US senator Susan Collins didn’t vote for her fellow Republican Donald Trump for president in 2016 or 2020 – and the third time is not going to be the attraction.
The longtime reasonable conservative from Maine instructed reporters on Friday that she supposed to put in writing in former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s identify on the poll in November. The transfer recollects 2016, when Collins mentioned she wrote in then-US Home speaker Paul Ryan for president over Trump, who received the White Home earlier than shedding to Democratic rival Joe Biden in 2020.
Collins is the one New England Republican in Congress and the one Republican holding statewide workplace in Maine, the place Trump has twice received an electoral vote. She mentioned Friday that she is sticking together with her endorsement of Haley regardless of the very fact Haley is not going to be on the poll.
“I publicly endorsed Nikki Haley, and I needed her to win. She’s nonetheless my favourite candidate, and I feel she may do a fantastic job. She’s my selection, and that’s how I’m going to precise it,” Collins instructed WMTW-TV.
Collins made the remarks in regards to the election at an occasion in Limerick, about 34 miles west of Portland, the place she was talking at a ribbon-cutting for a brand new hearth and emergency medical companies station.
After the occasion, Collins spokesperson Annie Clark mentioned the senator “has mentioned this earlier than”, together with throughout a June tv look.
Throughout that look, on Spectrum Information, Collins mentioned she “doesn’t help the Democratic nominee both” and helps “a few of … Trump’s insurance policies”.
Nevertheless, she additionally mentioned Trump’s fashion is “divisive at a time when our nation is already so polarized”.
Collins was additionally considered one of seven Republicans who voted at an impeachment trial to convict Trump of inciting an riot after his supporters attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Collins was elected to the Senate in 1996. She is the longest-serving Republican girl within the Senate, is commonly a key vote and is legendary for not lacking votes.
Collins is just not on the poll in 2024 and was most not too long ago reelected in 2020, when she defeated Democratic challenger Sara Gideon.
She represents a state the place Trump has twice misplaced the statewide vote – however he picked up one electoral vote as a result of Maine is considered one of two states to apportion electoral votes by district.
Trump has many followers in rural Maine, which makes up a lot of the second congressional district.
Supply hyperlink
