A new focus group episode from Republican strategist Sarah Longwell's podcast this week featured Maine voters who feel Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has abandoned them — along with the independent streak she once claimed to embody.

Speaking with newspaper editor and former national political reporter Alex Seitz-Wald, Longwell played clips from voters she had interviewed, all of whom expressed concern about worsening financial pressures.

According to the participants, there are very real worries about making it through the coming winter financially. Some of the problems involve lumber costs, which have risen as a result of President Donald Trump's trade war with Canada. Heating oil is the other financial hardship, with prices rising dramatically because of Trump's war with Iran — a particular strain in Maine, the most heating oil-dependent state in the country. While these are national issues, for residents of Maine the big issues have now become local ones too.

All of the voters Longwell spoke with cast their ballots for then-President Joe Biden in 2020, but also supported Collins. That split-ticket coalition helped Collins win reelection in 2020 even as Biden carried Maine, and her Senate seat is on the ballot again in 2026.

"I was always a Susan Collins fan. She used to be very bipartisan," said one woman who voted for both Biden and Collins in 2020. "She's in, you know, a state that tends to swing blue. So, for a Republican to be a senator in a state that tends to swing blue, you know, she really has to listen to both sides and cater to both sides. And she always did. And she did a lot of things that were good for the state of Maine. Note that word did. You know, she tends to vote with Trump, and I think it's going to kill her in this election."

The woman added that she believes many people are paying attention now in ways they perhaps were not before.

Another participant raised the pay-to-play scandal involving defense contractor Navatek. The company received federal funding in exchange for campaign donations benefiting Collins and other politicians. Collins has denied any wrongdoing, and the investigation brought no charges against her.

Navatek's former chief executive, Martin Kao, told the FBI that his company obtained lucrative government contracts by financially supporting influential lawmakers. ProPublica reported that Collins received $150,000 from a shell company that donated to a PAC supporting her. The allegations also claimed that Trump helped shield her through the FBI investigation.

"She doesn't stand up for women," another woman lamented. "Whatever you believe in, she stood by [Supreme Court Justice Brett] Kavanaugh. She knew it. She allowed it. No, you lost my vote. You don't respect women. You don't let women make their own choices. I have a problem with that. You know, she's been doing the job. Okay, give her the benefit of the doubt. She always tries. She was good at the game, but when she — when I saw her in Donald Trump's Oval Office with the Donald Trump goodie bag, I knew she was a sellout."

Some participants retain gratitude for Collins's constituent services and describe her as intelligent and capable. Their rejection sounds reluctant and disappointed rather than hostile. They believe someone they once trusted no longer provides the independence they valued.

The woman who called Collins a sellout said the senator no longer looks out for her constituents and may have come to put "Washington" over Maine.

Collins, first elected in 1996, has represented Maine in the Senate for nearly three decades.

"I just think she's been there too long, you know? I'm not going to pay for her to be there in a nursing home like Mitch McConnell. Okay? He looks, I think, like a more active muppet," the woman said. "I'm not going to vote for her. Um, and also, like someone else said, I have very, like, mixed feelings about that because I do think she's very intelligent and that she can get things done. But I do think she's been in the role for too long."