This is Standard Republican Policy. Is This What You Want?
Forget the slogans. Judged by what they voted for, what they did, and what they refused to stop, this is what Republicans in Congress stand for, on 20 issues, with the receipts.
Articles about Susan Collins
Eight Republicans Are Campaigning on a $50 Billion Rural Health Fund. It Comes From the Same Law That Cuts $137 Billion From Rural Medicaid.
Roger Marshall, Jon Husted, Susan Collins, Juan Ciscomani, Jeff Crank, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Jason Smith and Derrick Van Orden are touting rural health grants in the final weeks of the campaign. KFF says the fund covers barely a third of what the same law takes out of rural Medicaid, and it runs out.
Before She Was a Senator, Susan Collins Led the Fight to Cut Benefits for Injured Maine Workers. It Took Maine Nearly 30 Years to Undo.
As the governor's point person in the late 1980s and early '90s, Collins pushed cuts to benefits for workers hurt on the job, asked business to lobby for them, and stood by as the fight shut down Maine's government.
Susan Collins Now Says There Was 'No Way' to Know Kavanaugh Would Overturn Roe. She Named That Exact Risk in Her 2018 Speech Voting for Him.
Two weeks before Election Day, Collins told a Maine TV station she had no way to anticipate Kavanaugh's vote to overturn Roe. Her own 2018 floor speech named the concern, and Trump had promised justices who would do it.
Susan Collins Attacks Troy Jackson for Calling Two Houses His Home. In 2004 She Pledged Two Different Houses as Her Principal Residence at Once.
Collins and a super PAC backing her have spent weeks hitting Jackson over a mortgage that listed his Augusta house as his primary home. Mortgage records show Collins spent about eight months in 2004 bound by principal-residence pledges on houses in Washington and Bangor.
Lockheed Martin Became Susan Collins's Biggest Donor in Two Months. Then She Voted to Buy 83 More of Its Late, Over-Budget F-35s.
In May and June 2023, Lockheed Martin employees and executives gave Susan Collins $59,500 — a quarter of all contributions to her main campaign fund in those two months. In July she voted to fund 83 new F-35s, weeks after federal auditors flagged the program's costs.
A Russian-Born Ballroom Donor Got a Fast Pass Around Russia Sanctions and a $201 Million Federal Fund. His Money Also Went to Ten Republicans on This Site.
Konstantin Sokolov gave to Trump's White House ballroom days before his company asked Treasury for a license to get around Russia sanctions. He got it in 10 weeks, used it to buy a copper mine from a sanctioned Russian bank, and was put in charge of $201 million in State Department money. FEC records show he also gave to committees raising money for Susan Collins, Pete Ricketts, Dan Sullivan, Vivek Ramaswamy and six more Republicans on this site.
Palantir's CEO Gave $100,000 to Susan Collins's Super PAC. Then She Voted for $70 Billion in Immigration Enforcement Money With No Strings Attached.
FEC records show executives at Palantir — which ICE is paying to build its deportation-tracking system — have put $117,250 into Susan Collins's campaign, her leadership PAC and the super PAC re-electing her, including $100,000 from CEO Alex Karp. Executives at the private prison giants CoreCivic and GEO Group gave too. Collins voted for nearly $70 billion for ICE and the Border Patrol and against body cameras.
A Convicted Donor Emailed Two Collins Allies About His Illegal $150,000 Scheme. Her Campaign Has Since Paid One of Their Firms $320,000.
In 2019, Martin Kao emailed two Collins allies about the fake nonprofit he was using to sneak $150,000 to her super PAC. One, Scott Reed, now runs her new super PAC. The other, MacKenzie Dolan, co-founded a firm Collins's campaign has paid more than $320,000 since 2025, FEC records show.
Susan Collins Says She Couldn't Afford Health Insurance In 1994. Then a Gunmaker Who Donated to Her Helped Find Her Next Job.
At this week's debate, Susan Collins answered a question about being out of touch by recalling a year without health insurance. Within weeks of that 1994 loss she was running a center funded by Bushmaster's owner, a donor. A decade later she voted for the law that shields gunmakers from lawsuits — a law he had pushed hard for.
