A political earthquake hit Maine’s Senate race this week when former Senator Joe Manchin threw his weight behind Republican incumbent Susan Collins.
Manchin made the announcement during a CNBC appearance on Monday, delivering an unusually personal tribute to his former colleague.
The West Virginia native spent over a decade representing his home state in the Senate, serving from November 2010 through January 2025.
He entered the chamber as a Democrat but shifted to independent status during his last year in Washington.
Speaking on national television, Manchin didn’t hold back his admiration for Collins. He called her “the soul of the Senate,” a phrase that quickly spread across political circles.
Pressed to explain his reasoning, Manchin painted a picture of Collins as an indispensable dealmaker.
“You’re losing the soul of the Senate — basically, a person you can talk to, who wants to do the right thing all of the time,” he said.
Critics who accuse Collins of political passivity drew a sharp rebuke from Manchin.
He fired back, “Now, everybody says, ‘oh, she doesn’t do this, doesn’t speak up.’ Susan is always in there, always in the trenches.”
Collins’ campaign wasted no time capitalizing on the unexpected boost. A news release went out almost immediately, spotlighting Manchin’s comments for maximum visibility.
This endorsement slots neatly into a larger campaign narrative Collins has been building. Her team has consistently pitched her as a rare breed of politician willing to buck her own party when principle demands it.
Manchin’s Monday remarks build on a pattern rather than mark a sudden reversal. He offered nearly identical praise back in April and had already hinted he might hit the campaign trail for her.
Timing matters here. Collins is fighting to keep her seat as Democrats work overtime to paint her as a Trump loyalist.
That strategy comes as the president’s approval numbers slip nationally, a slide connected to escalating military friction between the United States and Iran.
Yet the record tells a more complicated story than the Democratic attack line suggests. Collins has repeatedly bucked Trump and Republican orthodoxy on consequential votes throughout her career.
Her most notable break came during Trump’s second impeachment trial, when she joined just six other Republican senators in voting to convict him.
That trial stemmed directly from the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, a moment that fractured the GOP and tested loyalty across the party.
Collins has leaned on her legislative track record to reinforce her bipartisan image, frequently citing her work alongside Manchin on the Electoral Count Reform Act.
This overhaul rewrote an 1887 law that had governed the certification of presidential election results for well over a century.
Among its key provisions, the reform explicitly limited the vice president’s certification role to a ceremonial function, closing a loophole that had fueled controversy.
Lawmakers also raised the bar for objecting to a state’s electoral votes, making it harder for a small faction to disrupt the certification process going forward.
The Collins-Manchin partnership didn’t start there.
Both senators belonged to the Common Sense Coalition, an informal bipartisan bloc that formed to find common ground during moments of legislative gridlock.
That coalition proved its worth during two separate government shutdowns, helping negotiate paths forward in both 2013 and 2018.
With the endorsement now public, Collins turns her focus to Election Day on November 3, where she’ll square off against Democrat Troy Jackson.
Jackson brings his own compelling résumé to the race, having previously led the Maine Senate as its president.
He also carries deep roots in the state’s logging industry, standing as a fifth-generation logger from Allagash.
National observers have flagged this contest as one of the cycle’s true toss-ups, and Democrats see it as perhaps their clearest shot at flipping a Republican-held seat.
The implications stretch far beyond Maine’s borders. Whichever candidate wins could tip the scales of Senate control for the back half of Trump’s second term.
