{"id":1672,"date":"2026-02-10T17:50:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=1672"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:50:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:50:25","slug":"susan-collins-launches-re-election-bid-as-gop-fights-to-hold-crucial-senate-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=1672","title":{"rendered":"Susan Collins Launches Re-Election Bid As GOP Fights To Hold Crucial Senate Seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative\" data-narration-container=\"true\">\n<p>Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) made her re-election bid official Tuesday, unboxing a pair of New Balance running shoes and announcing, \u201cThis is perfect for 2026, because I\u2019m running.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The announcement launches what is expected to be a fiercely competitive general election in Maine following\u00a0speculation that Collins would retire instead, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2025\/07\/16\/congress\/white-house-collins-maine-00459055\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">POLITICO<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The race has already grown contentious, especially in the Democratic primary between Gov. Janet Mills and populist Graham Platner. Platner has drawn scrutiny over past controversies, including a now-removed tattoo featuring a Nazi symbol and old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/dem-senate-hopeful-called-himself-a-communist-made-racist-comments-in-reddit-posts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reddit<\/a> posts in which he described himself as a \u201ccommunist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"UNBOXING 2026\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O9N0SkDFjf0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSusan Collins pledged to only serve two terms in the Senate,\u201d Platner said in an <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/grahamformaine\/status\/2021225664829886812\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">X<\/a> post responding to Collins\u2019 launch. \u201cThat\u2019s just one of a hundred reasons she doesn\u2019t deserve a sixth term.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Governor Mills said Sen. Collins \u201chas had almost three decades to prove that she\u2019s the right leader for Maine in this critical moment \u2014 and she\u2019s failed. Seniority without a backbone is just tenure, and another term won\u2019t fix that. It\u2019s time for her to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cookpolitical.com\/ratings\/senate-race-ratings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cook Political Report<\/a> currently rates the race as a toss-up. Collins faced a similarly high-stakes contest in 2020, when she defeated Democrat Sara Gideon with nearly 51% of the vote compared to Gideon\u2019s roughly 42%.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican lawmaker has secured the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which typically supports incumbents and contenders it views as best to win general elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom protecting Social Security to supporting small businesses, no one works harder and is more dependable at delivering prosperity and opportunity,\u201d NRSC Chairman Tim Scott said. \u201cI\u2019m confident Susan will defeat whoever emerges from the messy Democrat primary, because Mainers know they can always count on her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Collins has had a complicated relationship with President Donald Trump, who has publicly criticized her and other Republicans over past War Powers Resolution votes and at one point said they \u201cshould never be elected to office again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite past tensions, Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, stood alongside Trump at the Oval Office signing ceremony last week, along with other lawmakers, as the partial government shutdown ended. She is the lone Republican in New England\u2019s congressional delegation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/im-running-susan-collins-launches-re-election-bid-as-gop-fights-to-hold-crucial-senate-seat\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) made her re-election bid official Tuesday, unboxing a pair of New Balance running shoes and announcing, \u201cThis is perfect for 2026, because&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}