Democrat Troy Jackson is projected to win Maine’s Senate race, ending Sen. Susan Collins’ five-term reign.
Collins styled herself as a moderate Republican who could disagree with President Donald Trump. That even she couldn’t pull off a win on Tuesday shows just how widespread the backlash against Republicans was this midterm cycle.
“It has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maine in the United States Senate. I’m proud of all I have been able to accomplish for our state and for our country in the past 30 years,” Collins said in a statement, adding that she had called Jackson to congratulate him.
When Collins started her first term in 1997, Republicans made up half of New England’s Senate delegation. By her last term, she was the only one left. Her defeat likely puts Maine’s seat out of reach for Republicans for the foreseeable future.
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She defeated her Democratic opponent in 2020 — despite being massively outspent — and outperformed Trump, who lost in the state. This year, Collins was the only Republican senator up for reelection in a state that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024.
Collins ran her campaign as separately as possible from the national Republican Party, frequently highlighting her disagreements with the administration on tariffs, health care, and abortion access. Trump did not visit Maine to rally during the election, nor did Collins ask him to.
Collins pitched herself to Maine voters as a powerful advocate for the state, highlighting the funds she helped steer to the state through her role as the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
She argued that while she could not stop the Trump agenda, she could help to insulate Maine from the worst impacts of it. In late October, she announced that she had convinced White House officials to exempt certain Canadian agricultural products from Trump’s tariffs. Heating oil costs, though, continued to climb as the Iran war continued toward Election Day.
Jackson, a former state Senate president, became the Democratic nominee after Graham Platner dropped out of the race in July. Platner was accused of sexual assault, which he has denied.
While Jackson lacked some of Platner’s stage presence and outsider appeal, he presented himself as a reliable Democratic vote to stop Trump’s agenda.
Jackson relentlessly hammered Collins as an enabler of Trump’s economic and immigration policies. In a series of debates, he repeated that she voted with his agenda 95% of the time, blamed the senator for allowing tariffs against Canada to stand and said she “paid for the bullets” that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer used in the killing of a Colombian man in Biddeford.
Jackson also criticized Collins over a ProPublica report released in September that revealed the FBI had previously investigated claims against Collins for a pay-to-play bribery scheme. The government did not bring charges against her, and she called the claims “completely false.”
Collins is one of two Senate Republicans who support abortion rights, and she had attacked Jackson for his previous support for anti-abortion bills. Jackson, however, argued that his stance had evolved and pointed out that Collins voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh even though he went on to vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Collins said the court should not have overturned the decision, but declined to say that she regretted his confirmation.
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