Democratic challenger outraises Collins in Maine Senate race

Maine Democrat Sara Gideon outraised Sen. Susan Collins (R) in the first quarter of 2020 in one of the year’s most closely watched Senate races.

Gideon, the Maine House Speaker, raised about $7.1 million in the first three months of 2020 compared to about $2.4 million for Collins, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission. However, Gideon finishing March with about $4.6 million cash on hand compared to Collins’s $5.6 million in the bank.

Gideon’s campaign has relied heavily on small-dollar donors, saying that 96 percent of its contributions thus far have totaled $100 or less. 

Polls show Gideon and Collins are neck and neck in the race, which has become a magnet for millions of dollars of outside money.

Democrats are clamoring to flip Collins’s seat, which she has held since 1997. The Maine Republican has for decades worked to cultivate a bipartisan reputation but has become a top target for liberals after her votes to approve President Trump’s tax plan in 2017 and to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the wake of sexual assault allegations. 

Gideon still has to win a primary race against two other Democrats to secure the party’s nomination, but has won the support of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm and has blown her intraparty competition away in fundraising.

Collins is one of two Republican senators running for reelection in a state President Trump lost in 2016. The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, rates the Maine race a “toss-up.”