October 17th 2019

By Dan Desai Martin

American Independent

Voters in Maine gave Donald Trump higher marks than longtime Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), according to a new Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey released Tuesday.

Both Trump and Collins are wildly unpopular among Maine voters.

According to the poll, only 42% of Maine voters approve of Trump’s job performance, but a mere 35% of those polled approve of Collins’ job as senator.

Half of Mainers — 50% — disapprove of Collins’ job performance overall.

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While the Public Policy poll is just one of many, it does highlight a trend in Collins’ declining popularity in a state which she has represented for more than 20 years.

As recently as 2017, similar polling showed Collins to be one of the most popular senators in the country, according to FiveThirtyEight. Polling conducted in 2018, however, showed that popularity waning, especially after Collins publicly came out in support of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court amid allegations of sexual assault.

The most recent poll was conducted less than a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump for his efforts to persuade Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden. Most Mainers support impeachment, according to PPP, and Collins seems to be in a lose-lose situation no matter how she chooses to come down on the issue.

If Collins opposes impeachment, voters would support a generic Democrat by a 47-40 margin. If she supports impeachment, voters would support a Democratic opponent by a 38-32 margin.

“It’s going to be hard for Susan Collins to get reelected if she opposes impeachment,” Dean Debnam, president of PPP, said about the polling numbers. But, Debnam added, it would also “be hard for Susan Collins to get reelected if she supports impeachment.”

Collins’ likely Democratic opponent, Sara Gideon, has also raised more campaign cash than Collins over the past three months.

Gideon raised $3.2 million in the past quarter, around $1.1 million more than Collins from July through September.

Despite portraying herself as a moderate, Collins has been more likely to vote with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell during the Trump era than the end of the Obama administration, and she is relying on McConnell to help raise campaign funds. She was also the deciding vote in allowing Trump to take money from military families to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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