Susan Collins Skips the Veep, Trashes the Tariffs, and Prays You Forgot the Medicaid Vote

Every politician in trouble discovers principle at exactly the moment it becomes useful. Susan Collins, thirty years in the Senate and staring down the toughest race of her career, has discovered a great deal of it lately.

Start with the snub. When JD Vance rolled into Brewer, Maine on August 24 to stump for Republicans, the state's only sitting GOP senator was nowhere to be found. (cite index="1">Vance rallied Republicans in Maine on Monday, defending the escalating trade war with Canada that has drawn criticism from Collins, who skipped the event. She claimed a scheduling conflict. Cute. (cite index="2">When asked, she said she could not make it because of a scheduling conflict, which is odd, because she has no public events scheduled for the day.

While the vice president defended Trump's trade war in her backyard, Collins spent the morning torching it. (cite index="3">Collins didn't have time to meet up with Vance while he was there, but she did have time to trash Trump's most recent move on tariffs. Days later, on August 28, she went further, firing off a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. (cite index="4">She warned that a trade war is disastrous for her state, urging the administration to resume negotiations with Canada and reach a fair trade agreement that prevents these damaging tariffs from taking effect. Her pitch to nervous Mainers: (cite index="4">more than 50% of Maine's lobster is processed in Canada. The lobster defense. Bold stuff.

Here is why the sudden bravery. The polls are ugly. (cite index="5">An Abacus Data poll of likely voters released August 29 put Troy Jackson at 52% and Collins, the incumbent, at 43%. That is not a wobble. That is a nine-point hole against a Democrat who has been the nominee for barely five weeks. (cite index="6">Jackson became the Democratic nominee only July 25, after Maine Democrats selected him at a replacement convention following Graham Platner's withdrawal.

Money? She's still swimming in it. (cite index="6">FEC records show Collins' principal campaign committee raised approximately $16.17 million between January 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026, entering July with $11.04 million cash on hand, not counting the millions being spent independently by Republican organizations supporting her or attacking Jackson. A logger from Allagash outraised by a machine, and still up nine. That should keep somebody in Washington up at night.

Now the part she'd rather you forget. Collins is running an ad war insisting she fought the Medicaid cuts in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill. (cite index="7">As Democrats spend money to highlight her vote to procedurally advance the bill, Collins is running her own ads noting that she ultimately voted against the measure. Both things are technically true, which is exactly how the con works. (cite index="8">Collins voted "yes" to move the bill forward, then voted "no" upon final passage. The procedural vote to open debate passed 51-49. (cite index="9">Had Collins and one other Republican defected, the entire bill could have been stopped. She didn't. She let it through, knowing it would pass, then cast her tidy protest vote for the cameras. Fact-checkers note the Democratic attack ad overreaches by claiming she flatly "supported" the cuts. (cite index="10">She was one of three Republican senators who voted against passing the OBBBA in July 2025, citing the legislation's changes to Medicaid. Both sides are shading it. But the greenlight was real, and so is the damage: (cite index="11">the law's Medicaid provisions are projected to slash Maine funding by $3 billion over the next decade, with about one-third of Mainers, roughly 400,000 residents, relying on the program.

That is the Collins method in one clean move. Vote to open the door, vote to shut it after everyone's already walked through, then sell both votes to whichever audience is listening. She did it on Kavanaugh. She's doing it on Medicaid. And this month she voted against Todd Blanche for attorney general, another safe "no" on a nominee headed for confirmation anyway. (cite index="12">While Collins believes Blanche is a capable lawyer, she said the Department of Justice has become increasingly political, and that Blanche has taken actions that further eroded the department's independence, the basis for her vote to oppose.

Maine voters have watched this act for thirty years. This November they get to review it. MUCK YOU!