Democrats are accusing Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) of failing to deliver results for Maine when it comes to thwarting tariffs as the vulnerable incumbent lawmaker gears up for one of the most competitive Senate reelection campaigns nationwide. 

Dan Kleban, one of several Democrats seeking to oust Collins ahead of the 2026 election, said President Donald Trump’s tariffs are “paralyzing” small business owners like himself in the state. Collins, he told Newsweek, “doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it.” 

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“The cost of living is just too damn high up here, and Senator Collins isn’t doing enough to bring relief to hard-working Mainers … She’s playing Washington, D.C. politics, and people are rightfully angry,” Kleban said in an interview published Friday. “People are just sick and tired of things, and I think they’ve reached a breaking point. They look at me as a breath of fresh air, frankly, someone that can deliver results.”

While Collins, a centrist senator known for challenging the Trump administration, has bucked the president multiple times on his tariff agenda, Kleban criticized her for not fully breaking with tariff policies altogether. 

“Congress, they have the constitutional authority over the tariff power, and they need to take it back,” Kleban said, but Collins “seems to be OK with Donald Trump imposing tariffs unilaterally.” 

“As a United States senator, I would demand that the Senate take back the power that they rightfully have, and so that the people have a say, the people’s houses have a say in when and how tariffs are imposed,” he added. “I’d get rid of them—plain and simple,” he said. “They have been applied willy-nilly, haphazardly, and have done nothing but inject uncertainty into small business owners’ operations.

Collins has yet to launch her reelection bid but said last year that she intends to seek a sixth term. While she’s considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents up for reelection, the centrist senator has historically defied the odds, winning her last campaign with 51% of the vote, the same year Maine backed former President Joe Biden by 9 points. 

While she’s attracted criticism from Kleban and other Democrats for her position on tariffs, Collins has also sparked outrage from the other side of the aisle for not doing enough to back them. 

In early April, Collins was among four Republican senators who supported a measure from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) to end the national fentanyl emergency that Trump declared to impose a 25% tariff on Canada. Her move came despite Trump’s demands to change course, as the president had argued fighting the tariffs was “playing with the lives of the American people and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats.” 

Later that month, she again backed a resolution aimed at overturning global tariffs instituted by Trump, saying it conveyed her concern that the U.S. should be more selective with tariffs.

“It is not perfect, I think it’s too broad, but it sends the message that I want to send, that we really need to be far more discriminatory in imposing these tariffs and not treat allies like Canada the way we treat adversaries,” Collins told reporters. 

However, Kleban argued that the incumbent lawmaker hasn’t done enough to fight back against Trump’s tariff agenda or his landmark “big, beautiful” budget bill. Collins opposed the legislation in a final vote, but sparked criticism for casting a vote allowing it to advance from a Senate committee to the Senate floor.

“She’s always willing to cast a vote when it doesn’t matter anymore,” Kleban said, casting himself as the alternative he believes voters are looking for. “People are hurting. They are sick and tired of it. They’re ready for a new generation of leadership. They’re ready for folks who aren’t career politicians.”

Before he can challenge Collins in the general election, Kleban faces a likely competitive Democratic primary. The business owner is up against several candidates, including Graham Platner, whose campaign recently received a boost with an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Jordan Wood, who entered the race in April. 

Both Platner and Wood have also leveled attacks on Collins for failing to block Trump’s tariffs. 

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“I know a lot of guys who have construction gigs or are contractors,” Platner told New York Magazine in August. “The tariff uncertainty has driven prices for them up 20, 30, 40 percent. So now there are projects that were being done that aren’t being done because essentially we have a self-made supply-chain crisis and it is impacting people in material ways. Deleterious isn’t even the right word for it. People can’t live around here anymore. It’s getting effectively unlivable.”

Wood has said that although Collins has expressed concern about the tariffs that Trump has imposed on most countries around the world, that “concern” is not enough. He said in May, “Canada is our state’s top trading partner and we’re already feeling the impact of these tariffs. Where’s Collins? She had the chance to stand up for Maine and reassure our neighbors. It’s time for new leadership.”