Republican Sen. Susan Collins has her Democratic challenger for one of the marquee Senate races of the 2020 election cycle.
Democratic Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, 48, easily won her party’s nomination for the right to take on the fourth-term incumbent, 67, in November.
Gideon, running on centrist healthcare and environmental policies, was the three-way contest’s overwhelming favorite and was endorsed by the Senate Democrat’s campaign aim last June. Her opponents Betsy Sweet, a lobbyist, and Bre Kidman, an attorney, had more liberal platforms, including supporting “Medicare for all” and the “Green New Deal.”
Despite approaching the primary like it was the general election, Gideon will embark on the fall fight with the added boost of $3.7 million crowdsourced by activists angry at Collins over her 2018 vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. As of last month, the Democrat already had about $5.5 million cash in the bank, compared to the Republican’s $5 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
But Gideon’s bid hasn’t been without its bungles. Her team erased a Patagonia logo from a jacket she wore in a video given she’s from Freeport, Maine, home to intense, California-based Patagonia rival L.L. Bean. Her husband’s law firm has created problems as well, accepting a Paycheck Protection Program loan of between $1 million and $2 million in April and soliciting coronavirus lawsuits against veteran retirement homes she declined to fund.
The race is expected to be one of the season’s most competitive. Gideon leads Collins by an average 2.5 percentage points, and the Cook Political Report rates the state as a “toss up.” Only six years ago, the sitting senator sailed to victory by 37 percentage points over 2014 Democratic candidate Shenna Bellows, former executive director of Maine’s American Civil Liberties Union.
Senate Democrats only need to gain three to four seats on Nov. 3 to control the chamber during the next Congress. That number depends on whether presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden also wins the White House.
