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Campaign Wire: 2020 Election
Follow the latest from the campaign trail, as Democratic hopefuls compete for the right to face President Trump in 2020.
Last Updated:
April 29, 2021 at 10:55 AM EDT
April 15, 2020 at 10:42 AM
Liberal Group Targets Susan Collins on Virus Response
Sen. Susan Collins walks to a meeting being held to discuss emergency economic relief legislation on March 20. (Michael Reynolds/Shutterstock)
New statewide ads in Maine are attacking Sen. Susan Collins, a vulnerable Republican senator facing a tough election fight this fall, claiming she hasn't worked hard enough to get supplies to health-care workers, the latest sign that the pandemic is shaping up to impact congressional races this fall.
Majority Forward, a liberal dark money group, is spending six-figures to place the television ads to urge voters to call Ms. Collins’s office to encourage her to support health care workers during the pandemic. The ad cites a recent interview Ms. Collins did saying President Trump for did “a lot right in the beginning” to combat coronavirus.
“Maine doctors and nurses are scrounging for medical supplies,” the narrator in the ad says. “Once again, Susan Collins defends the president. But that’s wrong for Maine.”
Majority Forward is also running ads praising Ms. Collins’s opponent, Sara Gideon, the current Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives.
Ms. Collins is one of a handful of senators that Democrats are hoping to beat in the November election in their effort to win control of the Senate, which currently has 53 Republicans. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates her race as a toss-up, along with Senate races for GOP incumbents in Colorado, Arizona and North Carolina.
In many of those states, Democrats see an advantage to tying incumbent Republican senators to Mr. Trump, where his approval rating is under 50%.
Like many states, Maine is facing a shortage of personal protective equipment for health care and frontline workers, and seeing a rise in health care workers affected by the novel coronavirus.
Ms. Collins has focused on the Senate’s response to the pandemic, and pushed for funding for small businesses that are closed. On Tuesday, she joined with the four-member Maine Congressional delegation to send a bipartisan letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services to request more personal protective equipment for their state.
“Clearly one of Sara Gideon’s dark money allies feels threatened by the vital role Susan Collins has played in delivering critical Coronavirus relief to Mainers, including her instrumental work on the important Paycheck Protection Program,” said Jesse Hunt, spokesman for the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm. “Voters will be disgusted by the group’s petty cry for relevance during a national crisis.”