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Susan Collins loses her Senate seat after 30 years, defeated by former Maine logger Troy Jackson

The longest-serving Republican woman in Senate history conceded to Democrat Troy Jackson early Wednesday, ending a career that began in 1996 and outlasted virtually every political headwind Maine could throw at her. Until this one.

Susan Collins called Troy Jackson shortly after midnight to concede, and just like that, the longest Senate career ever held by a Republican woman was over. Collins, 73, first elected to the Senate from Maine in 1996, lost her bid for a sixth term on Tuesday night, beaten by Democratic challenger Jackson, 54% to 46%, with roughly 92% of votes counted, according to ABC News. The defeat ends a 30-year run in which Collins repeatedly did what no Republican senator in a blue-leaning state was supposed to be able to do: win, and win again.

This time she couldn't.

What the numbers say

With roughly 92% of expected votes counted, Jackson had pulled in approximately 365,838 votes against Collins' 316,197, a margin that left no meaningful path for a comeback. Total statewide turnout reached roughly 683,170 ballots cast, per NBC News. The race was called by the Associated Press in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

As of 1:03 a.m., Jackson had secured 53% of votes and Collins had 46.9% with 72% of votes counted, according to The Associated Press, and the gap never closed. Collins did not deliver a concession speech to supporters in Bangor. Instead, her campaign released a statement shortly after she called Jackson to concede: "It has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maine in the United States Senate. I'm proud of all I have been able to accomplish for our state and for our country in the past 30 years."

Collins also said: "I called Troy Jackson tonight to congratulate him and to assure him that my staff and I will work to ensure a smooth transition," according to WGME.

Who Susan Collins was, and what she built

Susan Margaret Collins, born December 7, 1952, in Caribou, Maine, is the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate and Maine's longest-serving member of Congress. She won her first Senate race in 1996 and never lost a federal election until last night. Her last defeat before Tuesday came in a run for governor back in 1994.

Collins long won over Maine, which has voted for a Democrat for president in every election since 1992, by positioning herself as a compromise-minded moderate willing to buck her own party, including by supporting abortion rights. That brand sustained her through five national wave elections, in both directions.

Her most recent victory, in 2020, came by 8.6 points, defying polls that showed her trailing Democrat Sara Gideon in one of the cycle's most watched races, becoming the most expensive Senate race in Maine history at the time. She won by 8.6 percentage points while Joe Biden carried Maine by approximately 9 points, making her one of the most remarkable split-ticket performers in modern Senate history.

In 2021, Collins became the longest-serving Republican female senator in history, surpassing Margaret Chase Smith, who held the same Senate seat. She chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful positions in Congress, and used it to direct federal money to Maine's rural hospitals, military installations, and fishing communities. She had campaigned heavily on her leadership role on the Senate Appropriations Committee and her ability to secure billions of dollars in federal funding for communities across Maine.

The race that undid her

The 2026 Maine Senate contest was arguably the most dramatic of the entire midterm cycle, and not just because of who was running. It blew up twice before Election Day even arrived.

The Platner chaos

Several Maine Democrats, including Jackson, initially opted to run for governor rather than challenge Collins for Senate, clearing the way for the nomination of Graham Platner, a military veteran, oyster farmer and political newcomer. Platner won the June 9 primary and appeared set to face Collins in the fall.

Then it collapsed. The announcement by Platner came after a woman he dated accused him of sexual assault in 2021, causing his support to hemorrhage even among top Democratic allies, who rescinded their endorsements and called on him to drop out. Senator Elizabeth Warren said there "can be no tolerance for sexual assault," and Representative Ro Khanna called the allegation "serious and credible." Platner officially dropped out of the race July 10, following the rape allegations from a former romantic partner that he denies.

With Platner's exit, the Maine Democratic Party had until July 27 to name a replacement. They turned to Jackson, who had just lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary. He had roughly 100 days to introduce himself to the broader Maine electorate.

Enter Troy Jackson

Jackson, 58, a fifth-generation logger and former president of the state Senate, had a little more than 100 days to sell himself to Maine voters after he replaced Graham Platner as the party's nominee in July. He won a hastily convened nominating convention and began barnstorming the state, focusing heavily on economic issues such as the high costs of housing and healthcare. As a former campaign surrogate of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, he was known to many progressives in the state but lacked the widespread name recognition of Collins.

Troy Dale Jackson was born June 26, 1968, in Fort Kent, Maine. He made a working-class pitch as a former logger from northern Maine, and he was the first challenger from Collins' home county to take her on. Both Collins and Jackson hail from Aroostook County, a remote area of the state. He served in the Maine House starting in 2002 before moving to the state Senate in 2008. Jackson was elected president of the Maine Senate in 2018 and was re-elected to that position in December 2020.

Jackson staked out liberal positions, including support for "Medicare for All" and abolishing ICE. Republicans tried to use those positions against him. They cast him as a career politician who raised taxes. It didn't stick.

The issues that moved Maine voters

Kavanaugh and abortion

Collins had long defined herself as a pro-choice Republican, but that identity cracked open in 2018 when she provided the decisive vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Democrats and abortion rights groups attacked her vote for Kavanaugh, who was part of the conservative majority that voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Collins voted for Kavanaugh in 2018 after he assured her that he believed Roe was settled law; she has said she doesn't regret her vote.

The group Affordable Maine, with ties to a major Democratic super PAC, launched a $2.5 million ad campaign hitting Collins on her vote for Kavanaugh and other Trump-nominated judges. In March, Senate Majority PAC's own polling found that going after Collins on abortion, framing her as the deciding vote for the justices who overturned Roe, was the second-strongest issue to get traction with registered Democrats, behind healthcare and Medicaid cuts.

