Former Sen. Joe Manchin is heading to Maine to campaign for Republican Susan Collins, a rebuke to Chuck Schumer and Democrats determined to unseat her.
Former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin will hit the trail with Sen. Susan Collins in Maine on Wednesday as she fights for a sixth term against Democrat Troy Jackson. The Collins campaign confirmed the joint appearance to Fox News Digital, after Semafor first reported the visit.
Manchin’s stop lands just 24 hours before Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arrives in the same state to back Jackson. Progressive heavyweights Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have already joined the Democrat on the stump. Democrats have long salivated at a chance to knock off one of the Senate’s top Republicans.
Manchin left the Democratic Party to become an independent before retiring from the Senate. He served alongside Collins for his entire career in the upper chamber. Now he is using that record to undercut the party’s case against her.
He told reporters the appearance is meant to show Maine voters that Collins has a bipartisan track record. That record, he said, helped advance key legislation such as his infrastructure package under former President Joe Biden and blocked certain Trump policy aims, including efforts to repeal Obamacare.
"She is not a Trump senator,"
Manchin said.
Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have tried to paint Collins as a rubber stamp for President Donald Trump. The record shows otherwise. Collins has often broken with Trump during his second term, most notably on his signature legislation known as the “one big, beautiful bill.”
That gap between the attack line and the voting history is exactly what Manchin is putting in front of Maine voters. Collins is locked in a tight race against Jackson, a former Maine state senator. The contest was already shaken earlier this year when Graham Platner dropped out after a sexual assault allegation rocked his campaign.
Collins spokeswoman Blake Kernen tied Jackson directly to the party’s left wing and used Manchin’s visit to highlight the contrast.
"Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represent the far left of the national Democratic Party,"
Kernen said.
"That they are all campaigning in Maine for Troy Jackson tells voters exactly how he would govern."
She added that Manchin’s decision to campaign for Collins speaks to results, not party labels.
"Senator Manchin campaigning for Senator Collins is a testament to her record of effective, independent leadership and commitment delivering results that have greatly benefited Maine and America,"
Kernen said.
This is not Manchin’s first break with Democratic leadership. In a memoir released last year, he tore into former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and into Schumer. He wrote that he wanted Republicans to win the Senate majority in 2024 because of Schumer’s support for ending the filibuster, the 60-vote threshold that stops the Senate from becoming a pure majority rubber stamp.
Manchin described that stance in plain terms.
"I believed it was the only hope for preserving the Senate as an institution,"
he wrote.
"I truly believed that, if in power, Republicans would uphold the filibuster, the last guardrail preventing total partisan rule."
His Maine trip fits the same pattern. While Schumer’s team works to frame Collins as an automatic Trump vote, a former Democratic senator who actually legislated with her is telling voters the opposite. That kind of public split lands hard on a leader already facing party pressure, including Democratic candidates who have refused to back him for another term as leader.
Jackson’s surrogates signal the governing model on offer if Collins loses: the same progressive bloc that has defined the national party’s left edge. Warren, Sanders, and Ocasio-Cortez do not travel to Vacationland for a moderate. They travel for a candidate who matches their priorities.
Manchin’s choice also undercuts the broader Democratic pitch that every Republican is interchangeable. Collins has cast votes that frustrated her own party and the White House. Manchin is banking that Maine voters still reward that independence more than a national progressive branding campaign.
Schumer has spent years trying to hold a restive caucus together. Recent Senate fights have left him on the wrong side of lopsided outcomes and open resistance, including a 90-6 vote that crushed his position. Watching a former colleague campaign for the Republican Democrats most want to defeat only sharpens that picture.
The same dynamic has shown up when Democratic Senate nominees declined to endorse his continued leadership, forcing him to hold firm while the party’s own candidates walked away. Manchin’s appearance in Maine is another public signal that the old loyalty lines no longer bind.
Trump remains a central figure in the race because Democrats keep making him one. Manchin’s answer is blunt: Collins is not a Trump senator, and her record of cross-aisle work on infrastructure and major policy fights is the proof. Voters can weigh the progressive road show for Jackson against a former Democratic senator willing to stand next to Collins in person.
Schumer’s political standing has taken repeated hits in high-profile clashes, from defeats that handed Trump clear wins to tactical fights that left his priorities exposed. A Manchin endorsement of Collins adds another complication he cannot spin away as routine partisan noise.
Maine will now see the contrast in real time. Manchin stumps with Collins on Wednesday. Ocasio-Cortez follows for Jackson a day later. One side offers a retired independent senator pointing to legislation and the filibuster. The other offers the national progressive bench.
When even Joe Manchin will not carry water for the Democratic drive to oust Susan Collins, the party’s attack line is in trouble, and voters can see exactly who wants what kind of Senate.
