An ad attacking Sen. Susan Collins in Maine claimed that she voted “to raise healthcare costs and raise insurance premiums,” as well as give President Donald Trump “a blank check for his war in Iran.” But neither claim fully explains Collins’ more nuanced position on those issues.
For the healthcare claims, the ad cites her vote in September against a Democratic bill to, among other things, temporarily fund the federal government and permanently extend enhanced Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies beyond 2025. But Collins did support extending the subsidies with some restrictions — however, she said the extension should be addressed separately from spending bills proposed to prevent or end a government shutdown.
As for the Iran war, Collins initially voted against multiple war powers resolutions filed by Democrats to require the Trump administration to get congressional authorization to continue the joint U.S.-Israeli operation that began with airstrikes on Iran in late February. But she also signaled that she would change her vote to require authorization by Congress if the conflict with Iran lasted longer than 60 days — and she did. That resolution ultimately failed.
The anti-Collins ad is being sponsored by Majority Forward, a nonprofit registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization. Majority Forward is aligned with Senate Democrats who hope to defeat Collins in the race for her long-held Senate seat in Maine.
Semafor reported that the liberal group is spending $600,000 to run the 30-second ad statewide. It began airing on April 23, according to AdImpact, which tracks political advertising.
Health Insurance Premiums
The ad begins with the narrator telling Mainers: “You’re already getting squeezed, because Susan Collins voted with Donald Trump to raise healthcare costs and raise insurance premiums. Now, Susan Collins voted to give Trump a blank check for his war in Iran.”
We’ll get to the Iran claim later. As we indicated, the claims about healthcare costs are not the whole story.
The ad suggests that Collins was opposed to extending the more generous insurance subsidies — which are actually premium tax credits — for those buying coverage on the ACA marketplaces. The enhanced subsidies were first passed by Democrats in 2021 as part of pandemic relief legislation. But that wasn’t the case, according to Collins, who said she favored continuing them – at least for certain people, for a limited period of time.
It’s true that she voted against a continuing resolution that Democrats proposed to fund the government, permanently extend the ACA enhanced subsidies and other things. In fact, she voted against that resolution on multiple occasions between Sept. 19 and Oct. 9.
Around that time, Collins explained her position by saying that she thought the ACA subsidies – which didn’t officially expire until year’s end – should be handled apart from a must-pass spending bill to keep the government open.
For example, addressing the subsidies in a statement to the Maine Morning Star for a Sept. 26 story, Collins said, “It is clear that we need to act on this issue, but our focus right now needs to be on avoiding a harmful government shutdown that would cause disruptions to vital programs that many Americans rely on every day.”
And in a post on Facebook on Oct. 1, Collins encouraged her fellow senators to support the “House-passed clean, short-term funding measure” from Republicans instead of the “alternative proposal” from Democrats that she said was “full of significant partisan policy changes.”
She wrote: “We must end the government shutdown, continue our bipartisan negotiations on the annual appropriations bills, and work to find a path forward on the enhanced premium tax credits.”
In an email to us, Shawn Roderick, a spokesperson for the Collins campaign, said that during this period, the senator “was working around the clock to fund government and put an end to the harmful government shutdown” while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “was focused on forcing these performative messaging votes” that were “full of partisan poison pills.”
In addition to temporarily funding the government and permanently extending the enhanced ACA subsidies, the spending bill introduced by Democrats would have repealed healthcare provisions in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, restored certain funding being withheld by the Office of Management and Budget, and limited OMB’s authority to withhold other congressionally authorized funding. Democrats attempted to get those policy initiatives enacted by attaching them to a spending bill to fund the government.
Collins, as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, would go on to help write the funding bill that ended the 43-day shutdown in November. But that bill did not extend the subsidies in question.
Then, in December, as time to act on the subsidies was getting short, Collins joined with a Republican colleague, Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, to propose legislation to temporarily extend the subsidies for two years, while capping the household income threshold for eligibility at $200,000 and requiring a $25 minimum monthly premium.
“This bill would help prevent unaffordable increases in health insurance premium costs for many families by extending the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits for two years and putting a reasonable income cap on these subsidies to ensure they are going to the individuals who need them,” she said in a statement about the proposal.
That same month, Collins also voted to advance legislation introduced by Schumer that would extend the tax credits for three years. But that bill — which Collins sought to amend to include income limits — failed to receive the 60 votes necessary to move to final consideration.
In 2025, 86% of the more than 62,000 people insured through Maine’s state-based marketplace received premium tax credits, according to the health policy research organization KFF.
Lauren French, a spokesperson for Majority Forward, made the argument to us that Collins’ previous votes matter more than her words.
“The Senate doesn’t offer a lane for Sen. Collins to enable outcomes she claims to oppose and then skip accountability for her votes increasing the cost of health care and giving Donald Trump unchecked authority to wage war,” French said in an email.
Iran War
The Iran war claim is based on Collins’ previous votes against war powers resolutions that would stop military operations in Iran until Congress officially declared war or authorized the use of force. The ad cites one particular vote in March, but Collins voted against the war powers resolution multiple times.
In congressional testimony on April 29, the Pentagon’s comptroller, Jay Hurst, told Congress that the war has cost approximately $25 billion so far. But other estimates put the cost at closer to $40 billion to $50 billion, according to news reports citing unnamed U.S. officials.
In a statement released on March 4, Collins said she didn’t vote to stop the military operation that began days earlier because it was important not to allow Iran to have nuclear weapons and to show support for U.S. troops.
“Passing this resolution now would send the wrong message to Iran and to our troops,” Collins said. “At this juncture, providing unequivocal support to our service members is critically important, as is ongoing consultation by the Administration with Congress.”
But Collins later indicated in mid-April that her position would “very likely” change if the conflict continued for more than 60 days, which, under the War Powers Act of 1973, would then require the approval of Congress.
And as the war approached the two-month mark, Collins, on April 30, voted for a war powers resolution sponsored by Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff to halt military actions against Iran unless approved by Congress. (The ad began airing before this vote, but it was still running in Maine as of at least May 3, according to AdImpact.)
“As I have said since these hostilities began, the President’s authority as Commander-in-Chief is not without limits,” Collins said in a statement put out by her Senate office. “The Constitution gives Congress an essential role in decisions of war and peace, and the War Powers Act establishes a clear 60-day deadline for Congress to either authorize or end U.S. involvement in foreign hostilities. That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement.”
The statement continued: “Further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable goals, and a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close. I voted to end the continuation of these military hostilities at this time until such a case is made.”
Collins was one of just two Republicans to vote for the resolution, but it failed 47-50.
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