What did Sara Gideon do wrong?

[Woody]

?

[Pyro]

Poor ground game.
Did not run on policy.
Transplant candidate.
Most ads were about Collins, not Gideon.
$70M from predominantly out-of-state doners.
Collins ran on dog-whistle racism and removed herself from Trump.

It's basically the same failed, centrist strategy that drove McGrath, Hegar, and Harrison to defeat. Not to mention Biden's constant normalization of Republicans in his attempt to frame Trump as an aberration.

[Tekken_Guy]

Poor ground game.
Did not run on policy.
Transplant candidate.
Most ads were about Collins, not Gideon.
$70M from predominantly out-of-state doners.
Collins ran on dog-whistle racism and removed herself from Trump.

It's basically the same failed, centrist strategy that drove McGrath, Hegar, and Harrison to defeat. Not to mention Biden's constant normalization of Republicans in his attempt to frame Trump as an aberration.

The last paragraph makes no sense. You can’t compare Maine to SC, TX, and KY.

[Pyro]

Poor ground game.
Did not run on policy.
Transplant candidate.
Most ads were about Collins, not Gideon.
$70M from predominantly out-of-state doners.
Collins ran on dog-whistle racism and removed herself from Trump.

It's basically the same failed, centrist strategy that drove McGrath, Hegar, and Harrison to defeat. Not to mention Biden's constant normalization of Republicans in his attempt to frame Trump as an aberration.

The last paragraph makes no sense. You can’t compare Maine to SC, TX, and KY.

There were of course differences in each state (like Harrison's silly strategy of boosting a third party candidate), but the bedrock of trying to connect the GOP incumbents with Trump, pushing policy to the back-burner, and raising immense out-of-state support keeps these campaigns pretty similar.

[Calthrina950]

Poor ground game.
Did not run on policy.
Transplant candidate.
Most ads were about Collins, not Gideon.
$70M from predominantly out-of-state doners.
Collins ran on dog-whistle racism and removed herself from Trump.

It's basically the same failed, centrist strategy that drove McGrath, Hegar, and Harrison to defeat. Not to mention Biden's constant normalization of Republicans in his attempt to frame Trump as an aberration.

The last paragraph makes no sense. You can’t compare Maine to SC, TX, and KY.

There were of course differences in each state (like Harrison's silly strategy of boosting a third party candidate), but the bedrock of trying to connect the GOP incumbents with Trump, pushing policy to the back-burner, and raising immense out-of-state support keeps these campaigns pretty similar.

In hindsight, it's clear that Democratic candidates failed to articulate a compelling policy platform, and did not pay enough attention to energizing their bases. I think the Democratic Party will have to thoroughly reevaluate how it conducts campaigns in the future.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

This is the state that reelected Polquin and LePage, Mills will get reelected, but this state isnt a Safe D state like VT, NH, and MA, Rs do get elected statewide. Olympia Snowe seat should of went D but King ran for the seat

Also, ME2 and NEB2 has switched places from D to R for ME and R to D for NEB

[lfromnj]

"failed centrist" strategy

You mean the one that Susan Collins just won for decades?

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

"failed centrist" strategy

You mean the one that Susan Collins just won for decades?

Yes. A non-incumbent would obviously have flamed out with Collins' strategy. Hers depended on a personal brand as opposed to milquetoast platitudes.

[S019]

Anyways as an actual answer, I think Gideon should have ran as a moderate and emphasized that she was a moderate (whether or not she actually is is irrelevant to campaign strategy), so that Collins would've lost the "moderate card" and it then would have turned into an R vs. D battle, which she would've been favored in. It was not smart for her to run a campaign that appealed mostly to out of state donors.

