Maine Democrats are weaponizing a fatal ICE shooting to attack Republican Sen. Susan Collins, hoping voters will forget that their own Senate nominee just imploded over a credible sexual assault allegation.
The political calculus is naked. Last week, Democratic nominee Graham Platner quit the race after a sexual assault allegation many former allies described as credible. Platner denied it, but the damage was done. Democrats now face a July 25 convention to scramble for a replacement — with only months to unseat a 28-year incumbent in a race they need to win back the Senate. So they found a new angle: blame Collins for an ICE agent pulling the trigger.
On Monday, a federal immigration agent fatally shot a 26-year-old Colombian national just south of Portland. According to WTOP, the victim was not the target of the ICE probe, and the agents involved were not wearing body cameras. It was the ninth ICE-related death since President Trump ramped up immigration enforcement.
Within hours, Democratic hopefuls descended on the scene and on Collins' office. Nirav Shah, former director of the Maine CDC and now Senate candidate, drew a direct line from the shooting to Collins' role chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee. "She's got power, but she didn't use it to rein in a rogue agency, and instead gave them a blank check to kill," Shah said. He called for abolishing ICE.
A letter published by the Portland Press Herald captured the same pitch in rawer form. Aaron Bergeron of Portland called ICE activity "paramilitary violence" and "abduptions," accused Collins of voting to increase ICE's funding after earlier enforcement surges in the state, and declared: "I stand with my neighbors calling for ICE to be abolished."
WTOP framed the Democrats' push as a deliberate strategy to shift the conversation from the Platner scandal back to Collins' record. The outlet noted that Democrats "acknowledged that the Platner scandal likely makes their fight to defeat Collins more difficult" but were "hopeful that the shooting will shift the conversation back to Collins' record." One Democratic operative was blunt: "This tragedy refocuses the conversation from Platner fallout to the real world impact of Susan Collins voting to give ICE tens of billions of dollars."
What both outlets buried: Collins didn't dodge. She said she spoke with DHS Secretary Mullin and "urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops" while the investigation is incomplete. That's a sitting Republican senator pressing the homeland security chief to pause enforcement actions — hardly the profile of an ICE cheerleader.
The core dispute is straightforward. Democrats want to abolish the agency enforcing immigration law. Collins funds the agency and is now demanding accountability after a fatal incident. The question for Maine voters is whether they want the party of abolish-ICE and scandal-plagued replacements, or a seasoned appropriator who at least pushed back when something went wrong.
The other question: what actually happened on that road south of Portland. No body cameras. A dead Colombian national who wasn't the target. An investigation that hasn't concluded. Democrats aren't waiting for answers — they're campaigning on the corpse.
