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EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, learned hard work in the dirt.
When she was 10 years old, like several other children in Caribou, Maine, she left school to pick potato fields to aid farmers with the harvest deep in potato country in Aroostook County, dubbed “The County” by locals.
“I remember my mother saying to me when I was going to pick for the first time at age 10, saying, ‘Now, Susan, this is really hard, back-breaking work, but you cannot quit. The farmers are depending on you, and you can’t let them down,’” Collins told Fox News Digital. “And those words have always stayed with me.”
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It’s that work ethic born in her hometown of Caribou, molded by her parents’ separate stints as mayor of the small town in the county that helped shape her into the political titan she is today, propelling her to a record 10,000th straight vote in the Senate and a gavel atop the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
It’s also caused her to have the biggest target on her back in a highly contentious election cycle where Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is once again trying to flip her seat.
Collins’ race has also become the most-watched and controversial of the cycle because of her unlikely opponent, Democratic nominee Graham Platner, who over the last several months has been rocked by scandal after scandal.
Speaking to Fox News Digital on the drive between Bangor, Maine and Portland, one she’s made several times since joining the Senate in 1997, Collins acknowledged Platner’s rocky past and present but that she still was taking him seriously as an opponent.
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“I am surprised that [Gov. Janet Mills] is not my opponent,” Collins said. “That’s what I would have predicted, particularly given the very serious allegations against Graham Platner. Plus, his own words over many years, including recently. So, I think that he has a lot of questions to answer, but I do take him very seriously as a candidate.”
Platner has been no stranger when it comes to attacking Collins in his insurgent campaign, skewering her for her vote to authorize the Iraq War two decades ago or her backing of parts of President Donald Trump’s agenda.
During his acceptance speech earlier this week, he accused her of being “just as spineless and corrupt as the establishment she now serves.”
Collins, who is no stranger to heated campaigns, argued that her ability to produce results was a better metric for Mainers.
“I think when people look at the accomplishments and results that I’ve delivered for the people of Maine, that the contrast is enormous,” Collins said. “And angry rhetoric does not produce results.”
She knows how to bring the bacon home to Maine. In her climb to the top of the Senate Appropriations Committee, she’s sent back $1.5 billion over five years, dozens of new or renovated fire stations, billions in rural healthcare funding and a fire boat that saved key businesses along Portland’s waterfront when a blaze broke out.
Still, she’s in a tight race with Platner, despite the scandals and baggage.
And Schumer, who has spent years trying to beat her, hopes to seize the opportunity in this cycle, even with a candidate who was not his first choice.
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Schumer told Semafor that Collins is “weaker than in 2020,” when they last squared off, arguing that her defense of Trump, her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the role that vote played in overturning Roe v. Wade have weighed her down.
“To me, this is déjà vu all over again,” Collins said, noting that six years ago, Schumer and Democrats spent over $160 million to defeat her.
Collins contended, “Democratic leaders always distort my record,” and added that when she voted to advance Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year, it was so she and others could modify the bill. She ultimately voted against the final product but scored a $50 billion rural hospital fund nonetheless.
“If we can’t get on the bill, I can’t help fix that,” Collins said.
And on Kavanaugh, Collins noted that she disagreed with how he voted on Roe v. Wade, but that she also voted “for people who voted on the other side of that decision.”
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“I voted for Sonia Sotomayor. I voted for Elena Kagan. I voted for Justice Jackson,” Collins said. “And that always seems to get left out.”
She doesn’t vote in lockstep with Trump, either, who recently said that Collins was “not my best friend at all,” but was a “sane woman.” That prompted a laugh from the longtime lawmaker, who noted, “I’ve worked with five different presidents, and I have never agreed with a single one of them on every issue.”
“I know that there’s some people who want me to oppose President Trump, just because he’s President Trump, and that’s not how I operate,” Collins said. “I look at each individual issue and then make my decision. And based on whether it’s helpful to the state of Maine, and improves the lives of families in the state of Maine.”
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