Susan Collins, the Republican senator for Maine, pointedly distanced herself from Donald Trump in a televised debate with Democratic challenger Troy Jackson on Tuesday, as she sought to present an image of independence in a state that has voted against Trump three times.
Proclaiming herself as not the US president’s “favorite senator”, Collins made the highly unusual boast for a Republican that she had voted with Joe Biden, a Democrat, more than 90% of the time when he was president. She also emphasized her differences with her fellow Republicans, saying she voted against her own party more than any other senator.
Collins’ defensiveness came amid a determined onslaught from Jackson, 58, a veteran former state legislator who was getting his first chance to present himself to a broad audience since replacing Graham Platner as the Democratic candidate in a contest that could be vital to the party’s hopes of winning the Senate.
Platner, a former harbor master, was forced to withdraw from the race in July after facing sexual assault allegations, which he denied, leaving Democrats racing against the clock to replace a candidate who had built up momentum campaigning on a populist progressive platform.
Jackson painted Collins as a Trump loyalist, saying she voted with the president 96% of the time. He also doggedly focused on her 2018 vote for the conservative supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, tying it to the court’s subsequent overturning of Roe v Wade, which had for half a century guaranteed the national right to abortion.
“Tonight is about who you stand with when it matters,” Jackson said in a pithy opening statement. “Eight years ago today, Maine women went to DC and begged Senator Collins not to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, but she did it anyways.
“He helped overturn Roe v Wade, and today she says she has no regrets. Would you trust her to pick the next supreme court justice?”
Collins, 73, who has been a senator since 1996, has frequently presented herself as a moderate who stands against more radical trends in her own party. The posture is in line with Maine’s profile as a more Democratic-leaning state, which Trump has not won in any of his three presidential campaigns and which has voted for Democrat presidential candidates in every election since 1992.
Nevertheless, Collins went to unusual lengths to differentiate herself from Trump on a range of issues, including the war with Iran, which she said she voted to end nine times, calling it “not well thought out”.
Collins reacted with something close to alarm when the moderator, Gregg Lagerquist, said Trump had suggested that the president might pay a campaign visit to Maine.
“I don’t think that President Trump is going to come to Maine,” she said. “He’s talking about going to a lot of different states. I’ve heard nothing from his office, and I’m not exactly his favorite senator.”
Collins stressed her differences with the president on specific issues pertinent to the Maine economy, including rural healthcare and tariffs against Canada, with which the state shares a border.
“I have been the most outspoken opponent of the tariffs on Canada,” she said. “Canada is not China. It’s our neighbor and our friends.”
Polls show the two candidates running neck and neck.
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