Susan Collins' disapproval rating spikes in new poll ahead of targeted 2020 re-election bid

Source: Bangor Daily News

AUGUSTA, Maine — More Mainers disapproved of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins than approved of her in the second quarter of 2019 for the first time in more than two years of polling by a national firm in perhaps the best sign yet for Democrats in an uphill bid to oust her in 2020.

Collins, a Republican, became a top target for Democrats after her October vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Next year’s campaign is tracking to be the most expensive in Maine history, with Collins raising nearly $6.5 million by June’s end to $1 million in 10 days for House Speaker Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, one of four Democrats running.

The level of the threat to Collins, who long polled as Maine’s most popular politician and won her fourth term in 2014 with more than two-thirds of votes, has been difficult to discern, but online polling from Morning Consult shows a 22-percentage point drop in approval for Collins between the beginning of 2017 and the second quarter of 2019.

Data from the latest quarter, released Tuesday, pegged Collins at 45 percent approval and 48 percent disapproval, with an error margin of 2 percentage points. She had a 67 percent approval rating in the first quarter of 2017 and was measured at 52 percent approval and 39 percent disapproval in the first three months of this year.

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