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9 Americans killed in the West Bank. 50 Senate Republicans won't ask why #maga #alabama #maine
Nine American citizens have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and settlers since 2022, including an elderly man dragged from his car, a journalist shot in the head, and a 20-year-old beaten to death.
Four Republican Senate Candidates Wouldn't Say How They'd Stop Social Security's 22% Benefit Cut. Ashley Hinson Brought Up Millennials' Savings Habits.
States Newsroom asked Senate candidates in nine close races what they'd do about the automatic Social Security cut coming in 2032. Dan Sullivan, Roger Marshall, Michael Whatley and Jon Husted didn't respond. Ken Paxton, Mike Rogers and Ashley Hinson offered promises with no plan — weeks after Paxton was recorded telling lobbyists 'we have to suck it up' on spending cuts.
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Republicans rigged the stock trading ban to fail #maga #alabama #maine
86% of Americans want members of Congress to stop trading stocks while writing the laws that move the market.
Congress Spent $345 Million on Trucks the Army Called 'Excess.' The Truck Maker's Employees and PAC Have Sent Susan Collins $58,000.
The Army cancelled more orders of an armored truck it called 'excess.' Congress put $345 million back. Afterward, the truck maker's executives and PAC sent tens of thousands to Susan Collins, who chairs Senate Appropriations, and Ken Calvert, who chairs the House defense spending subcommittee.
Republicans Tied a Weak Stock Trading Ban to a Voter ID Law. It Failed. One Republican Says That Was the Plan.
86% of Americans want members of Congress to stop trading stocks. Republicans glued the ban to a strict voter ID law, so it died in the Senate 53–47 on September 30. Fifteen Republican senators on this site voted to advance the package, and many of them have stock trading problems of their own.
Nine Americans Were Killed in the West Bank. These Republican Senators Voted Not to Even Ask What Happened.
On September 29, the Senate voted 47–51 against forcing a vote on asking the State Department for a report on nine U.S. citizens killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since 2022. Fourteen Republicans with report cards on this site voted no.
Susan Collins's Husband Was Paid by the Lobbying Firm That Employs the Head of Her Super PAC
In 2025, Chesapeake Enterprises paid Collins's husband consulting fees. The firm's only lobbyist was Scott Reed, who runs the super PAC re-electing Collins and is at the center of the Navatek pay-to-play story. That same year Reed lobbied Congress for a data center developer whose billionaire chairman gave Collins $7,000.
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Susan Collins used her Senate seat to fight for donors, not Maine #maga #politics #maine
Susan Collins spent 2018 to 2020 pushing the Navy to hand tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to a defense contractor called Navatek.
Susan Collins Steered Millions to a Defense Contractor While Its CEO Funneled Her Illegal Donations. Trump's Justice Department Let the Bribery Probe Die.
ProPublica found Susan Collins' office pushed the Navy to hand Navatek millions while her campaign and super PAC took illegal money from its CEO. He later told the FBI she said, 'You've seen me deliver.' The FBI corruption squad that heard him was purged.
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Susan Collins is no defender of abortion rights
Susan Collins has spent years telling voters she is a defender of abortion rights, but when it matters most, she keeps selling women out.
Susan Collins Calls Herself a Defender of Abortion Rights. She Just Helped Give a Lifetime Judgeship to a Man Who Wants No Exceptions for Rape or Incest.
Matthew Byrne told an anti-abortion group his 'pro-life credentials cannot be questioned' and that the 'life of the mother' exception should be 'strictly defined so as to avoid creating loopholes.' The Senate cut off debate on his nomination 47-46 on September 14, with Collins voting yes. A no from her would have sunk it. She voted to confirm him the next day.
These 26 Republicans Voted to Block Health Care for 9/11 First Responders. Thirteen of Them Voted No Again on the Deal That Finally Passed.
A list of the Republicans who voted to block the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act went around X this week. We checked all 42 names against the official roll calls. Every one of them voted against the bill — and the record is worse than the list says.
Elon Musk's Super PAC Is Spending $5.1 Million on the Midterms, Almost All of It in Races With 18 Republicans on This Site. It Spent $3.7 Million of That Attacking Democrats.
America PAC has reported $5.1 million in independent spending this cycle. Eighteen Republicans with report cards on this site are the main beneficiaries — and nearly three-quarters of the money went to attack ads, not to making a case for them.
