2020 United States Senate election in Maine


The 2020 United States Senate election in Maine will be held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Maine, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins is running for reelection to a fifth term in office.

Background

Republican Senator Susan Collins is running for a fifth term. Collins has won each election to this seat with a greater victory margin than the one before it. Observers do not anticipate this election to continue that trend. The New York Times's Ideology Tracker considers Collins the most liberal Republican in the U.S. Senate.
Collins was criticized for her decision to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. She also faced criticism from her stance on the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Collins expressed her support for witness testimony in the Senate trial and was the first Republican to do so. Witness testimony did not occur. Collins voted to acquit Trump on both charges of abuse of power as well as obstruction of Congress. Collins said that she voted to acquit because "impeachment of a president should be reserved for conduct that poses such a serious threat to our governmental institutions as to warrant the extreme step of immediate removal from office. I voted to acquit President Clinton, even though the House Managers proved to my satisfaction that he did commit a crime, because his conduct did not meet that threshold." This vote has made Collins's reelection more competitive than usual.
Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives Sara Gideon will face Collins in the general election. In 2019 Gideon faced an election ethics complaint for breaking a political donation law by accepting reimbursements for her political donations from her own PAC; she later apologized for the reimbursements.
Party primaries were initially scheduled to take place on June 9, 2020. Governor Janet Mills rescheduled them to July 14, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mills's executive order also expanded the ability to request absentee ballots, which may now be done up to and on election day. The primaries were conducted with ranked choice voting. Parties qualified to participate in the 2020 primary election were the Democratic Party, the Green Independent Party and the Republican Party.

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

Polling

Head-to-head matchups

;with Susan Collins and Derek Levasseur
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins		Derek
Levasseur		Undecided
October 11–13, 2019271 ± 6%55%10%34%

;with Susan Collins and Paul LePage
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins		Paul
LePage		Undecided
October 11–13, 2019271 ± 6%29%63%8%

;with Susan Collins and Shawn Moody
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins		Shawn
Moody		Undecided
October 11–13, 2019271 ± 6%36%45%18%

;with Susan Collins and generic Republican if Collins supported impeaching Trump
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins		Generic
Republican		Undecided
October 11–13, 2019271 ± 6%35%55%10

;with Susan Collins and Derek Levasseur if Collins supported impeaching Trump
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins		Derek
Levasseur		Undecided
October 11–13, 2019271 ± 6%37%24%39%

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins		Generic
Republican		Undecided
October 11–13, 2019271 ± 6%53%38%9%

Results

Democratic primary

On April 20, 2019, attorney and activist Bre Kidman became the first person to announce their candidacy for the Democratic nomination, making them the first ever U.S. Senate candidate who identifies as non-binary. On June 13, 2019, former Maine gubernatorial candidate Betsy Sweet declared her candidacy. Eleven days later, Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon announced her candidacy, receiving widespread media coverage. A number of other candidates announced their candidacies, including General Jon Treacy and former Google executive and political aide Ross LaJeunesse, who would have been the first openly gay man elected to the Senate. LaJeunesse and Treacy withdrew, with LaJeunesse endorsing Gideon. Two debates were held with all three candidates, while one hosted by WCSH was attended only by Sweet and Kidman.

Candidates

Nominee

Polling

Results

Other candidates

Green Party

Two candidates declared their intentions to run for the Maine Green Independent Party's nomination, but one withdrew and the other left the party to become an independent.

Withdrawn

  • David Gibson, solar design specialist
  • Lisa Savage, school teacher

    Endorsements

Independents

Seven Independents have declared their candidacy for Senate in 2020, including one affiliated with the Libertarian Party of Maine, which lost ballot access after the 2018 elections.

Declared

  • Joshua Arnone, accounting clerk affiliated with the Libertarian Party of Maine
  • Tiffany Bond, candidate for Maine's 2nd congressional district in 2018
  • Steven Golieb, Millinocket town councilor
  • Leigh Hawes, truck driver
  • Max Linn, disqualified Republican candidate for the 2018 United States Senate election in Maine
  • Lisa Savage, schoolteacher
  • Danielle VanHelsing, LGBTQ rights activist
  • Linda Wooten, vocational educator and conservative activist

    General election

Predictions

Endorsements

Polling

Aggregate Polls

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins 		Sara
Gideon 		Other /
Undecided
July 18–24, 2020888± 3.9%39%44%18%
July 22–23, 2020561± 3.6%42%47%11%
July 2–3, 20201,022± 3.1%42%46%11%
June 20–24, 2020600± 4.0%45%37%4%
May 13–18, 2020512± 4.3%42%51%7%
April, 2020––48%47%–
March 2–3, 2020872± 3.3%43%47%10%
February 10–13, 20201,008± 3.1%42%43%14%
July 29–31, 2019600± 4.0%52%35%13%
June 24, 2019767± 3.5%52%36%12%
June 24, 2019767± 3.5%44%30%26%
March 4–13, 2019500± 4.4%51%29%20%

;with Betsy Sweet
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins 		Betsy
Sweet 		Other /
Undecided
May 13–18, 2020512± 4.3%43%44%10%

;with Susan Rice
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins 		Susan
Rice 		Other /
Undecided
October 27–29, 2018883± 3.5%44%20%35%

;with generic Democrat
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins 		Generic
Democrat		Other /
Undecided
May 13–18, 2020512± 4.3%39%49%12%
Feb 10-13, 20201,008 ± 3.1%40%34%26%
October 11–13, 2019939± 3.2%41%44%15%
October 1–2, 2018–± 3.3%42%34%–
August 28–29, 2017501–51%22%27%

;with generic Democrat if Collins supports impeaching Donald Trump
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins 		Generic
Democrat		Other /
Undecided
October 11–13, 2019939± 3.2%32%38%30%

;with generic Democrat if Collins opposes impeaching Donald Trump
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Susan
Collins 		Generic
Democrat		Other /
Undecided
October 11–13, 2019939± 3.2%40%47%13%

;on whether Collins deserves to be re-elected
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		YesNoOther /
Undecided
July 29–31, 2019600± 4.0%38%55%7%

;with Generic Republican and Generic Democrat
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Generic
Republican		Generic
Democrat		Other /
Undecided
July 29–31, 2019600± 4.0%43%42%15%

Results