Donald Trump is finally opening up his war chest for Republicans in tight midterm races — but one embattled senator is conspicuously being left empty-handed.
According to The Washington Sun, Trump reported his "biggest spend of the cycle" over the weekend, funneling $21 million to candidates in competitive races as the midterms close in. Financial disclosures filed Sept. 10-12 show a new group, No Going Back PAC Inc. — formed Sept. 1 under Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc. — dropped $6.7 million in Ohio, $3.7 million in Michigan, $1.7 million in New Hampshire and $779,000 in Georgia, mostly on TV ads and mailers hammering Democrats. That's on top of the $10 million MAGA Inc. already sent to Texas to boost Senate nominee Ken Paxton.
Missing from the list entirely: Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who's fighting for her political life in a toss-up race and has yet to see a dime from Trump's operation.
According to the report, "As the dust settles from a flurry of disclosures in the first two weeks of September, [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune’s political committee has now entered every major battleground Senate race, while Trump has yet to report dropping significant money in Maine."
Trump and Collins have had a "famously rocky relationship," but he did throw his weight behind her reelection back in June, telling a reporter in the Oval Office: "She does, because she's a sane woman. She's not my best friend at all. These guys are. I get along, but she is a sane person, and she is a person that never missed a vote in many years."
Since then, Collins has kept her distance from some of Trump's most unpopular moves in her state, "criticizing his trade war" with Canada and a fatal shooting involving a federal immigration agent in Maine this July.
According to a poll released by CNN last week, Collin's Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, is leading 48 percent to 45 percent, despite his late entry in the race after troubled Democrat nominee Graham Platner bowed out.