Today, Senator Susan Collins is skipping Trump’s visit to Maine to host a high dollar fundraiser from Washington DC. In a week when Trump’s divisive rhetoric and lack of leadership have made a difficult chapter in our history even more painful, Collins is attempting to distance herself from the president whose agenda she’s supported and enabled as she faces the toughest election of her career.

 

This isn’t the first time that Collins has tried to dodge association with the president. For the last 537 days, she has refused to be honest with Mainers about whether she supports Trump’s reelection. But an examination of Collins' record reveals what she won’t say: she’s with Trump, not Maine.

 

  • According to CQ, Collins voted with Trump 94% of the time. 

  • Collins was a key vote in favor of the 2017 GOP tax bill that gave corporations and the wealthy trillions in tax breaks and paved the way for the Republican lawsuit to tear down the entire Affordable Care Act and its protections for people with pre-existing conditions. 

  • Collins was also a key vote in confirming Brett Kavanaugh and, in the first two years of Trump’s presidency, Collins voted to confirm every single one of Trump’s judicial nominees, including the ones that were rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association. 

  • In the impeachment trial earlier this year, Collins voted with Mitch McConnell 12 times against the inclusion of key witnesses and evidence before announcing she would vote to acquit the president and making the absurd claim that he had learned a “pretty big lesson.” 

 

For his part, Trump is all in on Collins. He confirmed that he’s “100%” behind her reelection, and even deployed Trump Victory campaign staff to get her on the ballot.

 

“Senator Collins can try to hide from Mainers but she can’t hide from her record,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “She has refused to hold this divisive and dangerous president accountable at every opportunity and she has supported his destructive agenda in the Senate. Mainers deserve a Senator who fights for us, and that’s why we will defeat Susan Collins this November.”

 

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