Vice President JD Vance used a Maine campaign stop to lavish praise on Sen. Susan Collins as a tireless advocate for her state, even though Collins skipped the event entirely, and even though she has repeatedly broken with the GOP on marquee votes this year.
Vance traveled to a manufacturing facility in Brewer, Maine, on Monday for an appearance meant to boost former Gov. Paul LePage's campaign for Maine's 2nd Congressional District. But before turning to LePage, the vice president spent his opening remarks on Collins, calling her "my dear friend" and "the most independent member of the United States Senate."
Collins was nowhere in the building. Her campaign spokesman, Blake Kernan, cited her personal schedule when the Washington Examiner asked about her absence, and touted Collins's working relationship with Vance. Collins herself made no public statement about the vice president's remarks or her decision not to attend.
The praise was striking given Collins's recent voting record. Earlier in August, she announced she would oppose the confirmation of Todd Blanche for attorney general. In April, she voted with Democrats to advance an Iran war powers resolution that would have withdrawn American forces from Iran, breaking with most Republican senators on a high-profile national-security question.
Vance acknowledged the friction head-on. He told the crowd he likes to "give Susan a little bit of crap" when he visits Maine, and conceded that Collins "sometimes makes my job just a little bit harder" in his role as president of the Senate.
Then he pivoted to a defense that sounded less like a party enforcer and more like a man who has decided the math favors patience. Vance said Collins makes his job harder not out of spite but because she shows up every day "fighting not for a political party or not for any abstraction", she fights "for the great people of Maine."
"She has been to my house probably a half dozen times, the vice president's residence at the Naval Observatory, and I've never seen a person who is more attuned to the details of every single thing."
Vance added that Collins is constantly asking what a given policy does for Maine, how it helps, how it hurts, and tries to extract "as much good for this state out of Washington and as little bad out of Washington for this state." He called it "a very hard job" and said she does "an amazing job," then asked the audience to applaud "our very independent friend Susan Collins."
That word, "independent", did a lot of work. It reframed a senator who has handed Democrats several high-profile wins as a principled local advocate rather than a disloyal Republican. Whether that framing holds with Maine voters, and with the national party base, is a different question.
The political backdrop explains Vance's generosity. Democrats need to flip four Senate seats to retake the chamber, and Collins's Maine seat is near the top of their target list. Her opponent is Democrat Troy Jackson, who entered the race after Graham Platner, once expected to be Collins's main challenger, exited following reports about controversial behavior with past girlfriends that suppressed support for his campaign.
President Trump endorsed Collins's reelection bid in June, back when Platner was still in the race. That endorsement came despite the fact that Trump has not always been happy with Collins's voting record. Still, the White House has not backed a primary challenger against her, a sign that the administration views holding her seat as more important than punishing her independence.
Vance has been building a visible public profile beyond the Senate chamber in recent months. Leaked audio from a private fundraiser showed him needling Canada's prime minister over trade posturing, and he has drawn attention in media appearances across the political spectrum.
This was not Vance's first trip to Maine this year. He visited the state in May to promote his anti-fraud task force's efforts against misuse of public funds. Collins skipped that event too, she was in Washington casting a vote. During that May visit, Vance told Just The News that he "almost wish[es] that she was more partisan" but said he loves that Collins "is independent because Maine is an independent state."
The pattern is clear: Vance praises Collins publicly, Collins keeps her distance physically, and both sides treat the arrangement as workable. Kernan, the Collins campaign spokesman, has emphasized the senator's productive working relationship with the vice president even as she continues to chart her own course on votes.
For Democrats, flipping Collins's seat is essential but far from sufficient. The party faces a harder task retaking the Senate than the House during this midterm cycle, and Collins, a four-decade fixture in Maine politics known for crossover appeal, remains a difficult target. Her willingness to break with her party on confirmation fights and foreign-policy votes gives her a bipartisan brand that few other Republican incumbents can claim.
That brand is exactly what Vance was reinforcing in Brewer. By calling Collins independent rather than disloyal, and by praising her attention to Maine-specific detail rather than demanding ideological conformity, the vice president offered a template for how the national party plans to defend a vulnerable seat without alienating the moderate voters Collins needs.
Meanwhile, Vance's own political future continues to draw speculation. Recent high-profile media exchanges have kept him in the national conversation well beyond his constitutional duties, and internal staff changes in his office suggest a vice presidency that is evolving in real time.
Whether Collins's absence from a second Vance event reflects genuine scheduling conflicts or a deliberate effort to maintain visible distance from the administration is something only Collins can answer. She has not said.
The administration's play here is straightforward: hold the Senate majority at all costs, even if that means bear-hugging a senator who votes against your attorney general pick and sides with Democrats on troop withdrawals. Politics is about addition, and right now, the GOP cannot afford subtraction in Maine.
If Republicans want to keep the Senate, they need Susan Collins more than they need her compliance, and Vance, to his credit, seems to understand that.
