The outcome of a pivotal Senate race in Maine could hinge on whether voters value Republican Sen. Susan Collins' clout and ability to secure federal dollars over Democratic insurgent Graham Platner's call to upend a political system he says is rigged against working-class Americans.
Platner's call for a political revolution has been a centerpiece of a barnstorming campaign that's already pushed his Democratic rival, Gov. Janet Mills, out of the race. As the contest pivots to the November election, Collins is using old school pork barrel politics to win over voters who may be ambivalent about reelecting her to a sixth term.
It's one of several sharp contrasts in a contest that could determine whether Republicans can maintain control of the Senate or if Democrats' difficult path to a majority will be successful.
Collins has long focused on "bringing home the bacon," a time-honored strategy for incumbent politicians in Congress that's sometimes overshadowed by contemporary methods used by newer members to garner voter attention and loyalty.
The incumbent Republican has already signaled that continuing to send federal dollars directly to Maine will be key to her reelection bid. The first ad of her campaign highlighted how she helped win federal money for a breakwater dock in Eastport, Maine, a locality with a population of just over 1,000. She also plans to use her position as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the first Maine senator to hold the key budgeting position in more than 90 years.
She recently described the post as a "once in a century" opportunity — and said that she plans to run on it.
"And that will go away with a freshman senator," she said after taking questions at a manufacturing conference in the state. "It took me years to climb the ladder of seniority."
So far, Platner's campaign is trying to simultaneously acknowledge the importance of Collins' position while charting diminishing results for Mainers. Ben Chin, the Democrat's campaign manager, said during a press call in April that Collins "owns" the federal budget, and by extension, Mainers' financial struggles.
"Every time Sen. Collins leverages a little bit of an earmark to build a bridge or a road, that just does not make up for the fact that Mainers right now are hemorrhaging money left and right because she has backed the Trump administration's agenda to bleed people dry," he said.
Touting $1.5 billion to 700 projects
During her 25-minute keynote address at the manufacturing summit, Collins mentioned several instances in which she had secured federal funding or influenced decisions by Congress and the Trump administration.
She highlighted federal cash for the state's community colleges, an incubator system for trade professions. She also pointed to a recent appropriations bill that reversed the administration's cuts to biomedical research, an industry with a foothold in Maine.
Even funding to control a ravenous caterpillar that periodically ravages the state's softwood timber stock received a mention.
"And I was happy to secure funding to help control the spruce budworm," she said.
Collins has also been a vocal opponent of Trump's tariffs on Canadian products. She told the audience that she lobbied senior Trump administration officials to keep tariffs off products that would've hurt a paper mill on the Canadian border that uses pulp and steam from a neighboring facility on the other side of the border. (The company that constructed the pulp and paper mills purposely set up the facilities over a century ago to avoid import duties.)
"But think how devastating that would have been for northern Maine," she said.
Devastating, if not for Collins, is the implication.
Making Maine voters consider life without her in Congress has been a staple of Collins' messaging since 2020. Dan Shea, a professor of government and politics at Colby College, told Maine Public in February that it's a successful pitch to independent voters, a key segment of the state electorate.
"She wins by split-ticket voters, unaffiliated voters, independents," he said, adding, "I'm old enough to remember when pork barrel projects kept incumbents in office. Boy, we're seeing that in Maine."
That's how Collins won reelection six years ago, fending off Democrats' attempts to shackle her to an unpopular President Trump and a slumping pandemic economy.
Shea wasn't sure if that will work in 2026, given that the national electoral landscape appears increasingly unfavorable to Republicans.
The return of congressional earmarks, reinstated in 2021 when Democrats controlled the House and Senate, might help.
According to her office, Collins has secured $1.5 billion in congressional spending over five years to nearly 700 local projects.
Tide turns on Collins' coalition of support
Platner, who became the likely Democratic nominee after Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign last month, has attempted to downplay Collins' federal cash hauls, describing them as a pittance compared to what she could bring to Maine if not beholden to corporate interests.
"I was told — essentially my entire life actually — that one day Susan Collins was going to get the gavel on Appropriations, and when that came, Maine was going to see a boon of riches," he said when asked about it during a town hall at Bowdoin College in April. "Well, that never materialized."
The combat veteran and oyster farmer has also criticized Collins for not using her clout. Shortly after launching his campaign in August last year, he blasted her for providing a key vote advancing Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill before ultimately voting against it.
The new law includes a range of cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income Americans. Roughly 30% of the state's 1.4 million people receive benefits through the program.
He has repeatedly described Collins as providing "symbolic opposition" to Trump's agenda, part of what he calls a "performative politics" typical of a Congress that enriches the wealthy at the expense of working-class Mainers.
"And for that reason, it really isn't a representative system. It's a performance. It's a theater that's conducted by elites," he said during the Bowdoin town hall.
He's also described her centrist posturing as a "charade." That message is persuasive for many Maine Democrats, who up until 2020 were part of Collins' coalition, but not as much anymore. In 2014, she won with nearly 70% of the vote; just one cycle later, in 2020, she won with 51%.
But independent voters will likely be a determining factor in November, just as they were in 2020. And Republicans, while not always thrilled with Collins' votes against the party, understand her importance to maintain party control of the Senate.
Last week, Vice President Vance acknowledged the dynamic during an event in Bangor, Maine.
"Sometimes I get frustrated with Susan Collins. I almost wish that she was more partisan," he said. "But the thing I love about Susan is she is independent, because Maine is an independent state."
Trump has struck a similar note in recent months, a sharp reversal from declaring in January that Collins and several other Republicans "should never be elected again."
During an interview on Fox News' The Five in late March, he said, "I hope she wins. She's a good person, actually, but we have to win. We have to keep the majority, otherwise all of the things we've done are going to go down the tubes."
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