ME Sen I can't really be Collins it yet

[Canis]

https://bangordailynews.com/2019/01/18/politics/daily-brief/democrats-arent-racing-to-run-against-susan-collins-in-2020/
This article is old but we still don't have any strong candidates in do y'all think we can get someone good in soon? And who would it be

[S019]

Jacky Rosen didn’t announce until June or July of 2017 and Kyrsten Sinema didn’t announce until September. Relax.

Also, Cramer and Scott didn’t even announce until 2018 itself. If anything, the early announcements are fairly uncommon. There’s still plenty of time. I just hope that Schumer is schmoozing Golden into it under the radar like he did with Rosen (her candidacy came completely out of the blue)

Golden only won, because he was facing a weak incumbent, who only narrowly beat Emily Cain, of all people, in 2014, of all years. Susan Collins would defeat Golden or really any of the Democrats, who are considering, stop acting like she's DOA or even a top-tier target, she'll win by 7-10, but it will be very hard for a Democrat to come within 5 points of defeating her

[S019]

No, I said that it would be closer than a double digits win, no sane person thinks Trump will win Orange County, it is going the way of PWC/Arapahoe County


That was SirWoodbury

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Ernst and Collins are safe: KY, TX, CO, AL and AZ are the keys to a 51/49 Senate

[Zaybay]

So far, there are really 4 key candidates that could possibly go against Collins that are big names.

Pingree: Maine's Representative for the First District

Golden: Maine's Representative for the Second District

Gideon: Current Speaker of the Maine House

Jackson: Current Senate Majority Leader for the Democrats

[voice_of_resistance]

Out of all of these I think Jackson would be the best. He's basically the LG as President of the Senate since Maine doesn't have lieutenant governors, and I think that we are going to need someone from rural Maine in order to beat Collins.

[free my dawg]

Yeah it'd go Jackson>Golden>>>>Gideon=Pingree

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Jacky Rosen didn’t announce until June or July of 2017 and Kyrsten Sinema didn’t announce until September. Relax.

Also, Cramer and Scott didn’t even announce until 2018 itself. If anything, the early announcements are fairly uncommon. There’s still plenty of time. I just hope that Schumer is schmoozing Golden into it under the radar like he did with Rosen (her candidacy came completely out of the blue)

Golden only won, because he was facing a weak incumbent, who only narrowly beat Emily Cain, of all people, in 2014, of all years. Susan Collins would defeat Golden or really any of the Democrats, who are considering, stop acting like she's DOA or even a top-tier target, she'll win by 7-10, but it will be very hard for a Democrat to come within 5 points of defeating her

Tbf, Maine 2nd is a lot redder than the state at large, but yeah I agree.

[smoltchanov]

Jackson is the only one to have chances of victory, IMHO. His populist appeal in rural areas will help bigly. Other are mostly easily characterized as either "leftist" (and Maine is not especially liberal as a whole state) or "elitist"....

[Pericles]

Golden is a good candidate who won narrowly against harsh partisan headwinds, Maine statewide has much more friendly partisan headwinds for Golden, so he'd win comfortably against a Generic Republican. As Collins is not a Generic Republican but a good candidate herself the race would be close but definitely winnable for Golden.

[SnowLabrador]

As someone who's not confident about beating Collins, I'm not worried yet about finding a good candidate. It's still pretty early.

[GoldenMainer]

I agree with those saying Troy Jackson is the best option. He can appeal to rural inland areas since he's a logger from Aroostook County yet he can also turn out progressives in cities like Portland (he was a 2016 Bernie supporter). He's also the Senate Majority Leader so he knows his way around the block.

I love Jared Golden as a representative and he would be a great Senator but he's the wrong choice for this particular race. Just last year in his election, he ran ads all over the state highlighting that he worked with Collins. He would look stupid and opportunistic as hell to now go back and say she's a bad Senator when he was bragging about working with her mere months ago.

[here2view]

Golden is the best candidate, and I don't think it's even close.

[MAINEiac4434]

I would really rather a woman run against Collins, save Golden for 2024...

[S019]

I remember when Tom Allen was supposed to make Collins a tossup


The Kavanaugh vote will not destroy her base completely, she’ll win by 7-10, with the margin being very inelastic

[GoldenMainer]

The Kavanaugh vote will not destroy her base completely, she’ll win by 7-10, with the margin being very inelastic

I agree with this, which is why I'm adamant that Democrats need to nominate the best person who can appeal to many parts of the state. Keeping margins down in more conservative rural areas (and possibly winning back ancestrally Dem areas) while destroying her in Portland, Bangor, and coastal blue areas is the winning strategy. So who is going to keep those rural margins down? It's not going to be Sara Gideon or Chellie Pingree.

The nominee must also be forceful in making the case as to why Collins sucks, and solely pointing out the Kavanaugh vote isn't going to do it. Anger from the Kavanaugh vote will lower Susan's winning margin but it's not going to put the Democrat over the top. We need a candidate who doesn't have connections to her so Republicans can't say "well so and so worked for her and they highlight that fact everywhere they go so they must be proud of it." Troy Jackson brings Golden's blue collar, working class appeal without the direct ties to Collins (Jackson won't even have to answer the questions about working for her which will distract from the real issues). And as someone who regularly stood up to Lepage, I trust him to take it to Susan.

Now is not the time to say "we need a woman", "we need a young person", etc. We need the person who can win votes in all parts of the state so we can finally get rid of Susan Collins and her fake moderate act.

[Continential]

Can Betsy Sweet win and is she considering running?

[Xing]

Collins isn't going to be easy to beat, but those saying that this race is Safe R clearly haven't been paying attention over the past several years. She may still be decently liked right now, but she's definitely lost a lot of her crossover appeal, even if she hasn't lost all of it. If Trump only loses Maine by a low-mid single digit margin again, yeah, she probably wins, but if he loses it by more, I think Democrats have a chance here. Lean R for now.

[Sestak]

Probably Jackson or Golden, and I think the way the campaign goes + the way the presidential goes will be rather important. Dem nominee will have to try to tie Collins to her fake moderate record. Whether they're successful or not remains to be seen.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Meaningless, but here anyways https://bangordailynews.com/2019/03/25/politics/daily-brief/a-trump-republican-says-hell-challenge-susan-collins-from-the-right-in-2020/

[HarrisonL]

Gideon will run against Collins. It's true Collins is Lean R, but probably less vulnerable than she's made out to be, definitely not DOA like Gardner or Jones. Golden will face a tough re-election to the House, especially if Trump wins ME-02, but honestly he fares better winning re-election than beating Collins, especially if Bruce Poliquin runs against him again.

Furthermore, the Freshman Model works most of the time, and Schumer favours it to the
"run an old Dem governor from 200 years ago that can win anymore." model, but this model only works against really weak incumbents, or in open states where the candidate is heavily favoured.

For example

Jacky Rosen, NV-2018 (win)
Tom Cotton, AR-2014 (win)
Steve Daines, MT-2014 (win)

Linda Lingle, HI-2012 (L)
Ted Strickland, OH-2016 (L)
Bredesen, TN-2018 (L)

just some examples.

[RogueBeaver]

https://twitter.com/SteveCollinsSJ/status/1130513682163802117

[Ye We Can]

https://twitter.com/SteveCollinsSJ/status/1130513682163802117

Get rekt Maine Dems

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

https://twitter.com/SteveCollinsSJ/status/1130513682163802117

Get rekt Maine Dems

Calm yourself, it’s not like he would have won anyways.

[😥]

1. Troy Jackson
2. Jared Golden

3. Chellie Pingree
4. Sarah Gideon

But all of them will lose by 5-10% to Collins