Medicaid and the 'Big Beautiful Bill'

Collins opposed Trump's 2025 tax-and-spending bill, warning that its Medicaid reductions could endanger rural hospitals. That vote against the bill was one she touted repeatedly on the trail. Democrats conceded the no vote but kept pointing to something else: the tax-and-spending bill slashed Medicaid and also barred reproductive health providers from billing the insurance program for non-abortion health services. Collins voted against that bill but did vote yes on a key procedural measure that allowed it to come to the Senate floor.

That procedural vote gave Democrats the attack line they needed: she opposed the final product but helped bring it to the floor. It was a nuance that proved costly.

The Iran war

Maine voters also held the U.S. war with Iran against her. Collins set aside concerns about the legality of the military conflict with Iran during a budget hearing on the Trump administration's request for $33 billion in additional funding for the war. Collins chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has massive sway over federal spending. She said she agrees with the administration's goal of ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon, but she also voted in support of war powers resolutions that would require Trump to get congressional approval to continue his military campaign.

A New York Times/Press Herald/Siena poll found that likely Maine voters disapprove of Trump's handling of the Iran war by a 2-to-1 margin. Public support for the Iran war was wavering, and Democrats tried to turn Collins' posture toward it into a political liability.

Trump's approval numbers

Jackson defeated Collins by taking advantage of President Donald Trump's deep unpopularity in Maine, dislodging an incumbent who had survived tough challenges in the past, according to the Associated Press. Jackson and his allies worked to tie Collins to Trump, who has never won Maine, amid his sinking approval ratings.

In Maine, the central referendum on Trump got complicated: Collins voted to convict Trump after January 6, yet remained a Republican senator whose party controls the White House. That tension defined her entire closing argument. She called herself an independent check on the administration. Jackson said the check never cleared.

What Collins argued, and why it fell short

While Collins pitched herself as a needed independent voice in the Senate, she also touted her work as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, a key leadership position that she argued has helped her bring more federal funds to Maine.

Voters at Jackson's watch party pushed back on that directly. Nina Scott of Kennebunkport said she doesn't think Maine will lose much "by losing Susan Collins' 'advantage' in the Senate on appropriations."

Collins had campaigned on her ability to bring federal earmarks to Maine and tried to distance herself from an increasingly unpopular President Donald Trump. Neither argument proved sufficient. Collins had spent three decades persuading Maine voters to distinguish between a Republican senator and the Republican Party. In 2026, with Trump's Iran war ongoing and Medicaid in the crosshairs, they stopped making that distinction.

Who replaces her and what it means for the Senate

The results bring Collins' nearly 30-year tenure in Congress to a close and make Jackson the first Democrat to represent Maine in the Senate since 1995, according to NPR.

Jackson will assume office January 3, 2027, succeeding Collins. He ran on a platform that included federally codifying the right to abortion, with an endorsement from Planned Parenthood, and strengthening anti-discrimination laws to protect LGBTQ citizens.

Democrats viewed the race between Collins and Jackson as critical to their chances of winning back the U.S. Senate. With Democrats projected to gain control of the Senate with 54 seats nationally, according to ABC News projections, Maine was one piece of a larger midterm sweep. Collins losing her Appropriations Committee chairmanship is a concrete consequence: that gavel goes with the majority.

Maine, with just 1.5 million residents, was on track to become the most expensive Senate race per capita in the country this cycle, according to Axios. The money poured in from both parties for months, a testament to how much each side understood the seat could tip the balance of power.

A race that was never clean

Even after Platner's exit, the campaign stayed messy. In the wake of Platner's ouster, Collins and Republicans hammered Jackson on past reports of his own hot temper in exchanges with women, which drew pushback from several of his past women colleagues. Jackson survived that line of attack and kept the race focused on healthcare costs, the war, and the economy in rural northern Maine.

While Jackson is a staunch progressive today, he has evolved since he entered politics more than two decades ago. Representing a rural area of the state, he held some conservative positions, particularly on abortion, earlier in his career. Republicans tried to weaponize that evolution. It didn't land with enough voters.

Democrats had not won a Senate election in Maine since 1988, making this the party's first Senate victory in the state in 38 years, according to Wikipedia's race tracking.

Collins' legacy

Whatever one's politics, the Collins record is long enough to pick through for years. She was the decisive vote on Kavanaugh. She voted to convict Trump after January 6. She voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill. She chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee through one of the most contentious budget periods in modern history. She supported the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Electoral Count Reform Act, and gun safety legislation that passed in 2022.

Collins, first elected in 1996 and the longest-serving Republican woman senator, conceded Tuesday night to her Democratic opponent Troy Jackson, per the 19th News. She was seeking her sixth term, which would have made her the longest-serving senator in Maine history. She won't get there now.

Jackson will be in Washington come January. His first vote in the Senate will come with Democrats holding the majority, the Appropriations Committee chairmanship gone from Maine's hands, and a new political reality in the state he will represent for at least the next six years. He plans to get to work on housing costs and healthcare, the same two issues he barnstormed on during his 100-day sprint across a state he's lived in his entire life.

His hometown of Allagash sits about 20 miles from the Canadian border, in the same Aroostook County that produced the senator he just unseated.

Sources

Rodriquez Wright II
Written by

Rodriquez Wright II is founder and editor-in-chief of Washington DC Magazine and founder of Leo Operations. Photographer, filmmaker, strategist and recording artist. NABJ member.

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