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Maine’s Susan Collins Makes It Official:  She’s Running for Re-Election To U.S. Senate in 2020

December 19, 2019

As expected, Maine U.S. Senator Susan Collins will seek re-election in 2020, as Politico reports.

The Republican is pursuing a fifth term.

Although she had not previously formally announced she would run again, she has been fund raising and running television ads in her home state.

“The fundamental question I had to ask myself in making my decision was this:  in today’s polarized political environment, is there still a role for a centrist who believes in getting things done through compromise, collegiality, and bipartisanship?” she wrote in the letter announcing her intention, according to The Associated Press. “I have concluded that the answer to this question is ‘yes,’ and I will, therefore, seek the honor of continuing to serve as Maine’s United States Senator.”

Collins is the only remaining Republican in Congress from New England, in either the House or Senate.

Collins’s race is considered a tossup by many political forecasters, including the Cook Political Report. She will be on the ballot alongside President Donald Trump, who lost the state in 2016, although he won one of Maine’s four electoral votes by taking the state’s largely rural Second Congressional District. Statewide, Trump received 44.87 percent of the vote.

Since Maine is not a reliably Republican voting state, the seat will likely help determine which party controls the Senate following the 2020 election. Currently, Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

According to Politico, Collins will likely be challenged by Sara Gideon, a Democrat who serves as House Speaker in Maine’s state assembly.

“When Sen. Collins took office 22 years ago, she might have been different from other people in Washington, but it doesn’t seem that way anymore,” Gideon said in a statement following Collins’s announcement, as The Associated Press reports. “These days, Sen. Collins seems more focused on serving the special interests that fund her campaigns than the Mainers who elected her.”

Already, more than $7 million has been spent for advertisements in the race, be it radio, television, or digital.


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