The political positions of Susan Collins are reflected by her United States Senate voting record, public speeches, and interviews. Susan Collins is a Republican senator from Maine who has served since 1997. Collins is a self-described "moderate Republican". She has occasionally been referred to as a "liberal Republican" relative to her colleagues. In 2013, the National Journal gave Collins a score of 55% conservative and 45% liberal.
The New York Times arranged Republican Senators in 2017 based on ideology and ranked Senator Collins as the most liberal Republican. According to GovTrack, Senator Collins is the most moderate Republican in the Senate; GovTrack's analysis places her to the left of every Republican and four Democrats in 2017. Another website, OnTheIssues.org, labels Collins a "Moderate Libertarian Liberal". It also gives politicians a "social score" and an "economic score". Her social score is 60%, with 0% being the most conservative and 100% being the most liberal. Additionally, Collins's economic score is 53%, with 0% being the most liberal and 100% being the most conservative. The American Conservative Union (ACU) gives her a lifetime rating of 46.03% conservative. In 2016, they gave Collins a score of 23%. The Americans for Democratic Action gives her a rating of 45% liberal. In 2015, the ADA gave her a score of 30%.
According to CQ Roll Call, Collins sided with President Obama's position 75.9% of the time in 2013, one of only two Republicans to vote with him more than 70% of the time. FiveThirtyEight, which tracks Congressional votes, found that Collins voted with President Trump's positions about 67% of the time as of November, 2020. Nonetheless, she has voted with the GOP majority on party-line votes with much greater frequency during the Trump presidency than during the Obama presidency. During the Biden presidency, as of February 2022, FiveThirtyEight found that she has voted with Biden's positions approximately 75.6% of the time.
Bipartisanship and moderate Republicanism
Susan Collins has been considered by some groups and organizations to be a relatively bipartisan member of Congress. In 2018, Collins was considered the most bipartisan senator for the fifth consecutive year by the Lugar Center, an organization founded by former Republican Senate colleague Richard Lugar. A study published by Congressional Quarterly found that Collins voted with her party on party-line votes 59% of the time between 1997 and 2016; currently, she is the Republican senator most likely to vote with Democrats. Her perceived bipartisanship is largely due to her roots as a Northeastern Republican. With regard to judicial nominees, however, Collins has voted with the GOP majority nearly 99% of the time over the last 22 years. However, she also voted to confirm Democratic Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Her office also noted that she has voted to confirm both Democratic and Republican judicial nominees 90% of the time during her tenure.
In 2014, her Senate colleague, Angus King, an Independent who caucuses with the Democratic Party, endorsed her for her re-election campaign. In 2019, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin endorsed Susan Collins for her 2020 re-election bid. She was also endorsed in 2020 by former Independent Senator, and 2000 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Joe Lieberman. This bipartisanship and centrism has attracted some criticism from the conservative faction of the GOP. The conservative magazine, Human Events, considered her to be one of the top ten RINOs, or what they label insufficiently conservative, in 2005. Her highest conservative composite score from the National Journal was a 62% in 2009, while her highest liberal composite score was a 52.8% in 2006. The Tea Party threatened to challenge Collins over some of her votes. Collins "who is fiscally conservative but holds socially moderate views, plays a unique role in the current Republican drama at a time when a strong Tea Party faction has pushed the GOP — and its leadership — to the right." She was the subject of negative criticism from movement conservatives for her vote against repealing Obamacare.
Donald Trump
On August 8, 2016, Collins announced that she would not be voting for Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the 2016 election. She said that as a lifelong Republican she did not make the decision lightly but felt that he was unsuitable for office, "based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics." She considered voting for the Libertarian Party's ticket or a write-in candidate. During the Trump presidency, Collins voted with the GOP majority with much greater frequency (87% of the time on party-line votes in 2017).
Collins endorsed Nikki Haley over front-runner and former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries. On July 12, 2024, just three days before the Republican National Convention, Collins announced that she would not be voting for either nominee in the 2024 election and would instead write in Nikki Haley.
