Former Sen. Joe Manchin will campaign with Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine this week, rejecting progressive claims that she is a reliable rubber stamp for President Trump.
Manchin plans to stand with Collins on Wednesday in Androscoggin County, a politically divided stretch of Maine, as she closes out her reelection fight against Democrat Troy Jackson. Newsmax reported the former West Virginia senator’s move after Semafor first flagged the joint appearance.
Manchin said attacks casting Collins as a locked-in Trump ally drove the trip. He wants Maine voters to see how her approach has served the state, and he aims to knock down the “Trump enabler” label.
“She is not a Trump senator,” Manchin said.
"She is not a Trump senator,"
That message lands in the final stretch after the candidates’ debates, with Collins stressing work across party lines and Jackson leaning on progressive muscle.
Jackson has drawn open support from Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. He presents himself as a check on Trump and argues that Collins’ breaks with the president rarely decide Senate outcomes.
On Thursday he is set to hold a town hall with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have hit Collins for backing Trump’s nominees and legislation, pointing to voting analyses that show her siding with the president at least 90 percent of the time.
Manchin waved those numbers off as misleading. He said they largely track votes on nominees, not the full picture of her record. The same progressive pressure that has left other Democrats isolated for working across the aisle now frames Collins as the problem for refusing to treat every Trump priority as automatic disqualification, a pattern also visible when Fetterman drew stronger Republican numbers than his own party’s favorite.
Collins opposed Trump’s tax cuts law. She opposed the confirmation of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. In 2017 she helped block the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
She also sponsored Electoral Count Act changes meant to stop another attempt to block certification of a presidential election. Manchin pointed to that work and to their joint effort on the bipartisan infrastructure law as proof she delivers results, not loyalty tests.
He said he “can’t remember” a bipartisan effort that did not involve Collins. Collins herself put the partnership in plain terms.
Collins said:
"In the Senate, Joe and I worked across the aisle to tackle some of our nation's toughest challenges. Together, we built bipartisan coalitions to end government shutdowns, secure critical COVID-19 relief, and pass the bipartisan infrastructure law,"
She added:
"We need more people in the Senate, not fewer, who are willing to put partisanship aside, listen to one another, and deliver results."
That pitch is the opposite of the purity politics Jackson’s allies are selling. Similar cross-party moves keep surfacing, from Schiff backing Trump’s film tax incentive push to House members handing Republicans procedural wins when leadership digs in.
Manchin’s stop in Androscoggin County puts a former Democrat and independent on stage with a Republican incumbent who has broken with her party and with Trump when she judged the policy wrong. Jackson answers with Warren, Sanders, and Ocasio-Cortez.
One side talks about ending shutdowns, COVID relief, infrastructure, and guarding election certification rules. The other side talks about checking Trump and treats high nominee-support percentages as the whole story.
Manchin is not subtle about which version he trusts. He is traveling to Maine to say Collins is not a Trump senator and to tell voters the attacks leave out the bipartisan work that actually moved bills. That same willingness to ignore party enforcers showed up when Fetterman refused to campaign against a Republican colleague and when a Maine Democrat sided with Trump on Canada tariffs while Collins pressed for talks.
Collins still faces the standard late-race charge that any Republican who votes for a president’s nominees must be a captive. Manchin’s reply is that the charge is false, the voting charts are skewed, and Maine has benefited from the coalitions she helped build.
Voters in a divided county will hear both messages in the same week, one from a progressive challenger flanked by the left’s best-known names, and one from a retired Democratic senator who says the bipartisan record is real and worth defending.
Parties that punish every compromise end up with fewer people willing to cut a deal, and Maine is watching that choice play out in real time.
