U.S. Sen. Susan Collins didn’t rule out a run for a seventh term if she’s re-elected in November in an interview this week with Politico.
“You never say never in politics,” she said.
But the five-term Republican said she’s concentrating on the race at hand against Democratic former state Senate President Troy Jackson. She also highlighted her record of never missing a roll call vote, calling it a “pretty good indication of my health and energy.”
“I don’t see it as being a big issue,” she said of age, citing Jackson’s heart problems and multiple pacemakers.
The 73-year-old senator in May revealed occasional trembling in her voice, head and hands are symptoms of a benign essential tremor, a neurological condition she’s lived with for decades. She said it has no ill effect on her ability to do her job.
Jackson and the Maine Democratic Party have not yet made Collins’ age or health an explicit issue. But they’ve targeted her nearly 30 years in Washington as a knock against her credibility because she pledged in 1996 to serve only two terms.
Collins’ interview came as the campaign heats up and as generational divides have risen in Democratic primaries nationwide — including Graham Platner’s initial race against 78-year-old Gov. Janet Mills. Jackson, 58, replaced Platner on the ballot after an ex-girlfriend’s rape allegation ended his campaign.
In April, Collins’ team walked back on a comment she made to a News Center Maine reporter suggesting she would retire after a sixth term, at which point she would be nearly 80. A spokesperson for Collins’ campaign at the time called it an “offhand comment to a reporter, not a formal declaration.”
Collins told Politico this week that age is an issue “totally due to the concealment of [former President] Joe Biden’s health problems.”
She also claimed the press didn’t question independent U.S. Sen. Angus King about his run for re-election at 80. The issue made some headlines during King’s low-key 2024 campaign, with some Republicans and opponents saying voters had expressed concerns and calling on the senator to participate in more debates. He said he was still up to the job, and polling at the time showed two-thirds of Mainers agreed.
When pressed by Politico on voters calling for change — whether her or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York — Collins went on the offensive.
“Troy Jackson is neither new nor different,” she said. “He’s been in Augusta for 24 years. He’s been in leadership for part of that time.”
When Jackson accepted his nomination in July, he highlighted Collins’ two-term promise. The former Allagash logger noted that same fall in 1996, work dried up and his family struggled to pay off mounting debts.
“Thirty years later, Susan Collins is still in Washington,” he said in his acceptance speech. “So I have one question: Who has she served? She has served Donald Trump.”
Jackson has been publicly open about his heart problems, noting in a Facebook post in April that he was on his fifth pacemaker. A gubernatorial candidate at the time, he addressed the issue as a rally cry for Medicare for All at the federal level and a public option in Maine.
“It was always embarrassing to hear my colleagues debate who else in Maine was worthy of coverage,” he said. “If politicians are worthy, everyone is.”