Collins Returns an Endorsement to Sender, Says She Isn't 'Seeking Endorsements From Anyone' Outside the State

AUGUSTA — The Senate campaign of Collins spent Thursday firmly declining a gift: an endorsement from the party's most recent presidential nominee, delivered in a fundraising email from the nominee's political committee urging supporters to open their wallets on the candidate's behalf. The campaign said it had not sought the endorsement, had no advance knowledge of the email, and would like the record to reflect that the candidate 'isn't seeking endorsements from anyone' outside the state — a border the campaign drew, The Press notes, precisely one presidential nominee wide.

'Her focus is and always will be' the state, a spokesman said, in the tone of a homeowner explaining to a neighbor that the casserole was very kind but will not be coming inside.

The nominee in question lost the state by a wide margin in the last presidential election, a fact the opposing party's campaign moved within hours to staple to Collins's name, insisting that no matter how hard she 'tries to hide from the endorsement,' voters 'can see exactly whose team' she is on. The candidate's team, for its part, would like it known that she did not endorse the nominee that year, either — a mutual non-endorsement now entering its second cycle.

The Press's endorsement desk observes that the fundraising email is the only form of correspondence in American politics that arrives unsolicited, cannot be returned, and obligates the recipient to explain a relationship the sender invented. Every candidate in a difficult state has received one; the difference is only whether the party's standard-bearer is currently an asset or a package to be left on the porch.

Reaction followed the standing choreography. Voters aligned with the candidate saw an independent voice keeping her distance from national politics; voters opposed saw a politician hiding from her own party's leader while cashing its checks. The Press archives confirm both parties own the vocabulary — 'putting the state first' and 'running from her record' — and swap it, unopened, whenever the other side is the one avoiding the hug.

The email, sources confirm, is still raising money.