U.S. Sen. Susan Collins intends to continue serving in the Senate, her office said Friday after Vice President Kamala Harris said in a CNN interview that she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if elected in November.
Harris, who took over the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July, is in a toss-up race with former President Donald Trump, a Republican. Collins, a centrist Republican, has said she will cast a write-in vote for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
The Maine senator has been critical of Trump and Biden. On one hand, she looks like a decent fit for a Democratic Cabinet as the most liberal Republican in her chamber. However, Democrats ran a heated campaign against her in 2020, and she also stands to lead the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee if Republicans win the majority in November.
“[Sen.] Collins intends to continue serving in the [Senate],” spokesperson Annie Clark said in response to a question about whether she would consider such an appointment. “She enjoys working for the people of Maine and has been able to help Maine communities so much through her leadership position on the Appropriations Committee.”
There is precedent for a Maine Republican taking a Democratic appointment. Former U.S. Sen. William Cohen declined to run again in 1996 and became President Bill Clinton’s defense secretary. Collins, who had worked for Cohen for 12 years, won the race to succeed him.
The circumstances would be different here. Cohen announced his Senate retirement almost a year before Clinton appointed him. Collins has already filed to run for a fifth term in 2026. After she took the top Republican spot on the appropriations panel, Maine’s share of earmarks rose sharply, putting her No. 3 among senators during her first year there.
Leaving after the November election would lead to a major realignment in Maine politics. It would allow Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, to appoint a successor. That would give Collins’ replacement two years in the Senate ahead of the 2026 election. An open governor’s seat is also on the ballot that year because Mills faces term limits.
In the CNN interview, Harris said she was hoping to be a president for “all Americans” and would look to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet as a signal she was pursuing bipartisan consensus. Harris said she did not have a particular person in mind.
“I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion,” Harris said alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her vice presidential nominee.
Neither Biden nor Trump selected members of the opposite party for their Cabinets. Then-President Barack Obama, for example, chose former U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Illinois, as his transportation secretary. Obama also retained former President George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, for more than two years.
BDN writer Billy Kobin, Bloomberg News writers Jennifer Epstein and Josh Wingrove and Los Angeles Times writer Noah Bierman contributed to this report.