[tjstarling]

I said this in an early ME senate poll thread:

I have a feeling Collins is being underestimated here. I read an old TNR story on Collins and it gave me an insight into her faux moderate status (as opposed to her old colleague Olympia Snowe, an actual moderate). It also gave me insight into how ingrained Collins is in Maine. Her job ratings have taken an awful hit, but an election is a choice and Collins has meaningful advantages against Gideon. She’s well know and one of the people of that second district (she harvested potatoes in Aroostook for god sakes). It’s easy to see her absolutely romping Gideon in the 2nd district and doing well enough in the 1st to win. Here’s where I go out on a bit of a limb (and hopefully highlight how female politicians are subject to additional biases regarding their appearance though I think the same issue may hurt Ossoff as well) but Gideon’s cosmopolitan appearance probably does her few favors (contrast her with a Collins, Snowe, or current Gov. Mills). All that being said, Collins is in trouble and needs to look no further than Maine’s own Margaret Chase Smith for a lesson in being denied a fifth term in the Senate.

I’m not trying to gloat here as I likely would have picked Gideon to win the seat if forced to do so. However, there seems to be a strange tendency in the forum for people to generally ask what did the democrat do wrong - in this case Gideon and in another Biden (who’s going to freaking defeat an incumbent president). Maybe the question we should be asking is what did the Republican do right? Collins, Trump, etc. have appeal. It’s worth examining that appeal. A democratic candidate can be perfectly fine and the the Republican can still win you know.  It’s not always the case that we can simply sit back and say “this person isn’t progressive enough” or “this person isn’t moderate enough” or “they should have focused on issue XYZ”. The dynamics simply aren’t that one sided or simple.

[SenatorCouzens]

I don't have a good answer, but a couple observations.

She ran as a generic D without much else to offer. When I watched her in debates, she lacked seriousness and, while I mean no disrespect, struck me as a high school student playing a role in a mock Congress. Certainly ready for prime time if all you care about is the D next to her name, not enough if you want something more.

Collins has a somewhat idiosyncratic air about her, but she has gravitas. Oh, and by the way, an actual moderate record, when taken as a whole.

[Tekken_Guy]

The race was way too nationalized. Even though Maine is a D-leaning state. a lot of people saw her as an avatar for the national party, the same way that McGrath or Harrison were.

2022 does not look better. Dems are going to be burning money against Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. On the other hand, Republicans are probably going to do the same against Schumer.

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

I said this in an early ME senate poll thread:

I have a feeling Collins is being underestimated here. I read an old TNR story on Collins and it gave me an insight into her faux moderate status (as opposed to her old colleague Olympia Snowe, an actual moderate). It also gave me insight into how ingrained Collins is in Maine. Her job ratings have taken an awful hit, but an election is a choice and Collins has meaningful advantages against Gideon. She’s well know and one of the people of that second district (she harvested potatoes in Aroostook for god sakes). It’s easy to see her absolutely romping Gideon in the 2nd district and doing well enough in the 1st to win. Here’s where I go out on a bit of a limb (and hopefully highlight how female politicians are subject to additional biases regarding their appearance though I think the same issue may hurt Ossoff as well) but Gideon’s cosmopolitan appearance probably does her few favors (contrast her with a Collins, Snowe, or current Gov. Mills). All that being said, Collins is in trouble and needs to look no further than Maine’s own Margaret Chase Smith for a lesson in being denied a fifth term in the Senate.

I’m not trying to gloat here as I likely would have picked Gideon to win the seat if forced to do so. However, there seems to be a strange tendency in the forum for people to generally ask what did the democrat do wrong - in this case Gideon and in another Biden (who’s going to freaking defeat an incumbent president). Maybe the question we should be asking is what did the Republican do right? Collins, Trump, etc. have appeal. It’s worth examining that appeal. A democratic candidate can be perfectly fine and the the Republican can still win you know.  It’s not always the case that we can simply sit back and say “this person isn’t progressive enough” or “this person isn’t moderate enough” or “they should have focused on issue XYZ”. The dynamics simply aren’t that one sided or simple.

There's another thread to analyze what Collins did right, this one's about Gideon

[Benjamin Frank]

She didn't change her name to Sara King James.

[Figueira]

It seems from both polling and results that there was a late movement of Democrats deciding that Collins was a nice moderate hero after all. Will we get to see second choice results?

[UWS]

I guess that Collins’ vote against ACB’s SCOTUS confirmation may have helped her win senate re-election.