Main Republican Sen. Susan Collins reaffirmed this week that her “position in the middle of American politics” is why she will run for re-election in 2026, setting up a high-stakes Senate race in the midterms.During a 30-minute phone call with Punchbowl News in Washington, Collins, 72, said again that she plans to run for a sixth six-year term.
“I still plan to run for re-election,” she said, despite frustrations with current Senate dynamics and its increasingly irregular budgeting and appropriations process. “People who are in the middle are tending to leave. They’re tending to retire.”
Collins, who is the head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that she is the only Republican in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives from the six New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. This is a big change from when she joined the Senate in 1997, when the region was more bipartisan.
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Collins said, “I think that was much healthier. It was a much less polarized era, and it’s important to have voices of people who want to solve problems. I’m not one who tends to rant and rave on certain news shows. Instead, I like to bring people together to search for common ground.”
“What we need in this country is for those that are in the center to be as riled up and involved as those on the far left and the far right,” Collins said. “It is hard to get things done.”
The race will be closely watched.
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Collins got some troubling news recently about her reelection in Maine.
Collins, who is considered the most centrist Republican in the Senate and has been popular in the state for a long time, has won tough races for Republicans in the past.
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Experts view the race as highly competitive ahead of the 2026 midterms, attracting significant investment from both major parties.
A new Cygnal survey released on Monday showed Collins behind a generic Democratic candidate. This suggested that extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies could help her win over Mainers. Politico was the first to report on the poll.
