A Senator from Maine. Then & Maybe Now
There are little, teeny-tiny signs that Susan Collins might be waking up.
I know, I know—she’s waffled more times than a Belgian brunch. She looked the other way when Donald Trump bulldozed decency, confirmed judges she later ‘regretted’, and clutched her pearls in concerned disappointment far more often than she used her voice. But every now and then, there’s a flicker—a vote that doesn’t follow the party line, a comment that hints at moral awareness buried beneath the layers of political self-preservation. And I find myself wondering: is there still a spark of the woman from Maine who once had a spine?
It wouldn’t be the first time a Maine senator surprised us.
June 1, 1950, another woman from Maine, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who was the first to stand on the Senate floor and to speak out against Senator Joseph McCarthy at the height of his red-baiting, fear-mongering crusade. She didn’t scream. She didn’t posture. She simply stood, calmly and clearly, and delivered what came to be known as her “Declaration of Conscience.” The speech is here, and wouldn’t it be something if Collins got on the floor and read this speech. There is not one word that needs to be changed to have it be perfect for this moment. I have listened to it more than once over the past few months. It gives me hope.
“The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds,” she said. “The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.”
Those words didn’t end McCarthy overnight. He continued for more than four years, wrecking lives, careers, and reputations. But her speech was the first public break from within his own party, and history remembers her for it. When McCarthy was finally censured by the Senate in 1954, it was Margaret Chase Smith who had helped pave the way.
She served for 24 years in the Senate, eventually becoming the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for president by a major party at a national convention—in 1964, no less. She never lost her New England pragmatism or her reverence for conscience. She died in 1995, just months before Susan Collins would win her first Senate race.
And now, Collins herself has been there for nearly 30 years.
That’s a long time. She has worked across the aisle more than most—on the 9/11 Commission, on the Paycheck Protection Program during COVID, and on infrastructure. She helped craft bipartisan gun safety legislation in 2022. There are wins. But there are bigger losses. Her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh still sticks in many of our throats, and her pattern of voicing concern without consequence has become a meme for political cowardice.
But she’s also shown that she can break ranks. She voted against repealing the ACA. She voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial—one of just seven Republicans to do so. She doesn’t need to run again. She has nothing to lose.
So, Senator Collins—why not be remembered?
Why not stand where Margaret Chase Smith once stood, in the eye of the storm, and say, enough? Why not give Margaret Chase Smith’s speech on the senate floor?
Maine women have a history of backbone. Actually, women, if you look at the last few months have stood up more than men. Not just the loud kind, but the moral kind. The kind that speaks from the floor of the Senate, not for party, but for country. Not for optics, but for truth.
You’ve been there 30 years. You’ve seen what politics does to people. But you’ve also seen what integrity can do to history.
So here’s my ask. Surprise us. Remember Margaret. Let her words echo in your bones. Speak your own declaration—not just of conscience, but of courage.
You won’t be alone.
And we’re watching.
Want to help nudge Senator Collins toward that moment of courage?
Print this letter out. Sign it. Add a short handwritten note. Mail it to her office in Maine. Or better yet, turn it into a letter to the editor and submit it to one of Maine’s newspapers. Yes, they still read them. Especially in Maine.
Addresses for Senator Susan Collins’s Maine offices:
Bangor Office
202 Harlow Street, Room 20100
Bangor, ME 04401
Augusta Office
68 Sewall Street, Room 507
Augusta, ME 04330
Portland Office
One Canal Plaza, Suite 802
Portland, ME 04101
Lewiston Office
55 Lisbon Street
Lewiston, ME 04240
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Major newspapers in Maine accepting letters to the editor:
Portland Press Herald
pressherald.com
Email: letters@pressherald.com
Word limit: 250. Include your name, address, and phone number.
Bangor Daily News
bangordailynews.com
Email: letters@bangordailynews.com
Word limit: 300. Include name, address, and phone.
Kennebec Journal (Augusta)
centralmaine.com
Email: letters@centralmaine.com
Word limit: 250.
Sun Journal (Lewiston)
sunjournal.com
Email: letters@sunjournal.com
Word limit: 300.
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