February 18, 2026

Over the weekend, Maine Sen. Susan Collins made news by adding her name as the 50th Senate supporter of the SAVE America Act — a massive voter suppression bill being pushed by Donald Trump.

MAGA conservatives cheered her addition for two reasons. First, it means that if the bill comes to the Senate floor, Vice President JD Vance is positioned to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of passage. Equally important, they hoped her support signaled that the bill was moderate or reasonable.

I have never understood how Collins has managed to cultivate a reputation as a moderate. Whenever I hear her described as such, I think of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous letter from a Birmingham Jail, in which he admitted to having been "gravely disappointed with the white moderate." As he explained, "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."

According to a recent scorecard, Collins has voted with Trump 96% of the time — the same rate as Mitch McConnell and two points above conservative Rand Paul. This is hardly the profile of someone looking to chart her own path.

In fact, when it comes to free and fair elections, Collins is as conservative and anti-voting rights as they come. Not only is she supporting the SAVE Act, but during the Biden administration she opposed the For the People Act and the Joe Manchin compromise bill — the Freedom to Vote Act.

Perhaps more surprising to some, she also voted against the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. When asked why she opposed a bill to reauthorize and strengthen the Voting Rights Act, Collins claimed, among other things, that the bill was too long. That's right — a senator with a staff of dozens objected to a law that would restore minority voting rights because, at 700 pages, it was simply too long.

Yet in 2014, when a prior version of the same bill was fewer than 30 pages, she also voted against it. Perhaps the page count is not really what is driving her decisions.

When explaining her opposition to pro-voting legislation in 2021, Collins relied heavily on states' rights, arguing that legislation sponsored by Democrats "would force numerous changes to laws in states that have been successfully conducting elections for a very long time."

Yet that is exactly what the Save America Act does. It would require every state to change some aspect of its current voting laws, even though those states have been "successfully conducting elections for a very long time."

In 2021, Collins was particularly upset that new pro-voting laws would impact Maine, "a state that consistently ranks at or near the top of the nation in voter participation." Yet the Republican Party's latest anti-voting bill would trample Maine's current election laws.

For example, under Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who is now running against Collins, Maine expanded the right to vote, allowing students to use their college ID when registering to vote. In contrast, the Save America Act would categorically ban all college and university IDs from being used to vote, regardless of state law.

Ironically — or perhaps cynically — Collins earnestly assured her constituents in 2021 that "there are improvements that can be made in our election laws. For example, I support efforts to disclose 'dark money' in campaigns." Yet in 2010, when Democrats needed a single Republican vote in the Senate to pass the DISCLOSE Act, Collins was a hard no.

If you are sensing a pattern, you are right. Collins always has an excuse to vote against free and fair elections. It is the one issue on which she reliably proves she is in lockstep with the rest of her party.

Collins is happy to tout her support for the reauthorization of the VRA in 2006 — but she fails to mention that her vote was not needed. She was not bucking her party; she was joining it. The 2006 law passed 98-0.

Yes, in 2022 she supported the bipartisan reform of the Electoral Count Act. But again, this was a widely popular bill that passed with 68 Senate votes — a virtual landslide by today's standards.

When it comes to voting rights, Collins only goes out on a limb to support Republican efforts to restrict them. Only when Trump is threatening free and fair elections is she prepared to cast a tough vote — and she casts it in his favor.

Make no mistake: Collins did not have to be the 50th supporter of this voter suppression bill. Former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has still not said how he will vote. The fact that Collins felt compelled to prove she was tougher on voters than McConnell speaks volumes about where she truly stands on this issue.

Susan Collins knows exactly what she is doing. She is precisely the kind of so-called moderate that Martin Luther King Jr. warned us about. 

Just two weeks before her decision to support the SAVE America Act, Collins stood silently in the Oval Office clutching a red MAGA hat as Trump told lies about our elections and repeated his call for the federal government to take over vote counting in certain parts of the country. We know where she stands — and it's not with voters. 

Having watched their senator turn her back on democracy, Maine voters will have a chance this November to return the favor.

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