Do we like Susan Collins?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Real good on marriage equality, bipartisan work and standing up to her own side, set against her anti-trans petition and donor allegations she denies.
Collins has been in the Senate since 1997 and has spent decades as the Republican who can't be counted on. She chairs the Appropriations Committee and says she delivered $1.5 billion for 672 Maine projects over five years. She won in 2020 by 9 points even as Trump lost Maine by 9, and in 2021 she was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict him after the Capitol riot.
The vote that dogged her was Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. In June 2026 she told News Center Maine “I do not regret that vote”, while saying she disagrees with his vote to overturn Roe and that he gave her private assurances before confirmation. Her critics say she was warned and it's on her; she says she was misled. PolitiFact rated her claim that the ruling had no impact on Maine Mostly True.
On the harm test the record cuts both ways. She was the lead Republican on the Respect for Marriage Act, speaking on the floor and helping build GOP votes. But in November 2025 she signed a petition for a Maine referendum that would require school teams to match birth-certificate sex and extend that to spaces like bathrooms. Her office said she agrees with Trump's reading of Title IX, and she voted to advance a Senate trans-athletes bill in 2025.
She has also broken with Trump when it counted. She voted for the 2025 megabill's advance but against final passage over its Medicaid cuts. On Iran she voted with her party early, then in April and May joined Democrats on war powers resolutions, saying Congress should authorise the military action or end it. Both resolutions failed, so it's a stand rather than a result.
The cloud over the final stretch was a September ProPublica report, carried by the Bangor Daily News. It alleged a Hawaii defence contractor funnelled an illegal $150,000 donation to a pro-Collins PAC in 2020, and that the FBI probe was shut last year. The contractor pleaded guilty to illegal donations; the FBI closed its investigation, and the New York Times reported FBI leadership didn't believe his account. Her team denies any wrongdoing and says it had no knowledge, and no charge against her turned up.
The good stuff is real. In 2023 the Alzheimer's Association gave her its Humanitarian of the Year award, sharing it with Democrat Amy Klobuchar, for bipartisan work on dementia care and research. That sits with a long record of deal-making across the aisle, and she disputes the claim in the final debate that she votes with Trump 96 per cent of the time, putting the figure at about 72.