Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) plans to run for a sixth term in the Senate, buoying Republicans’ hopes of retaining her seat in 2026.
Collins would be one of the most vulnerable incumbents as Republicans navigate a less favorable Senate map next cycle. She could also face political headwinds with President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House.
Collins said her focus is on her work in the Senate. As the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, she will be tasked with brokering a deal on government funding before the Dec. 20 deadline.
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But she confirmed that she intends to run in two years, when Republicans will be attempting to hold on to a 53-seat majority in the Senate.
“It’s my plan,” she told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.
“I’m focused on the appropriations process, not elections right now, but my intention is to run,” she added.
Collins, a Republican centrist first elected to the Senate in 1996, comfortably defeated her 2020 opponent, Democrat Sara Gideon, despite a deluge of outside spending in her race. She won by a 9-point margin, securing 51% of the vote.
But Republicans are under no illusions about their prospects in Maine. Collins is the only Republican representing New England in the Senate, and her race would be among the most expensive in 2026.
Vice President Kamala Harris won the state by almost 7 points in November.
Elsewhere on the map, Republicans will have to defend Sen. Thom Tillis’s (R-NC) seat in North Carolina with the likelihood that Democrats will contest redder states like Texas. Trump helped carry Republicans to a Senate majority this cycle, but his presidency will be viewed as a liability two years from now, as it typically is for the party in power.
Few wanted the job of chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee given the headwinds in 2026, but Collins praised the selection of Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) as part of a leadership shuffle on Wednesday. He is known as an effective communicator who excels at raising cash.
“I’m delighted that he’s NRSC chair,” Collins told the Washington Examiner.
Collins’s win in 2020 was somewhat of a surprise. She consistently lagged Gideon, then the speaker of the Maine House, in public polling but secured a fifth term on the strength of her centrist image and long tenure in elected office.
She was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump following his second impeachment and has not voted for him in any of his three presidential runs.
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Next year, Collins is expected to chair the powerful Appropriations Committee under unified GOP control of Washington, but could end up ceding the Defense Subcommittee to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who will retire from leadership at the end of this year.
“I don’t know what is going to happen at the subcommittee level yet,” she said. “Obviously, Sen. McConnell is senior to me, but I am pretty confident that I’m going to be chair of the Appropriations Committee.”
