Augusta, Maine – In case you missed it, Susan Collins is on the defensive over her handling of ICE funding – creating new problems for national Republicans in one of their toughest battleground states.

 

As The Hill reports, the Maine Democratic Party called out Collins for voting to advance the bill that funds ICE and leading the push to pass even more ICE funding without any reforms or accountability – calling it “a desperate attempt to cover up a record she knows Mainers reject.”

 

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The Hill: ICE fight puts Collins on defensive in Maine Senate race

By Tolu Talabi

February 9, 2026

 

  • The surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Maine last month has put Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on the defensive in a reelection campaign that is causing growing GOP heartburn. 

 

  • But Collins’s Democratic opponents have seized on “Operation Catch of the Day” to tie the longtime incumbent to President Trump and some of his most unpopular policies. 

 

  • “Susan Collins voted to advance the bill that funds ICE, and for weeks she’s been leading the push to pass even more ICE funding with no reforms and no accountability. This is a desperate attempt to cover up a record she knows Mainers reject,” Maine Democrats said in a statement.

 

  • Collins’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from The Hill. 

 

  • Two of Collins’s Republican Senate colleagues have called on Noem to resign over her officers and agents killing two people during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Asked if she thought Noem should leave, Collins told reporters, “She is the president’s choice; she’s confirmed; she’s there.”

 

  • “Sen. Collins’s electoral coalition requires not just Republicans, who I believe will stay loyal to her, but also requires unenrolled voters and some Democratic voters to get her across the threshold. I think it’s becoming more and more difficult for her to hold on to that coalition when communities in southern Maine particularly are being directly targeted by the president,” Farmer said. 

 

  • “I think the current electoral environment is even more hostile to Republicans and is trending further away from them,” he said. 

 

  • Behind closed doors, Republicans seem to agree. 

 

  • Axios reported Tuesday that Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told Republican colleagues that they should pay attention to Democratic momentum in Senate races, pointing to Maine as the GOP’s toughest challenge, based on a generic ballot. 

 

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