NEW REPORT: Collins “One of the Most At-Risk Senators in 2020”

“Collins’s once sky-high approval ratings have plunged more than any other senator… last week the non-partisan Cook Political Report put her Senate seat… in the toss-up category.”

A new Bloomberg dispatch from Maine shows why Senator Susan Collins is facing “plenty of headwinds” going into her re-election campaign as “one of the most at-risk senators in 2020.” As her support tanks and her disapproval rating spikes, Senator Collins continues to pay the price with voters for her out-of-touch record. More than 97% of Senator Collins’ contributions this year have come from out of state, and the Cook Political Report recently moved the Maine Senate race in Democrats’ direction, from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-Up.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Bloomberg: Susan Collins Faces Bipartisan Anger in Trump-Era Re-Election Bid

By Steven T. Dennis

August 21, 2019

Key Points:

• Republican Susan Collins is caught in the cross-fire of the angry partisan division that’s defining the nation’s politics, turning her from a shoo-in for re-election into one of the most vulnerable senators running in 2020.

• Collins’s once sky-high approval ratings have plunged more than any other senator in the Trump era, and last week the non-partisan Cook Political Report put her Senate seat — one of just two in GOP hands in states won by Hillary Clinton and being contested in 2020 — in the toss-up category.

• Angry Democrats aren’t hard to find in Maine… 

• “I’ve supported her ever since she went to Washington. I was extremely disappointed with the Kavanaugh vote,” said Donna Sawyer, 72, of Limington, a former host of a local gardening television show. “I will never vote for that woman again!”

• Al Mingione, 69, of Buxton, said he also voted several times for Collins but won’t any more after her Kavanaugh vote. He said he doesn’t “want a guy like that on the Supreme Court,” adding that he also wants to see the Senate go Democratic.

• “I’m tired of them doing nothing,” Mingione said in reference to the current Senate, led by Republicans. “How many shootings have we had?”

• But like other Republican senators, Collins has to be wary of angering Trump’s most fervent supporters. Chip Sirois, 48, of Windsor, insists he and many other Trump supporters won’t vote for Collins again… 

• “She has aligned with Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell at a time where people feel more and more worried and more and more left behind,” [Maine House Speaker and Democratic Senate candidate Sara] Gideon said.

Read more about how Collins has become “one of the most vulnerable senators running in 2020”:

• Boston Globe: ‘The Maine electorate has had it with her’: Constituents turn on Susan Collins
• Vox: “Maine voters like Pam Cunningham are Sen. Susan Collins’s worst nightmare.”
• New York Times: Susan Collins, a Fixture in Maine, Has Twin Troubles: Trump and Kavanaugh
• Washington Post: In the Trump era, Sen. Susan Collins’s declaration as a New England moderate is challenged
• Bloomberg: Susan Collins Faces Re-Election as Standing Erodes in Trump Era
• Daily Beast: How Susan Collins Became the Senate’s Most Vulnerable Republican
• Roll Call: Susan Collins has a 2020 problem

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