A top Maine Democrat announces bid to unseat Sen. Collins

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Democratic speaker of the Maine House of Representatives announced Monday that she is challenging longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, whose political future has generated an enormous amount of attention over the last year.

Rep. Sara Gideon, of Freeport, is in her fourth term and has been the speaker for the past two terms. Collins, first elected in 1996, is expected to run for another term but has yet to formally announce her candidacy.

Collins cruised to re-election in 2014 and has long been viewed as a moderate Republican. Liberals set up a fund to help try to unseat her after she voted to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court selection Brett Kavanaugh last year.

The fund has raised more than $4 million amid fear from liberals that Kavanaugh will vote to severely weaken access to abortion.

Gideon's website pledges to "put Maine First" and says she has "always stood up for a right to choose." The newly Democratic-led Legislature in Maine this year has passed laws to allow state Medicaid funding for abortions, and to allow advanced clinicians such as nurse practitioners to perform abortions.

Gideon is also touting legislation to protect affordable health care coverage amid efforts to repeal former President Barack Obama's signature health law. Maine lawmakers this year passed bills aiming to lower prescription drug costs and ensure that Obamacare protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions are enshrined in state law.

"At one point, maybe Sen. Collins was different, but she doesn't seem that way anymore: taking over a million dollars from drug companies and the insurance industry and voting to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court," Gideon said in a video.

Republicans in Maine and elsewhere immediately began trying to paint Gideon as a "far left"...