‘Not exactly his favorite senator’: Susan Collins distances herself from Trump in Maine debate

Susan Collins distanced herself from President Donald Trump during her first Maine Senate debate with Democrat Troy Jackson, arguing she has maintained her political independence by repeatedly voting against Trump’s agenda and saying that she’s “not exactly his favorite senator.” Democrats are trying to flip the Maine Senate seat as they work to win control of the Senate. Trump lost the state in 2024, giving Democrats hope of defeating the five-term moderate Republican, who has been targeted by Democrats in previous elections and survived. During the hourlong debate, Jackson focused largely on attempting to connect Collins to Trump.

He kicked off the night by pointing out she cast a critical vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee who eventually helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Collins supports abortion rights and said Kavanaugh assured her it was settled law, but she has said recently that she does not regret her vote to confirm him. “Would you trust her to pick the next Supreme Court justice?” asked Jackson, a former state lawmaker and logger.

He also repeatedly brought up her procedural vote to advance the president’s 2025 tax and spending bill — though Collins ultimately broke with her party to vote against it. Collins countered that she has voted against Trump more than she did Joe Biden when the Democrat was president, and has pushed back against Trump on tariffs, immigration enforcement and the war in Iran. “I voted against my party more than another other senator on either side of the aisle,” Collins said.

The attention on Trump comes as only 31% of U.S. adults approved of how the Republican is handling the presidency, according to a September AP-NORC poll. That’s well below where his approval stood when he took office last year.

The president has started holding rallies around the country in an effort to help GOP candidates win in November, telling voters to pretend he is on the ballot. At Tuesday’s debate, a moderator noted Trump has floated the idea of campaigning in Maine, and asked Collins if she would stand beside him if he does. “I’m not exactly his favorite senator,” she said, adding “I would say that he’s not coming to Maine.” Collins, who has said she didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, voted to convict the president after his 2021 impeachment over his role in the Jan.

Republican challenged by Democrat Troy Jackson in critical Senate race says she opposes Iran war and Canada tariffsSusan 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. Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson faced off Tuesday in the first debate of their neck-and-neck Senate race in Maine.