Will this Election Day be the end for Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins?
In case you’ve been on Mars, Collins inspired a cottage industry on social media where critics sarcastically report she is “concerned,” “troubled,” or has once again furrowed her brow over the latest Republican outrage.
She is ostensibly a moderate. But during the Trump era there is often a curious pattern: Collins expresses concern, agonizes publicly and then frequently winds up supporting Trump when the votes count.
She is to an independent what pork rinds are to a diet.
That caricature isn’t entirely fair. Collins has cast some important votes against Trump, but it persists because some of her most consequential votes have helped Trump when he needed them.
Now there’s another controversy.
ProPublica recently reported FBI agents had been investigating allegations involving Collins, people around her, a pro-Collins super PAC and Navatek, a defense contractor. Martin Kao, the former CEO of Navatek, alleged political contributions were used to cultivate lawmakers who could help the company obtain federal contracts. ProPublica reported investigators were examining whether a broader pay-to-play arrangement existed.
No one working for Collins was charged, and the investigation had not established Collins committed a crime. She strongly denies wrongdoing, and her office says the Biden Justice Department and FBI investigated the matter and cleared her, her staff and her campaign years ago.
ProPublica responded that Collins was conflating two investigations. It says the investigation described in the story results from new information Kao provided and was still being pursued in early 2025. Then Trump returned to office, personnel involved in public-corruption investigations departed, and the investigation effectively ended.
Some critics have suggested a connection between that development and Collins’ support for Trump priorities. So far there is no publicly established evidence of a quid pro quo. The timing raises a legitimate question. It doesn’t answer it.
Collins has strong evidence when she calls herself bipartisan. The Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s Bipartisan index has repeatedly ranked her among the Senate’s most bipartisan members, including No. 1 in 2023.
Compare Collins with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. Manchin certainly wasn’t an anti-Trump Democrat. He repeatedly defied his party, and also supported many Trump nominees. Collins likewise has broken with Republicans. She opposed Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, and opposed Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel.
But Collins also backed Trump on some enormous votes, including voted to acquit him in his first impeachment trial. Most consequentially, she voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court after saying she considered Roe v Wade settled precedent. Kavanaugh later joined the majority overturning Roe.
“Bipartisan,” “centrist” and “independent” are not synonyms. A senator can work extensively with members of the other party on legislation while still supporting his or her party on most nominations and agenda-setting votes. And a senator can often anger party leaders without necessarily having an impressive bipartisan legislative score. Moderation isn’t simply standing between two parties, and despite what some partisans on the left and right say, it doesn’t mean someone lacks passion or principles.
Since 2003, I’ve published and edited The Moderate Voice, which won awards as a centrist blog during the golden age of blogging. In recent years I’ve occasionally had to clarify: “It’s not Susan Collins moderate.”
There’s always been a debate over what a moderate is.
About ten years ago, a prominent Democrat who wrote for a major progressive blog emailed me. “You’re no moderate! You’re a conservative Republican!”
That same day, a conservative emailed me: “You’re not moderate! You’re a liberal Democrat!”
Susan Collins unquestionably has a bipartisan record. She has also cast important vote against Trump. But she has cast some extraordinarily important votes for him as well.
Maine voters will decide whether Susan Collins is still their kind of moderate – or whether all those years of furrowed brows have finally worn thin.
Copyright 2026 Joe Gandelman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.