Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican facing one of the toughest re-election fights in the country, is distancing herself from President Donald Trump on two key issues as Vice President JD Vance makes a campaign stop in her home state without her.
Collins, who is running in a blue-leaning state that Vice President Kamala Harris carried in the 2024 election, said she will not join Vance when he delivers remarks Monday in Brewer, Maine, at Compotech, a defense technology manufacturer. It is the second time this year that Vance has visited Maine and the second time Collins has not appeared alongside him.
«I am already scheduled on Monday, so I will not be able to join the vice president,» Collins told reporters on Saturday. The Senate was in session when Vance held an event in Bangor in May, and Collins stayed in Washington. The senator holds a historic attendance record of more than 10,000 consecutive roll call votes dating back three decades.
Collins, speaking to reporters as she marched in the annual Madison-Anson Days parade, her seventh parade this summer, highlighted that she did team up last week with Energy Secretary Chris Wright when he toured a federally funded battery storage project in Lincoln built on the site of a closed paper mill. «I really appreciated Secretary Wright's presence,» she said.
Her decision to skip Vance's visit comes as she openly opposes Trump's move this past weekend to impose 50% tariffs on a range of goods from Canada, which shares a long border with Maine. «I still think imposing new tariffs on Canada is a mistake,» Collins said on Saturday.
She also referred to a proposed U.S. Postal Service rule that would implement a Trump executive order to rein in mail-in voting by refusing to deliver absentee ballots in states that have not turned over their raw voter rolls to the Justice Department or Department of Homeland Security. «Mail-in ballots are very important to the people of Maine,» Collins said. «I do not support restrictions that make it more difficult for seniors to cast votes on Election Day via the mail.»
Collins says she supports the House version of the federal SAVE America Act, which mandates documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID for federal elections. But she joined three other Republicans and all Democrats to vote against advancing a Senate version of the bill, which is a top Trump priority.
Collins, who was one of a small group of Republicans who voted to convict Trump in a 2021 Senate trial after the House impeached him following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, has also taken issue with the administration over its crackdown on illegal immigration and its aggressive deportation efforts. The issue flared this summer after a fatal ICE shooting in Biddeford, Maine.
Democrats, including her Senate challenger, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, have repeatedly linked her to Trump and heavily criticized her for her past funding for ICE. Jackson's campaign, in a social media post ahead of Vance's visit, called the vice president «Susan's pal.» «I'm sure JD Vance loves her because she's doing everything that he wants for her, but she's not doing it for Maine people,» Jackson argued in an accompanying video.
Vance, during his May stop in Maine, acknowledged the tension. «Sometimes I get frustrated with Susan Collins,» he said. «I almost wish that she was more partisan. But the thing I love about Susan is she is independent, because Maine is an independent state. And, frankly, if she was as partisan as I sometimes wish that she was, she would not be a good fit for the people of Maine.»
Collins is the only Republican senator running for re-election in a state Harris carried in 2024, and her race is among roughly a dozen that will determine if the GOP holds onto its slim Senate majority. Highlighting her differences with the president and his administration may be beneficial to Collins as she woos independent voters and even some Democrats.
Vance will be joined in Brewer by former two-term Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who is the GOP nominee in Maine's 2nd Congressional District. The most rural district, the largest in the eastern U.S., is a top flip opportunity for the GOP, with moderate Democratic Rep. Jared Golden declining to seek re-election this year. The vice president's office did not offer a statement regarding Collins ahead of his Monday stop.