2 candidates are on the ballot. Below is what each one says they stand for, what they have actually done in office or in public life, and the arguments published for and against them — each quoted from a named source rather than summarised by us.
2 candidates · ballot order · Susan M. Collins currently holds this seat
High confidenceHigh confidenceBacked by government records or the candidate's own official statements, with agreement across several independent sources.What would raise it: Nothing missing — this is the strongest evidence tier.
What they say they stand for
Their own words. Claims, not verified facts.
Her seniority and Appropriations Committee chairmanship as the mechanism for directing federal funding to Maine.
Bipartisan legislating and a willingness to break with her party — 'my experience, seniority and independence matter.'
Abortion legal up to fetal viability, with exceptions after that point for the health of the mother; she opposes late-term abortion otherwise.
Opposition to full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which she was the first Republican to come out against in 2017.
Case-by-case evaluation of executive nominees rather than automatic party support.
What they’ve actually done
Documented record from official sources.
U.S. Senator from Maine since January 1997; won five terms.
Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Has cast 200 decisive votes out of 10,076 total — votes where hers alone would have changed the outcome. 144 of those produced Republican-preferred results and 56 produced Democratic-preferred results, per a Bangor Daily News analysis.
Ranks seventh in the Senate in the rate at which her decisive votes break from her party.
Voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018; voted against confirming Amy Coney Barrett and Pete Hegseth.
Was the first Republican senator to announce opposition to attorney general nominee Todd Blanche.
Voted against the Women's Health Protection Act, which would have codified federal abortion protections.
Voted for S. 3386 in December 2025 and for the 2025 tax and spending law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Scored 18% from Reproductive Freedom for All for 2025, after high scores from that group in 2023 and 2024; graded D by SBA Pro-Life America for her current term.
Arguments in favor
Her seniority and chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee give a state of 1.4 million people influence over federal spending that a freshman senator could not have, and that is the practical case for keeping her.
— Susan Collins for Senator campaign
She has more party-breaking decisive votes than any other senator and ranks seventh in the rate at which she defects — she was first in her party against the 2017 Affordable Care Act repeal and first against nominee Todd Blanche.
— Collins campaign, citing the Bangor Daily News vote analysis
Maine voters do not vote a party line, and her record of occasionally clashing with President Trump while working across the aisle reflects the state's independent streak.
— Sen. Susan Collins, in an interview with Fox News
Arguments against
She has spent 30 years betraying Maine — stripping affordable health care, casting the decisive vote to confirm Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, and voting with Donald Trump 94% of the time.
— Maine Democratic Party
She only votes with Democrats when it does not matter: she cast no deciding votes against Trump nominees, compared with 19 that helped them, and her votes against Barrett and Hegseth came once it was clear they would pass anyway.
— Democratic critics quoted in the Bangor Daily News analysis
She voted for a bill adding new restrictions on abortion care and raising health costs, voted against codifying abortion protections, and backed eliminating federal funding for Planned Parenthood — a record extending well beyond the Kavanaugh vote.
— Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund, which has mounted a historic ad buy against her
What we couldn’t verify
Her position on the specific shipbuilding and defence questions affecting Bath Iron Works in this cycle could not be established.
Whether she will support the Republican leader in an organising vote, which determines Senate control regardless of her individual votes.
Her campaign's own website could not be retrieved directly; her stated positions here come from her Senate office, reporting and her public statements.
Lowering costs for working people — health care, housing, prescription drugs, child care and utility bills.
Protecting reproductive freedom.
Strengthening rural communities and keeping young people in Maine.
Banning out-of-state private equity firms and multi-state real estate conglomerates from buying single-family starter homes.
An increased lodging tax on out-of-state visitors and a luxury surcharge on vacation homes valued over $1 million.
Strengthening anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people.
What they’ve actually done
Documented record from official sources.
Maine State Senator, 2008–2014 and 2016–2024.
Maine Senate majority leader, then Senate President from 2018 to 2024.
