The Story:
Republican incumbent Susan Collins is clearly behind in her race for re-election against the Democratic party’s nominee for her US Senate seat, Sara Gideon. The Bangor Daily News polls shows Gideon leading by only 1 point. But that is an outlier, most polls has consistently shown Gideon with a larger lead.
Background:
In addition to the two major party candidates, the 2020 Senatorial race in Maine features two independent candidates, Max Linn and Lisa Savage. There is a nice symmetry between the independents. Linn is a Trump supporter who doesn’t believe that Collins is sufficiently loyal to the Trump/conservative view. Savage is a Green Party member who doesn’t believe that Gideon is sufficiently anti-Trump.
The Thing to Know:
Collins has a moderate reputation. She has supported federal subsidies for renewable energy development and she takes a pro-choice view of abortion. But in the view of much of the Maine electorate, she is not adequately independent of President Trump. For example, she voted to confirm Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court in October 2018. This has been fuel for her opponents (except for Linn, whom it may to an extent mollify).
