Republican Senator Susan Collins was challenged by Democratic nominee Sara Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, as well as independent candidates Lisa Savage and Max Linn. Collins was considered one of the most vulnerable Republican senators due to her decreased polling numbers and perceived harm to her reputation but was reelected by an unexpectedly large 8.6% margin, with 51% of the vote to Gideon's 42.4%. Despite this, her 51% share of the vote was her worst performance since her first election in 1996 and was a 17-point drop from 2014. Maine was the only state to elect a senator of a different party than the winner of its presidential contest in the November 3 election, with Collins outperforming President Donald Trump, who lost the state to Democratic nominee Joe Biden by 9.1%.[1]
Backgroundedit
Republican senator Susan Collins, widely considered one of the two least conservative Republican U.S. senators (the other being Lisa Murkowski), ran for a fifth term.[2] Collins had won each election to this seat by a greater victory margin than the one before it. Observers did not anticipate this election to continue that trend.[3][4][5][6]
Collins was criticized for her decision to vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court despite his anti-abortion stances (Collins describes herself as pro-choice) and allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse against him, though she gave a highly publicized speech on the Senate floor explaining her reasoning.[7][8] She also faced criticism for her stance on the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Collins voted in favor of allowing witness testimony in the Senate trial, and was the first Republican to do so,[9] and she voted to acquit Trump on both charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.[10][11][12][13] She said she voted to acquit because "impeachment of a president should be reserved for conduct that poses such a serious threat to our governmental institutions as to warrant the extreme step of immediate removal from office."[14] She initially claimed that Trump "learned a pretty big lesson" from the impeachment,[15] but later said that she thought he had not learned from it after all.[16] She has also been criticized for running for third, fourth, and fifth Senate terms despite vowing to serve no more than two terms during her 1996 campaign, though she has explained this as a product of having learned the value of seniority in the Senate. The emphasis on seniority became a key theme of her campaign.[17][18] Collins's campaign emphasized her efficiency as a legislator, her efforts to pass the Paycheck Protection Program and other aid for small businesses, and her growing seniority and influence in the Senate, in particular her potential chairwomanship of the Appropriations Committee.
The Democratic nominee, Speaker of the Maine House of RepresentativesSara Gideon, supports criminal justice reforms, expansion of the Affordable Care Act, rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, and imposing universal background checks on gun sales to combat gun violence. In 2019, Gideon faced an election ethics complaint for accepting reimbursements for her political donations from her own PAC. Gideon apologized for the violation, reimbursed the federal government a total of $3,250, and closed the PAC.[19] Gideon was also criticized for keeping the Maine House of Representatives adjourned for most of the year (neighboring New Hampshire had reconvened its sizably larger legislature by late spring) and for allegedly turning a blind eye to a legislative colleague accused of molesting underage girls until she was forced to acknowledge the scandal.[20][21]
Lisa Savage, a longtime antiwar activist and schoolteacher from Solon, initially sought the Maine Green Independent Party nomination, but in late February, she announced her intention to instead qualify for the ballot as an independent due to Maine's restrictive ballot access measures.[22][23] In April, Savage turned in more than 5,500 signatures to the Secretary of State's office and thus qualified for the general election ballot.
Max Linn, a financial planner and conservative activist from Bar Harbor, was a Trump supporter and former candidate of the Republican and Reform parties. In July 2020, he qualified for the ballot as an independent. Former Republican state senator Mary Small challenged the signatures on his petition, but the secretary of state found that he had enough and he was placed on the ballot.[24] Later that month, he announced his intention to drop out of the race to support Collins. But days later, he decided not to drop out unless Collins agreed to a list of policies, which she did not.[25]
Party primaries were initially scheduled to take place on June 9, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the state, Governor Janet Mills rescheduled them for July 14. Mills's executive order also expanded voters' ability to request absentee ballots, which could then be done up to and on election day.[26] The primaries were conducted with ranked choice voting. Parties qualified to participate in the 2020 primary election were the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and the Maine Green Independent Party.
