Democrat Troy Jackson ousted five term Republican Senator Susan Collins in Maine, a moderate in a blue state whom Democrats had nevertheless fallen short of defeating several times, according to reporting on Wednesday. Collins had built a career on a reputation for independence, bipartisanship and a willingness to break with her party on high profile votes, and that reputation had protected her through elections that other Republicans in blue states lost. On Tuesday, it was not enough.
Why it matters
The result is best understood as a combination of national mood and local fatigue. Nationally, voters delivered a historic Democratic wave, rebuking President Donald Trump and rejecting candidates he had propped up in key races. Locally, even a well known incumbent faces a ceiling when the electorate wants change more than it wants experience. Collins moderation, once an asset, may have become a liability in a year when Democratic voters wanted a senator who would oppose the administration more forcefully, and when Republican voters had less reason to cross over.
Maine politics also rewards a particular kind of candidate: independent minded, rooted in local communities and comfortable with retail campaigning in small towns as well as cities. Jackson campaign evidently met that test, and it benefited from a national environment in which Democratic enthusiasm was high and Republican turnout was not enough to compensate. The flip, counted among seven Republican held seats Democrats took, helped deliver the Senate majority, which gives Maine result a national significance beyond one state.
What happens next
For the Senate, losing Collins removes a distinctive voice. She was one of the few Republicans who regularly negotiated bipartisan deals, and her absence will change how the chamber works, even as the majority changes hands. Bipartisanship does not depend on one person, but it does depend on members who are willing to pay a political price for it, and Collins had repeatedly shown that willingness. Her departure is therefore a loss for a style of legislating, whatever one thinks of her votes.
For Maine voters, the question now is what Jackson does with the seat. He arrives with expectations from a Democratic base that wants firm opposition to the White House, and from a state electorate that still values independence. Balancing those pressures will define his first term, and it will test whether Tuesday was a vote for a new senator, or a vote against an old order that had simply run its course.
