After frequently voting against President Donald Trump's urgings, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is on shaky ground for her 2026 midterm reelection campaign and the White House is talking about potential GOP successors if she decides not to run.
The problem is Collins is a unicorn as the lone GOP senator in the deep-blue northeast and her state of Maine is a tough seat to try to defend in the narrowly divided Senate 53-47.
While there is no talk of primarying Collins, the White House is discussing potential replacements to try to thread the needle in the state of Maine, sources told Politico.
Trump would love to see a "better option," regardless of the 72-year-old Collins' impending decision to run.
Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, voted against Trump's $9 billion rescissions package early Thursday morning and with more rescissions requests likely to come from Department of Government Efficiency findings of waste, fraud, and abuse, it is likely Collins could remain a thorn in the side of Trump's White House and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
Collins is "pleased" with her strong fundraising she reported last week, according to Politico, but she has yet to make an official announcement on a 2026 reelection campaign.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has already tapped out for his 2026 reelection campaign amid tepid support for the One Big Beautiful Bill, leaving Thune and the Senate GOP with another battleground to defend.
The GOP has far more seats than Democrats to defend in the 2026 midterms as it is, and Thune said in an televised interview Wednesday night that defending the Senate majority is the No. 1 priority to maintain a unified government for the final two years of Trump's presidency.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.