On April 20, 2019, attorney and activist Bre Kidman became the first person to announce their candidacy for the Democratic nomination. If elected, they would have been the first ever U.S. Senator who identifies as non-binary.[35] On June 13, 2019, former Maine gubernatorial candidate Betsy Sweet declared her candidacy.[36] Eleven days later, Maine House SpeakerSara Gideon announced her candidacy, receiving widespread media coverage.[37][38][39][40] General Jon Treacy had previously announced his candidacy before withdrawing. Former Google executive and political aide Ross LaJeunesse, who would have been the first openly gay man elected to the Senate, announced his candidacy in November 2019. He received the endorsement of the national political group The Victory Fund in January 2020. LaJeunesse eventually withdrew from the race in March 2020, citing the inability to continue his strategy of campaigning in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and endorsed Gideon. Two debates were held with all three candidates, while one hosted by WCSH was attended only by Sweet and Kidman.[41][42][43]
Two candidates declared their intentions to run for the Maine Green Independent Party's nomination, but one withdrew and the other left the party to become an independent. Lisa Savage left the party because of Maine's ballot access requirements; Savage needed 2,000 registered party members to sign a nomination petition to appear on the ballot as the Green Party candidate but could only gather them from January 1 until the March 15 deadline. The Green Party had roughly 41,000 members statewide, which was significantly fewer than the Democratic and Republican parties but nonetheless required the same number of signatures. No alternative party candidate for statewide office had been able to meet this requirement since Pat LaMarche did so in 2006 for governor. Instead, Savage sought to appear as an independent candidate, which required 4,000 signatures, but they may be from any registered voter, not just party members and they could have been gathered until the June deadline.[23]
Withdrawnedit
David Gibson, solar design specialist (endorsed Savage)[65]
Lisa Savage, school teacher[66](switched to independent)[67]
Eight Independents declared their candidacy for Senate in 2020, including one affiliated with the Libertarian Party of Maine, which lost ballot access after the 2018 elections.[72] Two qualified for positions on the November ballot.[69]
The four candidates participated in two in-person debates on September 11 and September 29, both held without an audience.[84] Collins at one point proposed holding 16 debates, one for every county in Maine, but such a schedule was not agreed upon.[85]
2020 United States Senate election in Maine debates
Like many Republican Senate candidates in 2020, Collins did much better on Election Day than pre-election polls predicted; nearly all of them predicted her defeat.[138] Collins defeated Gideon in the general election with 51.0% of the first-place votes, precluding additional rounds of tabulation.[139] Gideon conceded to Collins on November 4.[140]
Gideon underperformed Biden by 10.6%, the second-worst underperformance by a Democratic Senate candidate in the country.[143] Examples of this discrepancy include Wells, a coastal town in the state's liberal southwest corner, where Biden won by 14% and Collins by 6%.[144]
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^Carrigan, Don (August 23, 2019). "Political expert says next year's Senate race a 'toss-up'". News Center Maine.
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^"On the Nomination PN2259: Brett M. Kavanaugh, of Maryland, to ... – Senate Vote #223 – Oct 6, 2018". GovTrack.us.
^"READ: Susan Collins' statement on impeachment witness vote". January 30, 2020.
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^"U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 116th Congress – 2nd Session". www.senate.gov.
^"Guilty or Not Guilty H.Res. 755 – Senate Vote #33 – Feb 5, 2020". GovTrack.us.
^"Guilty or Not Guilty H.Res. 755 – Senate Vote #34 – Feb 5, 2020". GovTrack.us.
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^Piper, Jessica (July 28, 2020). "Max Linn now says he'll only quit Senate race if Susan Collins endorses 5 policies". Bangor Daily News.
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^Piper, Jessica (July 7, 2020). "Underdogs get last chance to challenge Democratic favorite in Maine US Senate debate". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
^Collins, Steve (April 22, 2019). "Saco lawyer Bre Kidman seeks Democratic backing to challenge Susan Collins". Lewiston Sun Journal. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
^Weinland, Gerald [@DirigoBlue] (December 19, 2018). "Michael Bunker of Bangor has filed to run as a Dem against @SenatorCollins in 2020 #mepolitics #mesen" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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^LaJeunesse, Ross (March 26, 2020). "Statement from Ross LaJeunesse". Medium. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
^Dr Cathleen London [@DrChaya] (July 16, 2018). "I am running because #SCOTUS cannot wait @SenatorCollins needs to realize that Maine & the country are watching & she was held accountable for her votes #mepolitics My announcement: https://www.doctorcatlondonforme.com/_api/media-share-server-for-video/crp5?instance-id=5f191a6c-020c-4fc6-9b82-2786411308cb&component-id=comp-jjog8axh&channel-id=2435a32f-3d87-4ae1-aac4-b8175b02e63c&video-id=b3603e263c0a42348786f1c1f8fe8d60&bi-token=8a23ff18-94ae-0e5a-0a87-60cb8863dede … @DrCat4ME" (Tweet) – via Twitter.[dead link]
^"LONDON, Cathleen Greenberg Dr – Candidate overview". FEC.gov.
