For decades, Sen. Susan Collins defied the political odds to win reelection as a Republican senator in Democratic-leaning Maine. This year, her winning streak ended.
Collins, first elected in 1996 and the longest-serving Republican woman senator, on Tuesday night conceded to her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson.
Democrats viewed the race between Collins and Jackson, the former Maine state Senate president, as critical to their chances of winning back the U.S. Senate. Jackson’s victory marks the conclusion of one of the most expensive, highly watched and dramatic contests of the 2026 midterms.
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Several Maine Democrats, including Jackson, initially opted to run for governor rather than challenge Collins for Senate, clearing the way for the nomination of Graham Platner, a military veteran, oyster farmer and political newcomer.
Platner’s meteoric rise pushed Maine Gov. Janet Mills, backed by many national Democrats, out of the race before the June primary. But he dropped out of the race less than a month later after Politico reported on an allegation of sexual assault from an ex-girlfriend. He denied the accusation.
Platner’s implosion set off a fast-tracked process to replace him on the ballot. Jackson, a former logger and longtime state lawmaker with strong ties to the labor movement, won in late July — giving him a little over three months to campaign against a stalwart of Maine politics.
Collins has long won over Maine, which has voted for a Democrat for president in every election since 1992, by positioning herself as a compromise-minded moderate willing to buck her own party, including by supporting abortion rights.
But Democrats and abortion rights groups sought to challenge that image by attacking her vote for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was part of the conservative majority that voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Collins voted for Kavanaugh in 2018 after he assured her that he believed Roe was settled law; she has said she doesn’t regret her vote. Much of Jackson’s strategy relied on trying to convince the older women who have long crossed party lines to vote for Collins but remember life before Roe that she could no longer be trusted on the issue.
Maine, a largely rural and working-class state, has also been hit hard by the rising cost of living, surging gas and diesel prices, and the Trump administration’s tariffs on its neighbor, Canada. Its residents are also set to be heavily affected by stricter eligibility requirements to federal programs like Medicaid and food assistance. As Jackson sought to paint Collins as a rubber stamp for Trump, she spent much of her time debating Jackson on the defensive, arguing she remains an independent voice for Maine who delivers federal funds home.
The campaign also became contentious and personal.
In the wake of Platner’s ouster, Collins and Republicans hammered Jackson on past reports of his own hot temper in exchanges with women, which drew pushback from several of his past women colleagues. They also engaged in innuendo-laden messaging about Jackson’s relationship with his longtime partner, Lana Pelletier, prompting her to respond in an op-ed in a local newspaper.
Democrats seized on a series of reports linking Collins, the top Senate appropriator of federal dollars, to potential bribery and corruption schemes; Collins and her spokespeople denied any wrongdoing.
