Collins Sticks to Script as Dem Chaos Erupts Following Platner Exit

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins has a simple campaign strategy after Graham Platner’s implosion: Stay the course.

Democrats in Maine and at the national level are reckoning with their own tumult after a woman publicly accused the Democrats’ nominee of sexual assault, effectively ending Platner’s campaign. Now the party is forced to launch a two-week process to coalesce around his replacement.

But Collins is hardly changing a beat in her operation despite facing a brand new general election opponent — one who could be vastly different from the progressive Platner, who Republicans were itching to draw a contrast with — just over three months out from the midterm elections.

“She hasn’t made the story about her in any way, as much as others have tried to make it about her. She has done a really good job of making this the Democrats’ problem and not inserting herself into this, which I think a less seasoned politician would have screwed up,” one national GOP operative told NOTUS.

Collins, the five-term senator, has long been atop the list of incumbents Democrats hope to topple this cycle, given her standing as the lone Republican representing a state won by former Vice President Kamala Harris two years ago.

“You picture candidate X, and that story comes out and they’re having press conferences … out in front of his office or his home calling for him to step down. She did the right thing, which was: ‘This isn’t our problem to figure out,’” the operative continued about the approach to Platner’s collapse. “‘My job is to represent Maine right now.’ That’s it, right? Her posture during this has certainly benefited her.”

Despite the state’s blue tilt, defeating Collins has proved to be a difficult endeavor. Democrat Sara Gideon led for much of the 2020 campaign, only to see Collins win handily.

Despite the uncertainty this year, Collins is likely to continue with the same posture she’s had throughout the Democratic infighting. She’s said very little, issuing a statement calling the allegations against Platner “appalling” but saying it’s “not up to me” to choose the Democratic nominee.

She took a similar tone Saturday in her first remarks since Platner’s exodus from the race.

“It’s really not my call,” she told reporters. “I’m not a Democrat. I’m not involved.”

“I never take any race for granted. I’ve always worked as hard as I can for the people in Maine,” Collins continued, pointing to her 10,000-plus consecutive vote streak.

She’s also been keeping up appearances, having attended a trio of July Fourth parades around the semiquincentennial and a pair of events on Saturday. Among those was a ribbon-cutting for a fire station that was built with funds she helped secure.

While the news coverage over the Senate’s July Fourth recess was dominated by the latest allegations against Platner and the fallout, Collins, as Senate Appropriations Chair, touted her work pushing back at the Trump administration’s grantmaking practices, a way to demonstrate some independence from the president.

Collins returns to Washington on Monday for a four-week sprint focused on putting her stamp on a range of spending bills.

This lets her effectively show she is above the fray and hammer home her case as the stable senator who has consistently delivered for her state and constituents.

“I think the environment that’s been created in that state now, this drama that’s occurred, I don’t know — it seems very unstable. But changing course now when you have Susan Collins, who’s just been so reliable for your state, is a tricky proposition for a voter,” said a second Republican operative who’s worked on Senate races. “I think that’s going to play into Collins’ favor.”

The operative noted that Collins’ last reelection campaign was “very deliberate” and targeted against Gideon, but that much of the race involved the senator making her case.

“There’s gonna be advertisements, yes, but Susan Collins never stopped talking about Susan Collins. She didn’t spend a ton of time only talking about Sara Gideon,” the operative continued. “This will be the same case where she can point to the trainwreck that’s on the other side of her and present herself as the stable stateswoman that Maine needs, that they’ve relied upon for many, many years. I think the chaos is part of the message.”

Collins has unsurprisingly centered her campaign on her ability to secure funding and projects for her home state and constituent services, both of which have been prominently featured in ads. She is also backstopped by her best-funded campaign ever.

All that’s missing at present is an opponent.

“The only thing that changes is we need a new oppo book,” a third Republican operative said.

There are a number of unknowns that remain, especially for outside Republican groups that were funding the brunt of negative ads targeting Platner. Those groups must now change course as they await a new opponent.

“We were excited about the prospect of running against Platner. ... Now we don’t know who we’re running against,” a fourth GOP operative involved in Senate races told NOTUS. “Until then, it’s a floating situation.”

One factor that helps Republicans is that almost all of those who’ve thrown their hat in the ring are familiar to them in one way or another, as many of them have already appeared on the ballot earlier this year.

A new poll taken shows three potential opponents — Nirav Shah, former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Troy Jackson, the former state Senate president — in tight, hypothetical matchups with Collins. All three fell short in their bids for the Maine Democratic gubernatorial nomination last month.

“Susan Collins has defeated every DC-anointed candidate Chuck Schumer has sent her way,” Samantha Cantrell, a National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson, said in a statement. “And she’ll defeat whichever loser comes out of this process as well.”

Collins was also in a neck-and-neck battle with Platner before his collapse, according to recent polls.

Democrats hope that this would finally be the cycle to defeat Collins – especially without Trump on the ballot. The president’s presence tends to increase Republican turnout and has boosted Collins in the past..

Even with the current party disorder, they still believe the environment can carry the day. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) declared last week that the party would still topple Collins.

“Susan Collins is more vulnerable than she has ever been after voting with Trump 96 percent of the time, being the decisive vote for the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, and selling out to the special interests that fund her campaigns after three decades in the Senate,” a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson said in a statement. “In November, Maine voters will reject her self-serving politics and elect a Democrat who will fight for them.”