Phillip Rench, 37, claims to represent ‘the middle ground’ and is encouraging more candidates to jump into the race against Collins.
Last month, former SpaceX engineer and 37-year-old Waterboro resident Phillip Rench filed paperwork to run as an independent Senate candidate in 2026 against centrist senator Susan Collins of Maine, chairwoman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee who is seeking a sixth term in what’s expected to be one of the most competitive reelection contests of the midterms. No high-profile Democrat has jumped into the race yet.
Rench told National Review in a telephone interview that he aims to cut through Collins’s bipartisan message by touting his own conservative bona fides on tax issues and gun rights in keeping with the feel of the state, where he says it’s “it’s very common for 50 percent your family to be very blue and then 50 percent to be very red.”
And yet several factors could complicate this political novice’s independent pitch in 2026, namely his public calls for a “solid Democrat” to jump in the race, his recent Democratic voter registration in Florida, and his small-dollar donations to progressives including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Kamala Harris.
After growing up in Waterboro, Maine, Rench worked in Texas as a SpaceX engineer at the Elon Musk-founded company’s Boca Chica Launch Site. His LinkedIn profile says he also worked for SpaceX in the Sunshine State, where he was registered as an active Democratic voter from 2016 until 2019, according to official Brevard County, Fla., voting records reviewed by National Review. He moved back to Maine with his wife and two kids in 2019, started a farm in Waterboro the following year, and in 2023, the state’s two-term Democratic Governor Janet Mills nominated him to serve on the Maine Space Corporation board of directors.
Rench tells NR his views align 80 to 90 percent with the average Democrat but adds that the party has gone “astray” lately without a “clear leader” at the helm. “I do have some views that are probably more center — more maybe a little bit to the right — especially when it comes to cutting taxes, when it comes to Second Amendment rights and stuff like that, just because I do have those family members that are really Republican, and I understand why they have some of those opinions,” Rench tells National Review, adding that his experience as a farmer gives him a “unique perspective” on political issues as well.
Phillips has spent recent days actively engaging in conversations about his 2026 candidacy on the internet forum Reddit, where he openly discusses his evolving party affiliation and has expressed hope that a Democratic candidate will challenge Collins in addition to his own independent candidacy. Responding to one Reddit user’s concern that his campaign “kind of stinks of someone to splinter the left vote,” Phillips wrote: “I actually hope a solid Democrat actually steps forward as well; I just do not trust one will. This is going to be the most critical election of 2026.”
Speaking with National Review, Rench acknowledged that “the leading hope” among many Democrats in his state is that term-limited Governor Janet Mills will throw her hat in the ring to challenge Collins in 2026. “Don’t get me wrong, I think she would do quite well. I think she would raise a lot of money,” Rench said of his home state governor. “It’s not clear to me whether she would win or not, just because of how the party lines are drawn at the moment in the state of Maine.”
Rench has also expressed openness to following in the footsteps of Maine’s junior U.S. Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats.
“I would caucus with whomever puts forth legislation that would benefit the State of Maine,” Phillips wrote under the username “PhillipForMaine,” which Rench confirmed by phone is his account. “With that said, I rarely disagree with Senator King’s positions. This will become clear in the coming months as I expand upon my positions via the Campaign website.”
Ousting Collins will be challenging. Even though Maine is a blue-leaning state at the presidential level, Collins’s 2020 Democratic challenger, Sara Gideon, was very well funded and still lost by nearly nine points.
For now, Rench says he plans to stay in the race for the long haul even as he encourages other Democrats to jump into the fray. “I am committed to this until the end as I do not see anyone else stepping forward that can actually take her on. I would love to be proven wrong,” Phillips wrote over the weekend on Reddit. “I do represent the middle ground, or at least as close as your [sic] going to get. Like many American families, mine are split down the middle politically. There is [sic] positions are [sic] I agree with on both sides of the aisle. I just want better quality candidates, preferably younger as well.”
Also challenging Collins in 2026 is Republican candidate Daniel Smeriglio, a Frenchville resident, veteran, and founder of Voice of the People USA Radio and Activist Group.