“The world is watching to see if the United States is still the leader of the free world,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said before her chamber passed a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill in February.
One of the Republican’s adversaries on that bill was Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who is now former President Donald Trump’s running mate after being selected on Monday as the party’s national convention began in Milwaukee.
Vance, a 39-year-old Marine veteran who wrote the best-selling “Hillbilly Elegy” memoir, is a former Trump critic who has morphed into a loyal ally. He has only served in the Senate for a year, but he has come to represent Trump’s fiery brand of populist conservatism that rejects U.S. intervention in foreign wars and supports heavy tariffs.
Those stances align him with younger conservatives in Maine. He could not be more different on foreign policy than Collins, who is a hawkish centrist. They have found some agreement on trade, an issue that Trump used to shake up normal political coalitions during his 2016 election.
The debate over the Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan bill embodies the differences between Vance and establishment figures like Collins, who was among 22 Senate Republicans to support the plan along with nearly all Democrats. Collins argued that not giving $60 billion to Ukraine would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin and threaten American security around the world.
Vance argued on the Senate floor that the U.S. should deal with Putin to end the conflict. That came after Trump shared that he once told a NATO ally he would encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to members not meeting defense funding benchmarks.
In a statement, Collins sidestepped a question about her policy disagreements with Vance, offering kind words about Trump’s pick. She has already said she will write in former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in November instead of voting for the former president.
“His background will help him relate to younger Americans, as well as people from working and military families,” Collins said of Vance. “As a senator, he has shown himself to be a quick study and an effective debater, skills which have served him well.”
Vance is a social conservative who praised the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority when it overturned federal abortion rights in 2022. While shifting his stance over the years, he has said he opposes abortion rights, except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger.
Maine Republicans have opposed expansions of abortion laws under Gov. Janet Mills but steered clear of proposing the kinds of bans that passed in conservative states. Mills and her fellow Democrats campaigned hard on that issue in 2022, and Biden’s allies nodded to Vance’s stance in reacting to his nomination on Monday.
“Let’s be clear: A Trump-Vance ticket would undermine our democracy, our freedoms, and our future,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement.
Vance, Collins and other Maine politicians have more alignment on backing tariffs on foreign products to try to support American-made goods. Both U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine’s swing 2nd District, and his opponent, state Rep. Austin Theriault, R-Fort Kent, have also expressed support for Trump’s trade policies.
Theriault said in a tweet Monday that Trump and Vance “will bring a much-needed and relentless focus to America’s biggest problems, like inflation, the border, and protecting Social Security and Medicare.”
“Maine’s 2nd District needs this renewed focus badly,” Theriault added.
Vance has not always been a vocal Trump supporter. He sharply criticized Trump in 2016 and questioned whether Trump was “America’s Hitler” before changing his position as he ran for Senate to instead support the former president. Now he is on the ticket just two days after an assassination attempt against the former president at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
State Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, who is one of Maine’s delegates in Milwaukee this week for the national convention, said he likes Vance. Brakey was a libertarian-minded member while in Augusta and is leaving Maine to run a pro-libertarian group in New Hampshire.
“He is a real America First senator who understands that our troops should not be sent off into undeclared, forever wars,” Brakey said of Vance.