In One Sitting, Susan Collins Voted Against Equal Pay, Paid Sick Days, and the Right to Join a Union. She Also Backed an Amendment to Cut Seasonal Workers Out of the Sick Leave Bill.
On June 21, 2023, the Senate labor committee took up three bills: equal pay, seven paid sick days a year, and the right to organize. All three passed on a party-line 11-10 vote. Collins, a Republican on that committee, was on the losing side of every one, and backed amendments to weaken two of them.
Susan Collins Voted to Convict Trump Over January 6. Her Campaign Made a Man From the Oath Keepers' Membership Rolls a Town Chair.
In June, Collins announced Piscataquis County commissioner Wayne Erkkinen as her town chair in Greenville, running grassroots outreach. The Anti-Defamation League named him in 2022 as one of 215 Mainers on the leaked Oath Keepers membership rolls.
Fifty Republican Senators Voted Against Even Debating an End to the Boat Strikes. A Year Into the Campaign, 227 People Are Dead in a "Year of Murders".
Five weeks into the boat strike campaign, the Senate voted on whether to pull U.S. forces out of a fight Congress never authorized. It failed 48-51. Fourteen Republican senators we track voted no, and thirteen of them voted no every time it came up again.
Susan Collins' Super PAC Took $2 Million From a Billionaire Named in the Epstein Files. Two and a Half Months Later She Voted to Kill the Amendment Forcing Their Release.
Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman gave $3 million to the super PAC boosting Susan Collins' reelection. He appears in the Epstein files. She voted to defeat the amendment that would have forced the Justice Department to release them.
Fourteen Republican Senators We Track Confirmed RFK Jr. After He Said His Samoa Trip Had 'Nothing to Do With Vaccines.' He Had Already Written the Prime Minister Asking to Study Samoa's MMR Vaccines.
The AP and the Guardian obtained a January 2019 letter in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked Samoa's prime minister to let his team study the country's MMR vaccines. He told senators the trip had nothing to do with vaccines. Fourteen Republicans we track voted to confirm him.
Susan Collins Is Asking Mainers for $5 to Help Buy Fuel for Her Campaign Tour. She Voted Five Times to Keep Going the War That Raised Fuel Prices.
Collins' campaign email says a statewide tour takes 'quite literally fuel.' She voted against five straight attempts to end the Iran war before switching on the 60th day — and her husband holds up to $150,000 in ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66.
Republicans Once Voted for a 12-Year Limit on Congress. Forty-Six on This Site Are Already Past It — by 909 Years.
Republicans put a 12-year cap on congressional service to a House vote in 1995. Four of these men were there for it. Two of them are now in year 45. And five Republicans currently cosponsor a three-term cap while serving their 7th, 10th and 17th terms.
Susan Collins Has Cast 200 Deciding Votes in the Senate. 19 of Them Confirmed Trump Nominees. Zero Stopped One.
The Bangor Daily News ran the numbers on 10,076 votes. Collins really has broken with her party on decisive votes more than any other senator of her era — and 72% of the time her deciding vote went to the Republicans. Under this Trump term, she's broken four times.
Congress Gave ICE $70 Billion and No Rules on Conduct. Now ICE Is Buying Electric Shock Gloves.
ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver painful electric shocks — ten times what Susan Collins points to as the de-escalation reform that justified her vote. Here are the 201 Republicans with report cards on this site who voted for the money.
A Maine Woman Wrote Susan Collins Again and Again About Her Detained Husband. She Got Back a Newsletter.
More than 150 people gathered outside Collins' Biddeford office over her vote for $70 billion in new ICE funding. One of them was Alessia Gaspar Da Silva, whose husband has been in ICE custody for seven months.
45 Republicans We Cover Broke the Law That's Supposed to Stop Insider Trading in Congress
The STOCK Act asks members of Congress to do one thing: tell us what they bought and sold, within 45 days. Forty-five of the Republicans on this site couldn't manage it — some by years. The penalty is $200, and it's often waived.
At 4:36 in the Morning, 52 Republican Senators Voted to Advance a New Hurdle Between You and the Ballot Box
Before leaving town for a month of vacation, the Senate held an overnight vote on a brand-new photo ID bill written by Ohio Sen. Jon Husted. It failed. Fifteen Republicans we track voted to advance it anyway.
