Susan Collins’ support for Trump coming back to haunt her: ‘It’s very frustrating’

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is seeing her 24-year legislative career boiled down to the last three years, and she doesn't like it.

The Maine Republican is running neck-and-neck with Democratic challenger Sara Gideon, whose campaign has focused on Collins' record of voting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to enact President Donald Trump's right-wing agenda, reported Politico.

“She will say or do anything to try to win,” Collins told the website during an interview. “This race is built on a foundation of falsehoods, and trying to convince the people of Maine that somehow I am no longer the same person.”

Gideon and her backers have blanketed Maine with $90 million in ads highlighting her support for the president's agenda, cutting into Collins' reputation as an independent, and the GOP senator didn't like seeing her legacy shrunk to Trump's presidency.

“It’s very frustrating because it’s backed by so much money, and it's been going on for two years now: Non-stop negative ads," Collins said. "That eventually it pulls you down. What's amazing is that I’m still going to win.”

Gideon's campaign declined an interview, saying that Collins' record spoke for itself.

“Senator Collins’ votes for 181 of Trump’s far-right judicial nominees, for the corporate tax giveaway that put Mainers’ health care in jeopardy and her continued refusal to stand up to Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump show just how much she's changed after 24 years in Washington,” said Gideon spokeswoman Maeve Coyle. “Her desperate, misleading attacks on Sara make clear that she’s willing to do anything to stay there.”