Staff Reports
Sen. Susan Collins is pushing back hard after a $2 million TV ad from the Senate Majority PAC claimed she voted to cut Medicaid. The ad tries to pin blame for closing rural birthing centers on Collins, but the truth is more complicated — and the Democrats’ message is a stretch at best. Voters should be allowed to decide based on facts, not political sound bites.
The ad’s claim and the real vote
The Democratic super PAC’s spot says Collins “was the deciding vote to advance Trump’s Medicaid cuts.” That gets people’s attention, but it leaves out the rest of the story. Yes, Collins voted to advance the One Big Beautiful Bill in a procedural move, but she later voted against final passage because of Medicaid reductions she opposed. She even offered amendments meant to strip out those cuts. Fact-checkers have repeatedly said claims that Collins “sided with Trump to cut Medicaid” are false or misleading.
The procedural-vote bait-and-switch
This is classic campaign theater: seize on a single procedural vote, shout “Medicaid cuts!” and hope no one reads the fine print. Democrats lean on that early vote because it sounds damning. The problem is voters deserve the full picture. Collins’ record shows she warned that proposed Medicaid reductions would hurt Mainers and rural hospitals. If political actors want to argue policy, fine. But don’t dress up a technical parliamentary vote as a moral crime and call it journalism.
Rural maternity care is a real crisis — but not a neatly packaged political weapon
Let’s be clear: the closure of birthing centers in Maine is a real problem. Workforce shortages, low reimbursements, and demographic trends have been squeezing rural maternity care for years. Collins points out that state health officials have asked Governor Janet Mills and the Democratic-led legislature for more resources — and that’s not something you fix with attack ads. If Democrats really cared about saving these clinics, they would prioritize practical fixes instead of running TV spots that blame a senator for every systemic challenge.
What’s at stake in the Maine Senate race
This fight isn’t just about one ad. It’s about a hotly contested Senate race that could decide control of the U.S. Senate. Democrats will keep pouring money into catchy, misleading ads because they work — at least until voters start checking the facts. Mainers deserve honest debates about Medicaid, rural healthcare funding, and policy solutions. If you want to vote on real results rather than campaign spin, look at who tried to fix the bill’s harmful provisions and who is just happy to shout headlines for TV.
