Which candidates for Senate are in a better position to help their state and, by extension, their citizens in the six years ahead?This is the question voters in every state with a contested Senate seat should ask themselves before they vote between now and the close of voting Tuesday.Example number one is Maine, where Senator Susan Collins is matched against Troy Jackson.Jackson is the man picked by Maine’s Democratic Party — not the voters — after Graham Platner crashed, burned and withdrew from the race on July 10.
The party’s state committee picked Jackson even though he had finished third in the Democratic governor’s primary the same day Platner won his primary.Polls rate the Maine race as a toss-up, but polls at the close in 2020 had Collins behind by at least four percentage points, and she in fact won by more than 8%. MORNING GLORY: THE DEMOCRATS HAVE A 'FANATIC FOUR' OF EXTREMIST SENATE CANDIDATESMaine voters are unlikely to surrender the seniority Collins holds — she is chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee — for a rookie who would rank tied for last in the currency that matters the most in the Senate: the incumbent’s years served in the body.
Add to that reality the fact that every Mainer seems to know the senator at least in passing and that communities across the state have benefited from the influence she has accumulated over more than 10,000 consecutive roll call votes, and Collins is poised to win.Again.In South Carolina, Sen.
Darline Graham has been serving since her brother Lindsey died.That gives her a leg up on new senators elected this year, and in a state that went for Donald Trump by 18% in 2024, it’s very likely Graham will return for a full six-year term.Ohio’s incumbent Sen.
Jon Husted has been in the Senate since January 2025.As a member of the majority, he’s in a position to deliver more for the Buckeye State than the recycled Democrat Sherrod Brown, who was ousted by Ohio voters two years ago af...