Four Republican Senate Candidates Are Being Boosted by Fake Local News Sites Run by a Dark Money Group
One Nation, the Senate GOP's dark money arm, runs at least six websites that look like local newspapers. They exist to flatter Dan Sullivan, Susan Collins, Jon Husted, and Ashley Hinson — and the ads that push them never say who owns them.
The Richest Man on Earth Is Coming to Maine to Keep Susan Collins in Office
Elon Musk's America PAC has authorized up to $120 million across eight states, and Maine is on the target list. Updated August 14: the Senate Leadership Fund has committed $42 million of its own — though FEC filings through August 4 show SLF had spent only about $1.2 million in the race.
Todd Blanche Told a Private Prayer Call He'd Make the Dobbs Decision 'Permanent in Every Single State.' Ashley Moody Voted to Advance Him to Attorney General.
Trump's acting attorney general told a private prayer call he wants the Dobbs decision made permanent in all 50 states. Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans just voted to advance his nomination.
Susan Collins Voted to Put Todd Blanche at the Justice Department. Now She's Voting No.
Collins says the Justice Department has become 'increasingly political.' She voted to confirm Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general in March 2025 — and she announced her no vote hours after the two Republicans with real leverage cut their deal and let him through committee.
ICE Is Reading Your Posts. Congress Paid for It.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found ICE is paying contractors millions to scan social media around the clock, then using subpoenas to unmask Americans who criticize the agency. Nobody has been charged. That may be the point.
14 Republican Senators Just Voted to Let Your Child Care Bill Go Up
Trump's HHS scrapped the rule capping child care copays at 7% of a family's income. On July 30 the Senate had a chance to undo it. These 14 Republicans we track voted no.
Susan Collins Says She'd Vote for Brett Kavanaugh Again. In 2022 She Said He Misled Her.
Collins voted to confirm Kavanaugh in 2018 on the assurance that Roe was 'settled law.' He voted to overturn it. Asked in Maine this summer whether she'd do it again, she said yes.
Susan Collins Voted Against $300 Million for ICE Body Cameras. Now She's Taking Credit for Getting Them.
In June, Collins voted for $70 billion in ICE funding with no strings and against an amendment putting $300 million into body cameras and releasable footage. After an ICE agent killed a young father in Biddeford, she announced ICE would have cameras by the end of August — Maine first, 'at my request.'
Susan Collins Just Voted to Confirm a Spy Chief Who Wouldn't Say Joe Biden Won
Jay Clayton was asked repeatedly who won the 2020 election. He wouldn't answer. Collins voted yes anyway, and explained that the Director of National Intelligence 'does not certify elections.'
The Republicans With the Worst Records on Health Care
Marketplace sign-ups just posted their sharpest drop ever and $900 billion is coming out of Medicaid. These Republicans voted for it — then told us it wasn't happening.
52 Republican Senators Just Voted to Hand ICE Nearly $70 Billion
In the early morning of June 5, the Senate voted 52-47 to pour nearly $70 billion into ICE and Border Patrol with no oversight, no transparency, and a new slush fund for punishing 'non-cooperating' cities. Here are the senators with report cards on this site who voted yes.
The Republicans Who Marched Us Into War With Iran
In February 2026, Trump bombed Iran without Congress's approval. These Republicans cheered it on, voted to block efforts to stop it, and left us paying the price at the pump.
Susan Collins' New Ad Says She 'Stood Up for Maine' on Medicaid. It Leaves Out the Vote She Cast to Put the Cuts on the Senate Floor.
A new Susan Collins campaign ad brags that she protected Medicaid. It leaves out the procedural vote she cast to send Trump's Medicaid-cutting budget bill to the Senate floor — the vote a fellow Republican thanked her for.
Susan Collins Helped Write the Stock Trading Law — Then Broke It, Failing to Report Up to $395,000 in Trades
Sen. Susan Collins helped pass the STOCK Act in 2012 to stop members of Congress from hiding their stock trades. A review found she failed to report up to $395,000 in trades — breaking the very law she championed.
12 Republican Senators We Track Just Voted to Keep Us in Trump's Iran War
One day after the Senate told Trump to get U.S. forces out of the Iran war, these Republicans helped block a second resolution — handing Trump a win and ducking Congress's duty to decide on war.