As I watched Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins’s recent press conference to announce that she would not be supporting Donald Trump, I couldn’t help but notice our own Sen. Kelly Ayotte standing right behind Sen. Collins but looking very uncomfortable.
I have long admired Sen. Collins’s pragmatic and moderate approach to many issues that divide Democrats and Republicans. Whether it be gun control or health care, if there is a compromise to be had, Sen. Collins is often involved. Her courage in announcing her opposition to Trump speaks volumes about who she is and how she is willing to take a stand that is right, rather than simply take a stand that makes things right with her party.
The contrast between her courage in taking a stand, and our own Sen. Ayotte’s linguistic gymnastics of “supporting but not endorsing” Trump could not be more stark.
I suspect I am not the only Granite Stater who hoped that Kelly Ayotte would be more like Sen. Collins, but instead have found her to be the typical partisan, poll-driven, party-first politician we have seen all too much of in this country.
Sen. Ayotte has had her chance to show us who she is. I don’t doubt that she does not want to support Donald Trump. I suspect she would have loved to have been standing at that podium next to Sen. Collins taking the same position. But all that matters is that she did not. Perhaps polls or political calculation got in the way. All I know is that Kelly Ayotte is no Susan Collins. And hopefully Maggie Hassan is.
SCOTT METZGER
Hopkinton