PORTLAND, Maine —
Sen. Susan Collins and Senator-Elect Troy Jackson are in Washington this week, but for very different reasons. Collins, resuming work after Election Day, and Jackson, attending orientation after unseating the 30-year senator last Tuesday.
Collins’ longtime chief of staff and campaign manager, Steve Abbott, along with the rest of the team, are winding down after their efforts to get the longtime senator elected for a sixth term.
In a sit-down interview with Maine’s Total Coverage, Abbott says Maine passed up the opportunity to have a senator with high power serve again. He adds six more years of Collins’ service would have been good for the state.
“This was a chance to get ahead,” Abbott said. “It’s just, you know, sad that we walked away from that.”
It’s been a week since Jackson unseated Sen. Collins. The senator lost Bangor, Augusta, Lewiston and Auburn, which are all areas she won back during her re-election in 2020.
Maine was one of many states that flipped seats in the midterm elections.
“She knew full well what she was getting herself into,” Abbott said. “She knew that midterm of a of a Trump presidency was going to be brutally tough for Republicans, but she just thought it was too important for Maine to give that up.”
Although Abbott said he has no regrets about this campaign, he says they were up against unpopular federal policies like tariffs and ICE operations. He says the main component that hurt the campaign was the rising cost of gas and heating oil. Despite the senator’s efforts, Abbott said the prices weren’t budging.
“Global forces much bigger than that were in control,” Abbott said. “That was a real challenge for us.
Collins will leave Washington with three decades of service. Abbott said he hasn’t talked to Collins about whether or not she will aim for federal office again in the future, such as another Senate seat or presidential run, and he adds no paperwork has been filed.
“I do not see that as a likely scenario,” Abbott said.