Collins trails challenger by 4 points in Maine Senate race: poll

Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R) is trailing her Democratic challenger Sara Gideon by 4 points in a poll released Friday by Colby College.

Gideon, the Democratic Speaker of the Maine House, is leading with 45 percent compared to 41 percent support for Collins with 6 percent undecided. Colby’s last poll of the race in July showed Gideon with a 44 percent-to-39 percent advantage with 12 percent undecided. 

Collins, a moderate Republican, has differed with President Trump on some key issues, most recently on how to address the vacancy left on the Supreme Court by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

Meanwhile, Collins’s votes on Trump’s past judicial nominees, especially her support for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation in 2018, has made her a target for Democrats.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading in the state as well, with 50 percent support compared to 39 percent support for Trump. In 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won Maine by nearly 3 percentage points. 

The poll also found that 58 percent of respondents said they were planning to vote in-person and 36 percent said they would vote by mail. 

The Colby poll surveyed 847 registered voters in Maine and reported a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.