President-elect Donald Trump is in full control of the Republican Party. He is making provocative early moves after a convincing victory, and his looming return to the White House will bring familiar questions to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and other prior Trump skeptics for another four years.
The centrist senator has performed a balancing act on him in the past, and her next one may need to be more delicate to retain support from her party while representing a Democratic-leaning state.
Collins, 71, returned from Capitol Hill to give the keynote address Friday at a Maine State Police graduation ceremony in Vassalboro. Maine reporters lobbed Trump-related questions at her during a gaggle that came a day after she announced her plans to run for a sixth term in 2026.
Asked how she will fit into a new Trump administration, she pointed to her work with both Democratic and Republican presidents since she first won her seat in 1996 and said she tries “to do the best job I can for the state of Maine regardless of who the president is.”
“That’s the approach I’ve always taken, and that’s the approach I am going to continue to take,” Collins said.
When Collins first ran her seat in 1996, she pledged to serve only two terms. She would become the longest-serving senator in Maine history if reelected. She also may chair the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, unless Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, bumps her from the spot.
In 2016, Collins said she would not vote for Trump, noting that his “unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect.” Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton that November after brushing aside orthodox Republicans in the primary.
Two impeachments, a 2020 defeat to President Joe Biden, numerous criminal charges and a felony conviction did not stop Trump from winning a second term this month. He will return to the White House with a Republican-controlled Congress to help implement his agenda.
Collins, whose approval ratings have dropped over the years, was noticeably quieter on Trump this year. She said she would write in former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and cited “excessive rhetoric on both sides” last month while not saying whether she believed Trump’s darker promises or warnings from former Trump aides who said he would rule like a dictator.
This kind of balancing act is not new for Collins. She beat Democrat Sara Gideon by 9 points in 2020 after every public poll showed her losing that race defined largely by Collins voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, a move she defended again in 2022 he voted with a conservative majority to overturn federal abortion rights.
Pro-Trump conservatives have periodically criticized Collins, but she has never faced a primary challenger. Grassroots Republicans in Maine unsuccessfully tried in 2021 to get the Maine Republican Party to censure Collins for voting to convict Trump of a Democratic impeachment charge of stoking the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The former president has begun his transition with a number of unorthodox Cabinet picks, including former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, the attorney general nominee. Collins said that pick “shocked” her due to sex trafficking allegations that Gaetz has denied. She has said the Senate should maintain its rigorous confirmation process while not yet taking sides on nominees.
Allies of Collins are signaling some hope about the next Trump era. He may have a “little less heated and a little more sober” style in office after making inflammatory claims while on the campaign trail, said Lance Dutson, a Republican strategist and former Collins campaign staffer.
Dutson argued Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance may look to senators like Collins to achieve their policy goals rather than dismissing or bypassing her.
“A more seasoned and a more mature Trump administration recognizes the value of someone like Sen. Collins much more than they would have in [Trump’s] first term,” Dutson said.
Rob Epplin, Collins’ former legislative director, pointed to her work with former President Barack Obama and other Democrats to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that allowed openly LGBTQ+ service members to be discharged. He said Collins will oppose any efforts to “circumvent” the Senate’s responsibilities under the U.S. Constitution.
“I know that she will work with President Trump when she believes his policies are right for Maine and the country, but she will never be afraid to oppose him when she believes he is wrong,” Epplin said.
Maine Democrats disagree with those assessments. After Collins said on Wednesday that Gaetz’s pick shocked her, Maine Democratic Party Chair Bev Uhlenhake said it continued a pattern of Collins sharing concerns about Trump “while failing to stand up to or speak out against him to the detriment of all Mainers.”
“Instead of sounding the alarm on Donald Trump’s unfitness to serve and inability to lead before the election, Susan is opting once again for quiet disapproval now that she has helped return him to the Oval Office through her lack of leadership and unwillingness to stand up for what is right and put country above party,” Uhlenhake said in a statement.
One of Collins’ past colleagues knows her position well. Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota, was ranked next to Collins as a centrist in the chamber after being elected in 2012. Yet she lost her bid for a second term after her vote against confirming Kavanaugh hurt her with constituents who indicated strong support for the judge.
Heitkamp, who now leads the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, said in an interview that Collins “has never been a sheep.” She won’t need to worry about reelection while facing pressure from the right and left as Trump returns, the former senator said.
“If Susan wants another term, good luck to somebody that’s going to challenge her,” she said.