^ abCollins, Steve (January 25, 2019). "Independent challenging Collins aims to be first transgender member of Congress". Brunswick Times Record. Retrieved January 26, 2019. Updated November 11, 2019.
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^ abcShepherd, Michael (January 18, 2019). "Democrats aren't racing to run against Susan Collins in 2020". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
^ ab@SaraGideonME (June 24, 2019). "Unbelievably honored to have the endorsement of so many Mainers as I launch my campaign for U.S. Senate to defeat Susan Collins. I will always put Maine first and I'm proud to have the support of these dedicated public servants. #MESen #MEpolitics" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
^ abcdeVilleneuve, Marina; Peoples, Steve; Pace, Julie (October 9, 2018). "Democrats lining up to consider challenging Collins in 2020". Associated Press. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
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^Collins, Steve [@SteveCollinsSJ] (May 20, 2019). "Not surprising, but @RepGolden said today he is not going to run for US Senate. He said he respects @SenatorCollins & her approach to governing, even if he doesn't always agree with her. Besides, he said, his #ME02 seat is "not a stepping stone" & he plans to stay. #mepolitics" (Tweet). Retrieved May 20, 2019 – via Twitter.
^"Former Maine Gov. John Baldacci wants Stephen King to run for office: 'You've got a winner there'". Washington Examiner. September 12, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2018.
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^Emerson, Anthony [@AnthonyEmerso14] (June 17, 2019). "Love that Betsy Sweet has a disclaimer on emails sent from email lists that were not her own. Shows a commitment to transparency. Also, hey, @RingelsteinME is backing her!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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^ abcShephard, Michael (February 24, 2020). "Green US Senate candidate to unenroll for easier path to Maine ballot in 2020". BDN Politics. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
^Bond, Tiffany [@TiffanyBond] (November 14, 2019). "If only you hadn't voted for a tax bill that buries us in an absurd amount of debt and hinders our flexibility to find solutions. You may not have children, but I do, and they deserve a goddam future without crippling debt and a crumbling planet. Hire a mom for Senate" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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^ abc"Bureau of Corporations, Elections & Commissions". maine.gov.
^@ForFogg (August 24, 2020). "Combined, Susan Collins and Sara Gideon have spent $30 million dollars so far trying to convince you to vote for them, or, based on the negative campaigning, convincing you not to vote for the other. You have an alternative! Write-in Douglas Fogg for U.S. Senate!" (Tweet). Retrieved September 10, 2020 – via Twitter.
^@MESecofState (December 17, 2018). "1/2 The Libertarian Party no longer has party status in the State of Maine, as it did not reach the threshold of 10,000 voters in the Nov. 6 General Election, as required in Maine law. If you were enrolled as a Libertarian, you are now "unenrolled" as of Dec. 4" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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Further readingedit
Paul Merrill (August 4, 2018). "Anonymous accusations prompt House Speaker to call on Democratic lawmaker to resign". WMTW Ch. 8 ABC. Spokeswoman confirms Speaker Gideon had heard rumors about Dillon Bates 'several months ago' but found no proof ... In an article published Friday [Aug. 3, 2018], the monthly newspaper 'The Bollard' cites an anonymous source who says Rep. ... Bates had an inappropriate relationship with her and other high school girls over the past half-decade
Brian MacQuarrie; Hanna Krueger (September 26, 2020), "Once considered a strong favorite, Collins faces toughest challenge", Bostonglobe.com
Sarah Lyall (September 27, 2020), "In Maine, a Race About the Issues Has Become a Referendum on Susan Collins", The New York Times
Amber Phillips (October 9, 2020), "The Senate seats most likely to flip parties in November", The Washington Post