As Senate President, pushed through measures on prescription drug prices, universal school meals, rural health care access and property tax relief.
Fifth-generation logger from Allagash; worked in the timber industry.
Won the July 25 2026 Democratic nominating convention with 566 votes to Sandra Pelletier's 5.
Voted for the 2013 Maine state budget of $6.3 billion as assistant Senate majority leader.
Has previously run for office as a Republican and as an independent before running as a Democrat.
Arguments in favor
He is a Mainer by birth and a logger by trade who has spent his public life taking on powerful interests, and as Senate President he delivered lower prescription drug prices, universal school meals and property tax relief.
— Maine Democratic Party
His affordability message — that ordinary Mainers are 'getting screwed' on costs — speaks directly to working-class voters that Democrats have been losing.
— Troy Jackson for Senate campaign, as reported by the Washington Examiner
Maine Democrats consolidated behind him almost unanimously at the convention, 566 votes to 5, after a chaotic replacement process.
— Reporting by NPR and CNN on the July 25 convention
Arguments against
His agenda — Medicare for All, universal basic income, government-funded universal child care and free public college — would cost Mainers enormously, and his proposals were unpopular enough that Gov. Janet Mills vetoed some of them.
— National Republican Senatorial Committee
He is running on affordability after voting to raise taxes: he backed the $6.3 billion 2013 state budget that Republicans warned would raise middle-class taxes, and voted for energy legislation that added $234 million to ratepayer bills in 2025 alone.
— National Republican Senatorial Committee and Washington Examiner reporting
He is a political shapeshifter who ran first as a Republican, then an independent, then a Democrat, and he faces scrutiny over his son's lobbying work while he was Senate President and over an incident in which he threw a water bottle at a female fellow state senator.
— National Republican Senatorial Committee
What we couldn’t verify
Whether he actually supports Medicare for All and universal basic income in the form the NRSC describes; no direct statement from him on either could be located, and the characterisation comes from his opponents.
The substance and outcome of the water-bottle incident and the questions about his son's lobbying — these are asserted by the NRSC and were not verified against an independent account here.
His position on Maine's solar programme costs, which Maine Republicans raised against him on September 4 2026 and which his campaign has defended.
His campaign's own website could not be located separately from the Maine Democratic Party page.
Positions and criticism are quoted from the named sources, not our assessments. This is built to help you start getting informed — confirm the official candidate list with your election authority before you vote.
Roster established from ABC News, NPR, CNN, the Maine Morning Star and the Portland Press Herald, cross-checked. This contest had a late nominee change of exactly the kind that makes primary results unreliable on their own: Graham Platner won the June 9 2026 Democratic primary, then withdrew in July after allegations of sexual assault by a former girlfriend and other controversies. Maine Democrats chose former state Senate President Troy Jackson to replace him at a nominating convention in Bangor on July 25 2026, where he took 566 votes to Sandra Pelletier's 5. Susan Collins was unopposed for the Republican nomination. Sources differ on whether Gov. Janet Mills was still an active primary candidate on June 9 — Wikipedia says she suspended her campaign in April — and on Platner's exact withdrawal date (July 8 vs July 10); neither affects the general election field.
Only two names are printed on the November ballot: Collins and Jackson. Six write-in candidates qualified by the August 25 2026 deadline — Brent Andrews of York (unaffiliated), Sigrid Ann Olson of Cape Elizabeth (Democrat), Gina Oswald of Strong (independent), Joseph Steinberger of Rockland (Faith in Humanity), Michael Turcotte of Burnham (unenrolled) and Ashley Webb of Farmington (Democrat). Because qualified write-ins exist, this race will be counted using ranked-choice voting if no candidate exceeds 50% on election night. The write-in candidates are not listed as candidates below because they are not printed on the ballot and no substantive sourcing on any of them could be located.
This is one contest on a longer ballot
A Maine ballot also carries state legislative districts, county offices, judicial seats and often local questions — and which of them you vote on is decided by your street address, not your city or ZIP code.