused the 73-year-old Collins, who was first elected to the Senate three many years in the past, however hold developing brief.
“I will likely be outspent as I used to be in 2020, however happily, Maine persons are famously impartial. They take a look at the person candidates, they usually do not simply essentially vote a celebration line,” the senator stated.
Collins was one of many Senate Republicans who voted to convict after the Home impeached President Donald Trump in 2021, following the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the president aiming to upend congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election outcomes.
IS THE REPUBLICAN SENATE MAJORITY AT RISK IN MIDTERM ELECTIONS?
And Collins has earned Trump’s ire with Senate votes that go towards the administration’s needs.
Trump has to this point not made an endorsement within the pivotal contest, and has taken photographs at Collins all year long for breaking ranks with him and Republicans, notably when she voted in favor of bipartisan laws that may have reined in his conflict authorities in Venezuela.
Trump declared that Collins and the handful of different Republicans that voted with Democrats to curb his conflict powers “ought to by no means be elected to workplace once more.”
“Republicans must be ashamed of the Senators that simply voted with Democrats in trying to remove our Powers to struggle and defend the USA of America,” Trump stated in a Fact Social put up on the time.
When requested if Trump ought to weigh in, or keep impartial within the contest, Senate Majority Chief John Thune stated, “I’d defer to Susan Collins on that.”
“I believe she is aware of how you can run in Maine. She’s been extremely profitable there. She is a veteran campaigner who is aware of her state nicely and is aware of what works,” Thune stated.
“So I’d, I suppose, defer to her on any selections which can be made associated to her marketing campaign and what she want to see occur or not see occur by way of endorsements, however we will likely be all in making an attempt to guarantee that she will get re-elected,” he continued.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins has earned President Donald Trump’s ire with Senate votes that go towards the administration’s needs. (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photograph)
Her willingness to criticize Trump and to interrupt together with his insurance policies could also be useful to Collins, who wants assist from independents and a few Democrats to earn re-election.
“What I believe the President’s criticism demonstrates is that I am impartial in the best way I strategy points. I take a look at what the impression is on the state of Maine and what the impression is on the nation and Mainers admire that,” she instructed Fox Information Digital.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, leaves the Republican Senate luncheon within the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Photos)
Collins emphasised, “I assist President Trump after I assume he is proper, I do not after I assume he is improper, and that is the strategy I’ve all the time taken with all the presidents with whom I’ve labored. I’ve by no means agreed 100% with any of them. So, this President is extra outspoken if you disagree with him than earlier presidents, however I believe that I can totally justify how I’ve voted.”
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However the Maine Democratic Get together charged in an announcement that “Susan Collins has spent the final 30 years betraying Maine, from stripping Mainers’ inexpensive well being care, to casting the decisive vote to verify Supreme Court docket justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, to voting with Donald Trump 94% of the time.”
“She now faces among the lowest approval scores of her profession as a result of Mainers see by way of her political video games and faux reveals of concern. In November, we’ll reject her on the poll field,” added state social gathering govt director Devon Murphy-Anderson.
Nationwide Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chair Sen. Tim Scott known as Collins “a battle-tested chief whose fierce independence has led to historic wins for Maine.”
However in a closed-door NRSC briefing final week to Senate Republicans, Scott pointed to the most recent Fox Information nationwide ballot which confirmed the GOP going through a poll field deficit, and stated it might impression particular Senate races this 12 months.
GOP sources confirmed to Fox Information Digital that Scott stated the hardest problem could also be in Maine.
Democratic senate candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks at a city corridor on the Leavitt Theater on Oct. 22, 2025, in Ogunquit, Maine. (Sophie Park/Getty Photos)
Collins is more likely to face both two-term Democratic Gov. Jane Mills, who has the tacit assist of Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer and the DSCC, or political newcomer, veteran, and oyster farmer Graham Platner, who’s backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, in November. The Democratic major, which is predicted to be aggressive, is scheduled for June.
Collins charged that Democrats are working “to distort my document,” with Democratic-aligned exterior teams working adverts “which can be provably false and that is very disappointing. The folks of Maine deserve higher.”
Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills is working in 2026 to try to defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins. (Getty Photos)
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Requested whom she’d slightly face within the basic election, Collins stated, “I depart that as much as the Democrats to resolve. I do know {that a} ton of outdoor cash goes to be poured into this race, no matter who the Democratic candidate is.”
