Susan Collins on her high-wire act in Trump’s GOP | On the Road

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**Susan Collins** (0:30)
Canada is our friend, our closest ally, and our biggest trading partner. This is not China that we're talking about. This is not an adversarial country.
And that our economies are so linked, that if you try to hurt one, you end up hurting me.

**Jonathan Martin** (0:56)
Hey, folks, this is Jonathan Martin coming at you On the Road from Surrey, Maine. We got a lobster boat just coming in. We're at an iconic lobster pound here, Perry's Lobster Shack. The lobster rolls are fresh. Everybody's sharing steamers. And DC feels a long way away. But politics is never far off these days, and especially not here in Maine. Can Democrats, after 30 years, finally claim their elusive white whale by defeating Susan Collins, who has proved to be a survivor politically, defying the tribalism and polarization of our times? But in the Trump era, everything is nationalized. And can she survive a deeply unpopular president?
So, on the dock here at Perry's, we're going to talk about her role in the Senate, the unusual nature of this year's campaign here in Maine, and what happened to the political center and moderates like her.
Senator Collins.

**Susan Collins** (1:56)
How are you, Jonathan? Good to see you. Nice to see you.

**Jonathan Martin** (1:59)
Thanks for joining me. Glad to. On your home turf.

**Susan Collins** (2:02)
Thank you. Thanks for coming.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:05)
This is a treat. You couldn't have ordered up a better day.

**Susan Collins** (2:08)
Surrey is beautiful, as you can see. And very unusual, it has a beach.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:14)
So nice.

**Susan Collins** (2:15)
Much of Maine doesn't have our beautiful rocky coast, but it has a boat.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:22)
Are we in down east Maine here, or are we in mid coast, or are we somewhere in between?

**Susan Collins** (2:27)
You're somewhere in between, more towards down east Maine. Down east Maine is Hancock and Washington counties. You are in Hancock County.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:38)
Technically.

**Susan Collins** (2:38)
Yes.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:39)
We're looking across the water here at iconic view of Acadia National Park.

**Susan Collins** (2:44)
Exactly.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:45)
Mount Desert Island.

**Susan Collins** (2:47)
The most beautiful place in the world.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:49)
You're already selling. I love it.
You're up for reelection once again. Once again, the Democrats are trying to defeat you. They don't quit, do they?

**Susan Collins** (2:57)
They just keep coming after you. It's so ironic because year after year, I'm named as the most bipartisan member of the Senate, and yet I'm always Chuck Schumer's number one target.

**Jonathan Martin** (3:10)
Have you ever told him that, by the way? Chuck, you know the rankings have me as the most bipartisan?

**Susan Collins** (3:15)
I believe I did after the 2020 election.

**Jonathan Martin** (3:18)
Didn't take.

**Susan Collins** (3:19)
No, I didn't.

**Jonathan Martin** (3:20)
He's still coming after you. But the challenge you have here is the classic political challenge of our time, which is that you're trying to emphasize what you've done for the state, and your opponents are trying to focus on the national environment and national politics.
In some ways, this campaign is kind of a political science test. Can local appeals, can traditional factors like incumbency and delivering for a state, obviously you're the chair of the Appropriations Committee. Does that still matter in this era where we're all living on our phones and everything is tribal? I guess that's really the challenge for you, isn't it?

**Susan Collins** (3:55)
It certainly matters in a state like Maine with the population of 1.3 million people, and with a lot of small towns, with a low-income population.
Just this morning, I was in Conduske where I was helping to sign the trust, the wooden trust for a new library. The previous library was in a building that dated back to the 1800s and did not have plumbing. It did not have running water. So when I'm able to secure a million dollars toward the cost of a brand new library for the town of Conduske, you bet it matters.

**Jonathan Martin** (4:46)
But obviously, the challenge you have is trying to get folks away from the daily barrage of news alerts, push alerts, tweets, everything on social media, to focus on the local when politics has become totally nationalized. And your party sent JD Vance up here. I saw in the Bangor Daily News that had Vance come in. The second paragraph, it says that you apparently had a scheduling conflict here. You were somewhere else in the state.