Republican senator Susan Collins won a tough reelection campaign in Maine, beating out well-funded Democratic rival Sara Gideon on Tuesday.
Gideon called Collins to concede on Wednesday afternoon after the Republican took a 51-42 lead with 85 percent of precincts reporting. The AP has yet to declare a winner in the race, but Collins holds a comfortable lead even as Democrat Joe Biden won the state 52-44. The Republican victory in a Senate race that pollsters saw as favorable for Democrats has thrown cold water on Democratic ambitions to secure control of the upper chamber.
Democrats attacked Collins’s decision to vote in favor of confirming Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, using the vote to solicit support from liberal megadonors. The strategy worked to an extent, helping Gideon bring in nearly $70 million this cycle, more than double the money Collins raised. Gideon’s campaign, however, faced repeated allegations that the candidate broke campaign finance rules and struggled to explain compromising votes from her divisive four-year tenure as the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. – READ MORE
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