Politics
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Mainers are being inundated with political ads during a spike in spending ahead of the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in June.
On top of 30-second spots from outgoing Gov. Janet Mills and primary frontrunner Graham Platner, dark money groups have unloaded ads that seek to positively or negatively frame U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the five-term Republican in a crucial race for control of the Senate.
That’s less than half the $108 million in advertising that’s been reserved through Election Day, with another surge coming between August and September, according to AdImpact. Republican groups have so far outspent Democrats, roughly $69 million to $38 million.
With GOP control of the Senate in jeopardy as Democrats pounce on Collins and other Republicans for any links to President Donald Trump, most of the dark-money ads do not mention the Senate race directly. They often focus on kitchen-table issues such as affordability and health care, urging viewers to either thank Collins or tell her to change gears.
Here’s a look at how a few of these groups are weighing into the race.
This spot from the dark-money group tied to Senate Republican leaders opens with an actor clutching his chest and an EKG monitor dissolving into a wailing ambulance barreling down a country road. The ad claims that “lives are being saved” due to Collins’ fight for rural hospitals.
The group highlights equipment and facility upgrades made possible with “new federal money,” namely $190 million for Maine’s rural health care providers secured with Collins’ help.
But the funding was part of a $50 billion five-year plan that aimed to offset a portion of substantial Medicaid cuts and negative impacts in Trump’s contentious “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Maine stands to lose nearly $6 billion over a decade from those cuts, according to an estimate provided to the state.
The program helped get the bill passed in the Senate, which Democrats opposed and even a few Republicans rejected due to cuts to Medicaid. Collins voted against the final bill, but critics note she provided earlier votes that let the bill advance.
The Democratic-aligned group, which spent $300 million during the 2024 elections, features a woman accusing Collins of voting “against affordable health insurance” and noted her premiums could rise to $1,500 per month.
The ad does not specify a vote or any bill, but speaks to critics’ push to link Collins to a Trump-led bill that cut Medicaid and did not extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, the issue that later drove the federal government shutdown last year.
Collins voted against the “One Big Beautiful Bill” but has been a critic of the ACA, calling it unaffordable. She has said she supports extending ACA subsidies, which were enacted during the pandemic, but only with reforms such as an income cap of about $200,000 per person.
Without the ACA tax credits this year, the liberal Maine Center for Economic Policy estimated many subsidized families could see premiums rising between 53% and more than 400%.
This ad from Duty and Honor, which is linked to Senate Democratic leaders, links Collins to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. It highlights the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s arrest of a Maine corrections recruit in January.
The ad says Collins is “giving ICE even more power” through her role as Senate Appropriations Committee chair. The Department of Homeland Security is in a partial shutdown as Democrats demand increased oversight and reforms before approving hundreds of millions of dollars in proposed ICE and Border Patrol funding.
A proposal backed by Collins earlier this year included $20 million for body cameras for ICE agents and $2 million for de-escalation training. And she says GOP lawmakers offered limits on ICE actions at schools and hospitals and more oversight at detention facilities. She has since accused Democrats of making “unreasonable demands.”
Senate Democrats have pushed for judicial warrants for home entries, no more masked agents, mandatory body cameras and other reforms. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said last month that Republicans only want to advance Transportation Security Administration funding if ICE is fully funded “without any guardrails whatsoever.”
