Vice President JD Vance offered a vote of confidence Thursday for Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who voted to convict President Donald Trump at his 2021 impeachment trial and faces a tough re-election fight this year in Maine.
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“Sometimes I get frustrated with Susan Collins,” Vance said during a speech in Bangor, Maine. “I almost wish that she was more partisan. But the thing I love about Susan is she is independent, because Maine is an independent state. And, frankly, if she was as partisan as I sometimes wish that she was, she would not be a good fit for the people of Maine.”
He added: “So let’s give a shout out to Susan Collins, who’s doing a great job.”
Collins was not in the audience for the vice president’s remarks at an airport hangar. Vance, a former senator who referred to Collins as his “friend,” said she was in Washington, D.C., for votes.
Maine is one of the top battlegrounds for control of the Senate this fall, with Collins among the most vulnerable Republicans seeking a new term. Her independent streak and occasional concerns about Trump are well-documented and underscored by her being one of only seven GOP senators to vote to convict the president on a charge that he incited the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Though Collins breaks with Trump more often than other Republican, she still votes in line with his agenda roughly 95% of the time.
Collins will face the winner of next month’s Democratic Senate primary, with oyster farmer Graham Platner the front-runner after Gov. Janet Mills ended her campaign last month.
Vance’s visit — on the surface an event to promote the anti-fraud investigations that Trump has asked him to oversee — was loaded with political subtext beyond the kind words for Collins. Vance was greeted at the airport by former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who is running to flip a Democratic-held House seat.
“Paul is a great guy, a guy who loves the state of Maine,” Vance said. “We’re going to talk a little bit about how he was the biggest advocate for your tax dollars and the biggest threat to fraudsters that ever existed in the state of Maine.”
Fraud, Vance asserted, “has festered in Maine because this guy is no longer the governor of Maine, so we’re going to send him to Washington and fight fraud at the federal level.”
LePage is unopposed for the GOP nomination in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, where Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is not seeking re-election. Four Democrats, including state Sen. Joe Baldacci, state Auditor Matthew Dunlap and former Senate candidate Jordan Wood, are competing for their party’s nomination for the seat in next month’s primary.
Vance has vowed to uncover and punish fraudsters in states across the country since Trump tapped him to lead the effort. On Wednesday, the vice president announced that the administration is withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California. Vance also threatened to suspend federal funding to all states if they don’t aggressively prosecute fraud in their Medicaid programs.
On Thursday, Vance had harsh words for Mills, but he said he is willing to collaborate with her on combating fraud in the state.
“I know you all don’t like Janet Mills,” Vance said. “I don’t especially care for her, either, but I would love to work with the governor of Maine to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated in this state. This should not be a red state or a blue state issue.”
