Actions Have Consequences: Voting for Dem Suddenly Brings Buyer's Remorse in Maine

As Sen. Susan Collins' final term nears its end, some Mainers are expressing concerns about the future of federal funding for the state.

Collins, who lost her reelection bid for a sixth term to Democrat Troy Jackson, currently chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, but her term ends in about two months.

During her time in that position, Collins has helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for Maine, including money for the state's aging fire departments.

Um, and that's why you vote for her, rather than someone who she embarrassed thoroughly during the debates. I may not like every vote that Susan Collins made, especially when it didn't help the Republican position, but I do know that she did actually work to do things that helped the state and that she's better than any Democrat that would replace her. 

All this was known about her power in the Senate before the election, and Collins pointed this out in the debates. And they want to have buyer's remorse now? Did the media actually point this out when they were reporting on this before the election to let the voters know?

So the voters just traded out someone who had worked for them and had a powerful position for...Troy Jackson, the guy with the relationship with his cousin and nowhere near the capacity of Susan Collins. Well, that's a choice. In a blue wave, clearly candidate quality didn't matter much. 

The copium was something, though, in that local story as they cite University of Maine political science professor and department chair Mark Brewer, who says they don't know yet how all this will affect federal funding.

"It's highly unlikely that Maine will have the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee in its delegation. I think that's probably relatively safe. I think it's also safe to say that Senator Jackson will not have 29 years of seniority in the United States Senate, right? We know that. Beyond that, I don't know that we can say too much," Brewer said.

Brewer expects Jackson to secure less federal funding than Collins, although he says it's impossible to determine how significant the difference could be.

Instead of "highly unlikely," more like not happening before hell freezes over. That's not the way the Senate operates. "Can't say too much" and "impossible to determine how significant"? Sounds like he's trying to avoid stating the obvious — Maine is going to suffer because of this because Jackson isn't going to be able to do even half of what Collins did for the state, even if he were competent, due to his lack of seniority. 

The story also throws more copium, suggesting Collins wouldn't have as much power as ranking member if she had won, as she has now as chair of the Appropriations Committee. That's true, but ranking member still has a lot of clout, and still a lot more than Jackson as a brand new person. So that's not much of an argument to make. Voters just materially hurt their position in the Senate. 

But hey, at least they voted for someone who will thumb his nose at Trump on every vote, right? I'm sure that's worth something (read: not really). Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Wait until they see how awful he will be and watch things dry up. Then they're going to find out how bad it was to vote in a full-bore radical leftist, as opposed to Collins. 

Unfortunately, voters are going to find out what a bad choice that was in Maine and all the other places they voted Democrats in. 

Rapid-onset buyer's remorse.

— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 11, 2026

[enter i think i made a huge mistake gif]

— Legal Phil (@Legal_Fil) November 11, 2026

Yeah but affordability and stuff 😂

— Gerry Callahan (@GerryCallahan) November 11, 2026