3 things that finally brought down Susan Collins
Vox · Rachel Cohen Booth ·
The longtime Republican senator from Maine finally lost her seat.
Democrats won a critical US Senate seat on Tuesday, as Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins conceded her long-held seat to Democratic challenger Troy Jackson just after midnight.
Collins, who has been serving for nearly 30 years, has for years been able to beat back rivals in her increasingly blue state, where residents valued her ability to bring home federal funds and buck her Republican Party when it seemed to count. Her ability to win even against unfavorable conditions has earned her the reputation of being something of a “unicorn” in national politics.
This year, however, she could not escape the long shadow President Donald Trump cast over her state. Collins was the only Republican senator up for reelection in a state Trump lost in 2024, and a late October poll from Marist found just 42 percent of likely Maine voters approved of the president’s performance, while 58 percent disapproved. A Fox News poll from August found that more than half of Mainers felt Collins voted with Trump too often.