WASHINGTON – Since President Donald Trump returned to office, GOP Sen. Susan Collins has voted against confirming Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, pushed back on Trump’s efforts to withhold Congressionally-directed spending, and has been openly critical of the new role tech billionaire Elon Musk is playing in the administration.
But the senator from Maine has also voted yes for all of Trump’s other Cabinet nominees, and she has said she plans on Wednesday to back Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. later this week as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
This comes with the territory for Collins, 72, who has long been one of the most independent voices in the chamber. Now, as Trump returns to power in Washington and repeatedly pushes conventional boundaries, Collins again finds herself pressured from the right and the left to break their way.
“I always hear from people on both sides of the aisle who are unhappy with some of my votes or actions, and I hear from people who are happy with them,” Collins told USA TODAY. “The last three weeks, the volume is higher, but there’s nothing that unusual about it.”
Collins plays a unique role in a Republican party that Trump otherwise has in a vice grip: She’s the only GOP senator who represents a state in which Democrats won the popular vote in 2024, and she is up for reelection to a sixth term in 2026.
Senate Appropriations committee Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME) is followed by reporters as she leaves a Senate Appropriations committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on November 20, 2024 in Washington, DC.
That means that Collins – however much she might frustrate the right wing of her party – is likely Republicans’ best chance at keeping that seat, she acknowledges. And in order to win, she must thread the needle between delivering for conservatives to survive a potential primary and maintaining her independent brand to beat a Democrat in a general election.
“Most Republicans, and Republicans with good sense, understand that running in Maine is not the same as running in a deep red state, and give her the grace and the space to do what she needs to do to win,” said Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist with consulting firm Targeted Victory.
Years of walking the line
In the weeks since Trump came into office, Collins has emerged as one of the few Congressional Republicans willing to publicly break with the administration – to a point.
She was one of three Republicans to vote against Hegseth, who was still confirmed 51-50 with Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote, arguing he did not have “the experience and perspective necessary” to do the job. She grilled Gabbard over her former praise for government leaker Edward Snowden, but eventually decided to support her nomination “after extensive consideration” and conversations with the former Democratic representative from Hawaii.
“I generally, except in extraordinary cases such as Pete Hegseth, have given deference to presidents,” Collins told USA TODAY last week.
Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called Trump’s effort to pause billions of dollars in federal spending “far too sweeping.” She said Congress’ control – not the president’s – over federal spending is “very clear,” but also noted it’s “not unusual” for presidents to reevaluate programs when they come into office.
And on Monday, after the White House planned to cut billions of dollars in funding that supports medical research, Collins called the directive “devastating” and “poorly conceived.” But she added that she spoke with Kennedy, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, who promised to “reexamine” the decision, and said she would support his nomination.
US Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, stands alongside US President Donald Trump as he signs bills intended to lower prescription drug prices during a ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, October 10, 2018.
“There’s jokes on Capitol Hill that today is another day that Susan Collins is ‘concerned.'” said Casey Burgat, a professor of legislative affairs at George Washington University. “She’s kind of having it both ways: Pointing out what she doesn’t like about the process or the aggressiveness or the statements coming from the White House, but in the end has almost always fallen in line.”
These may be familiar postures for those who observed Collins during the first Trump administration, when she voted against her party’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, against Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education, and against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Collins did come through for Trump during his first term, as well. In 2018, after Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation turned into a bitter public battle over allegations that he sexually assaulted women in high school and college, the Maine Republican delivered a key vote to help him cross the finish line.
“When they needed her in a desperate way with Brett Kavanaugh, she was there. She was there during the tax cuts,” Gorman said, referencing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. “She knows how to calibrate this.”
U.S. Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) (L), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) attend a joint session of Congress to ratify the 2024 Presidential election at the U.S. Capitol on January 06, 2025 in Washington, DC.
An odds-defying win
Collins’ decision to support Kavanaugh became one of the key factors in her 2020 reelection campaign, when Maine was already trending toward Democrats.
Democrats backed challenger Sara Gideon. Around $180 million in spending from candidates and outside groups fueled an intense and acrimonious race that saw Collins trailing in the polls up to Election Day. “Everybody thought she was politically dead,” Gorman said.
Collins would win that race by more than 8 percentage points even as Trump lost the state to Joe Biden by 9 points, demonstrating to political observers on the national stage that she knew how to win despite the odds.
For 2026, Collins has already announced plans to run again for a sixth term that would end at the start of 2033, just after her 80th birthday. The next campaign is expected to be a tough one against Democrats, with incumbent two-term Gov. Janet Mills open to a run. And while Collins has never faced a conservative primary challenger – and none have yet emerged – it remains a possibility that pro-Trump Republicans could mount a campaign against her. If Collins wins, she would be the state’s longest-serving senator.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee plans to spend big in 2026 to defend Collins along with two other seats, Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. and Jon Husted, R-Ohio. NRSC Chairman Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told attendees to their winter meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, last week that they expect to spend $400 million to $600 million on Collins’ race alone.
“Winning is expensive, so cash is king,” Scott said, Politico reported.
While Trump’s advisors might understand the electoral pressures Collins faces, Burgat said that Trump doesn’t always let politics outweigh his preferences.
Trump has proven “all too willing” to lash out against electorally vulnerable members when he needs their vote, he said, especially if they’re countering him publicly. Collins also supported one of Trump’s opponents in the Republican 2024 presidential primaries, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Collins told USA TODAY that she thinks her fellow Republicans understand what’s at stake for the party in 2026. If she’s not the Republican nominee in Maine, she said “it won’t be good.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Susan Collins is again under pressure over backing or bucking Trump