Firing of FBI Director James Comey Collins supported Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.
Travel ban On January 28, 2017, Collins joined five other Republicans to oppose President Donald Trump's temporary ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries saying it was "overly broad and implementing it will be immediately problematic." She said, for example, that "it could interfere with the immigration of Iraqis who worked for American forces in Iraq as translators and bodyguards — people who literally saved the lives of our troops and diplomats during the last decade and whose lives are at risk if they remain in Iraq." She also objected to the religious aspects of the ban, saying, "As I stated last summer, religious tests serve no useful purpose in the immigration process and run contrary to our American values."
Investigations Collins stated in February 2017 that she was open to subpoena President Trump's tax returns as part of an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. She also said that she was open to public and secret hearings into Michael T. Flynn's covert communications with Russian officials.
In July 2017, after President Trump said it would be a violation for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate the finances of both him and his family not related to the probe, Collins commented, "I understand how difficult and frustrating this investigation is for the president, but he should not say anything further about the special counsel, his staff or the investigation."
In October 2017, Collins stated her support for the Senate Intelligence Committee calling back Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz after it was revealed that the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid for an opposition research dossier on Trump. Podesta and Schultz had earlier denied knowledge of any payment under the committee's questioning.
In a January 2018 interview, Collins stated her openness to legislation protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller from being fired after reports surfaced that President Trump considered doing so the previous June, and she affirmed her confidence in United States Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: "It probably wouldn't hurt for us to pass one of those bills. There are some constitutional issues with those bills, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to put that extra safeguard in place given the latest stories, but again, I have faith in the deputy attorney general." She added that Rosenstein being fired would be a mistake and compared the scenario to that of the Saturday Night Massacre.
In November 2018, Collins expressed concern over comments made by Acting Attorney General of the United States Matthew Whitaker and supported the idea of the Senate bringing up "legislation that would put restrictions on the ability of President Donald Trump to fire the special counsel", stating that the bill being debated and passed in the Senate would "send a powerful message that Mr. Mueller must be able to complete his work unimpeded."
Impeachment inquiry Senator Collins made several comments related to the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump and the White House's statements regarding the inquiry. She emphasized multiple times that it would be inappropriate for her to come to any conclusions prior to evidence being presented in the Senate, due to her potential duty as a juror in such an event. When answering a question about the transcript of the July 25, 2019 telephone conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy where the resumption of a closed Ukrainian investigation into Hunter Biden was discussed, she said that it “raises a number of important questions.” She followed up this statement with the comment, “If there are articles of impeachment I would be a juror, and as a juror I think it’s inappropriate for me to reach conclusions about evidence or to comment on the proceedings in the House.”
On October 5, 2019, when reacting to Trump's comments about China becoming involved in investigating his political opponents Collins stated, “I thought the president made a big mistake by asking China to get involved in investigating a political opponent.” Collins went on to state, “It’s completely inappropriate.” Collins said she hoped the impeachment process would “be done with the seriousness that any impeachment proceeding deserves” and repeated the point about her being a juror in the event of an impeachment trial, “Should the articles of impeachment come to the Senate — and right now I’m going to guess that they will — I will be acting as a juror as I did in the Clinton impeachment trial.” During the same interview, Collins stated she was concerned that comments made by Representative Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, “misrepresented and misled people about what was in the transcript in the call,” referring to the July 25, 2019 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
When reacting to comments made by Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney about the Trump administration's connecting the release of military aid to Ukraine and the resumption of an investigation into Hunter Biden Collins stated, "I was surprised that the president's chief of staff made that comment." She went on to state, "He then appeared to walk it back a few hours later. It shows why it's important to look at all the evidence in an objective way, and that's what I have pledged to do if articles of impeachment reach the Senate, which I suspect they will."
Senate trial Senator Collins voted with her party on most initial motions with the 53-47 votes falling along party caucus lines. On January 22, 2020, Collins was the first Republican to break from the GOP, voting with Democrats on a motion to increase the time allotted for responses.
Foreign policy and terrorism