Sen. Susan Collins’ road to reelection just got rockier after President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance handed her Democratic rival two potentially valuable gifts, according to a new Wednesday analysis.
Now Collins is likely “pulling her hair out,” The New Republic’s Emma Janssen wrote.
The first gift came Monday, when Vance visited Maine to campaign for former Gov. Paul LePage, now running for Congress. During his remarks, the vice president told residents upset over the fatal ICE shooting of 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero to “have a little bit of perspective.”
Former Maine Senate president Troy Jackson, the Democrat locked in a tight race with Collins, quickly responded in a video posted to X.
“J.D. Vance is a dirtbag,” Jackson said. “You ought to have some damn perspective. You don’t even know what the hell is going on.”
Vance also praised Collins during his visit, although she did not attend the campaign stop, and revealed that she had been to his home “about six times,” the analysis noted.
“He apparently missed the memo about her distancing herself from the administration,” Janssen wrote.
The second gift arrived when Trump announced a 50 percent tariff on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, escalating tensions with Canada, which retaliated with its own tariffs.
“If she could snap her fingers and make the last ten years of American politics, especially Donald Trump, go away, I’m sure she would for a whole variety of reasons,” University of Maine political science professor Mark Brewer told The New Republic.
The Cook Political Report rates the crucial Senate contest a toss-up, while recent polling shows Jackson holding a slight lead within the margin of error.