Maine voters ousted five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins, handing Democrats a Senate pickup that tightens their grip on Congress for President Trump’s final two years in office.
Quick Take
- Democrat Troy Jackson defeated longtime Senator Susan Collins in Maine’s U.S. Senate race.
- CBS, NBC, CNN and ABC all projected Jackson the winner, with results showing him near 54% of the vote.
- The loss ends Collins’s bid for a sixth term and flips a Republican-held seat to Democrats.
- Early overseas and military ballots counted by the Maine Secretary of State showed Jackson running far ahead among those voters.
- The pickup adds to Democratic gains that put them back in control of the Senate.
Democrat Flips Longtime GOP Senate Seat
Susan Collins, a fixture of the Maine Senate delegation, lost her bid for a sixth term to Democrat Troy Jackson. CBS News called the race for Jackson, describing him as defeating the “longtime” Republican incumbent in a contest that Democrats had circled for months as a top target in their push to reclaim the chamber.
NBC News, CNN and ABC News each independently projected Jackson as the winner on election night. The networks’ calls came as vote totals showed Jackson building a lead that outlasted the remaining uncounted ballots, prompting each outlet to declare the race decided before full returns were in.
Vote Count Shows Decisive Margin
CNN reported Jackson leading 53.9% to Collins’s 46.1%, with Jackson pulling in 337,272 votes to Collins’s 288,612. NBC News and ABC News posted slightly different but nearly identical totals, both showing Jackson at roughly 54% with more than 340,000 votes against Collins’s 292,570. The small gaps between outlets reflect different snapshots of an ongoing count, not conflicting outcomes.
Maine’s Secretary of State also released early returns for military and overseas voters under federal voting law. Those unofficial figures showed Jackson with 4,350 votes to just 473 for Collins among that group, a lopsided margin in a category that typically arrives and gets counted separately from in-person ballots.
What the Loss Means for Senate Control
Collins’s defeat is part of a broader Democratic push that flipped control of the Senate away from Republicans, according to multiple network tallies from election night. For conservatives, the loss of a seat Republicans had held for decades removes a reliable vote for the Trump administration’s nominees and legislative priorities heading into the back half of the president’s term.
A Democrat-controlled Senate means tougher confirmation fights for judges and cabinet picks, and a higher likelihood of oversight hearings aimed at the administration. Fox 9 noted the result ended Collins’s run for a sixth term, closing out one of the longest-serving Republican careers in the chamber and reshaping the political math for Trump’s remaining two years.
Certification Still Ahead
Maine law requires the Secretary of State to prepare a formal election certificate after county clerks file their returns, a process that follows, not replaces, election-night projections from news outlets. The networks’ calls reflect their own analysis of incoming vote data, while the official record moves through the state’s standard canvass and certification timeline before Jackson’s win becomes final on paper.
Democrats have won control of the U.S. Senate in the 2026 midterm elections, successfully flipping the upper chamber.
Race Outcomes & Seat Flips
major party gains and notable results in key Senate contests include:
– Maine: Democrat Troy Jackson defeated incumbent Republican… pic.twitter.com/bSo0HuuzhS— WorldGeopolitics25 (@WGeopolitics25) November 4, 2026
Collins’s loss adds to a string of Senate losses for the party in power during this midterm cycle, a pattern long seen in American politics when a sitting president’s party faces voters two years into a term. For Trump’s supporters, the result is a reminder that the fight to protect his agenda now shifts to defending it against a Democrat-controlled Senate rather than relying on friendly majorities.
Sources:
cbsnews.com, maine.gov, nbcboston.com, nbcnews.com, academic.oup.com
