Polls Close in Maine as Democrats Make Final Push to Oust Sen. Susan Collins

The 30-year Senate career of Maine Republican Susan Collins is coming to an end.

The powerful incumbent chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee conceded early Wednesday to Troy Jackson, a progressive challenger who was virtually unknown on the national stage until his rushed elevation as the Democratic replacement candidate just over three months ago.

“A little more than 100 days ago, I stood in front of you at our convention and asked you to put your faith in a logger from Allagash,” Jackson told supporters in Portland, referring to a rapid nominating process he went through after former nominee Graham Platner dropped out. Like Platner, Jackson came from the left flank of the Democratic Party and ran a campaign focused on the concerns of working-class people in the face of a system he presented as stacked in favor of the wealthy and corporate interests.

Collins, who has represented the state since 1997, ran as an independent force in Washington able to secure critical federal funds for Mainers. But she was brought down with the baggage of the Republican brand on a night when Democrats overperformed in critical swing states and handily seized control of both chambers of Congress.

“It has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maine in the United States Senate,” Collins said in a statement released early Wednesday. “I’m proud of all I have been able to accomplish for our state and for our country in the past 30 years.”

While Collins often presented herself as the rare Republican who breaks ranks with President Donald Trump, an analysis by Congressional Quarterly Roll Call found that her votes aligned with Trump 90 percent of the time in both the president’s first and second terms.

“We now see her failing to stand up to a brutal, irresponsible, greedy and corrupt regime,” Maine Democratic Party Chair Charlie Dingman told The Intercept. “She has not used her seniority or her power to aggressively stand in the way of that destructive presidency, and that is a serious and fundamental difference between 2020 and 2026.”

Dingman argued that Collins faced a fundamentally different political environment than she did in 2020, pointing to her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the subsequent overturning of Roe v. Wade.

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Still, Collins’s split support among some Democratic voters was evident Tuesday in Lewiston, where several residents told The Intercept they were supporting the Republican senator despite filling their ballots out to Democrats otherwise.

“I am Susan Collins all the way,” said Anne Marie Hastings, a voter who also expressed strong support for Matt Dunlap, a progressive running against former Republican Gov. Paul LePage in a closely watched race in the state’s 2nd Congressional District.

“I’m a registered Democrat, but when it comes to things like this, I go with what I feel is right, not the party that they belong to,” Hastings said. She also praised Collins for advocating for shipbuilding contracts at Bath Iron Works, where she said her brothers had worked.

But John Cabral III, a shipbuilder at the same shipyard, disputed Collins’s record.

“She didn’t bring any extra work,” Cabral told The Intercept. “So that’s all propaganda.”

Cabral said he supports Jackson because of his commitment to organized labor.

“I think they are going to wake up and smell the coffee,” Cabral said of Maine voters. “[Mainers] have never seen a senator fight as hard as Troy, especially for labor.”

Another Lewiston voter, Ouellette Bertram, said he voted blue across the board, with the exception of “the Republican lady,” who he said he just plain likes.

“She’s been doing a good job, I think,” Bertram said.

But other Maine residents didn’t share the sentiment toward the Republican incumbent — and the loyalty ultimately failed to secure her reelection.

Democrat-supporting voter Bryan Golay said he wished the party would move to the left but voted against what he described as the GOP’s “enshittification” of America, much of which, he said, has come during Collins’s time in Washington.

“If you can’t get shit done in 30 years, why are we gonna give you another term?” Golay said.

Mags Krantz, a master’s student of social work who works with children with disabilities, said she voted for all Democrats, including Dunlap and Jackson, citing GOP-backed cuts to social services.

“They just cut funding for my job, and for my career,” Krantz told The Intercept outside a polling site in Lewiston on Tuesday. “I really voted for my future, but I also voted for every vulnerable child that I work with every single day that really wishes adults would vote for them over money.”

Speaking to a crowd of supporters on the eve of the election, Jackson toasted the grassroots organizing that has powered his rapidly assembled campaign into the most serious challenge yet to Collins’s hold on her seat.

“This government is fundamentally broken, and it only works for the wealthiest people in this country — that’s what we’re up against right now,” Jackson said. “They are going to outspend the hell out of us. There’s no doubt about it. But they don’t have people like you in rooms like this across this state and across the country.”

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Jackson, who spent nearly 20 years in the state legislature, ran on a platform focused on lowering costs for working-class families, expanding healthcare access, and combating the influence of wealthy donors and corporate PACs in Washington. He entered the race somewhat hastily in late July, after former Democratic nominee Graham Platner withdrew from the Senate race following a rape allegation, which Platner denied.

The Collins–Jackson race was one of the top targets for national attention this cycle — most of it on purpose. In October, The Intercept reported that Defending Main Street, a Republican-aligned super PAC associated with Collins spent between $20,000 and $25,000 attacking Jackson on topics such as cost-of-living and taxes. The ads mistakenly were targeted to audiences in Portland, Oregon, rather than the intended Portland, Maine.

In the right Portland, the senator-elect promised supporters at his election night party that he’d represent the interests of working-class voters when he gets to Washington.

“If you’re watching this after getting home from a shift or sitting at the table wondering how you’re gonna pay the next bill, I want you to hear something very clearly: You are sending somebody to Washington who knows exactly what that feels like,” Jackson told the crowd. “But more importantly, I am going to remember who sent me there.”

This developing story has been updated. Noah Hurowitz reported from Lewiston and Portland, Maine.

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