Exclusive: 4th Maine Republican Committee Censures Sen. Susan Collins over Vote to Convict Trump

The Waldo County Republican Committee in Maine has censured Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) over her vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial in February.

Waldo is now the fourth county GOP committee in the state to publicly express its criticism of Collins for voting to convict Trump.

Katrina Smith, chair of the Waldo County Republican Committee, told Breitbart News, “the Waldo County Republican committee did Censure Susan Collins with a vote on April 8.”

She added her committee did not post information about their vote on their website or social media because they “sincerely wanted to give Senator Collins the opportunity to respond to us outside of the media.”

“As of this writing, her office has never responded to us,” Smith said, explaining, “Our county was slow to censure her because we hoped that the state GOP would go ahead and take action and that it would send an even louder message to her than we could do alone.”

“Once the state committee did not censure her, and I did cast my vote to do so, our members demanded that we vote on it,” Smith continued. “Before we took the vote we received over 300 contacts from people (emails, texts and calls) and only five did not want to censure her. We then set aside an evening and invited people to come to our office and formally vote and the result was that we completely disagreed with her actions.”

Smith said Collins held a “Zoom call” with county Republican chairs prior to her vote to convict Trump.

In the call, “I begged her to listen to the people and to respect their wishes to NOT [sic] impeach the president,” Smith told Breitbart News. “It was clear to us after she voted that she had no intention of listening to the Republicans of her state.”

Smith forwarded to Breitbart News the letter she sent to Collins, which reads:

I am writing to inform you that the Waldo County Republican committee held a county wide vote on April 8^th to censure the vote you cast to impeach President Donald J. Trump.

The Waldo County Republicans vehemently stand against your reasoning to vote to impeach and stand with the facts (sic) that President Donald Trump did not incite violence and could not legitimately be impeached as a former President. We believe you did not represent your constituents in a manner that reflected their wishes and hereby censure your decision.

Breitbart News reached out to Collins’ office for comment.

Annie Clark, Collins’ communications director, said she was noting, “the Waldo County Republican Committee voted to censure the vote cast by Senator Collins.”

In March, the state Republican Party rejected censuring Collins. Reacting to that news, Collins said at the time, “Today’s decision is a testament to the Republican Party’s ‘big tent’ philosophy that respects different views but unites around core principles.”

However, a Maine Grassroots Republican Caucus (MGRC), a group of about 25 conservative Republican Mainers, including six county chairmen and state committee members, broke with the Maine GOP just one day after it voted to reject censuring the senator.

The Republican committees in Aroostook County (Collins’ home county), and the counties of Piscataquis, Kennebec, and now Waldo, have all voted in favor of censure following the senator’s vote to convict Trump.

MGRC Chair John DeVeau told Breitbart News the continued censure of Collins throughout Maine “is an indication of the failure to listen to those who write the $10 checks v. the $10,000 checks.”

“The thought that money is more important than people, is a recipe for disaster,” DeVeau said.

News Center Maine reported last week that Clark also responded to the censure vote in Kennebec by stressing the senator received “strong grassroots support” in the 2020 general election.

In November, Collins defeated far-left Democrat Sara Gideon, who was backed by Planned Parenthood, the abortion industry giant that has also supported the pro-choice Collins, 51 percent to 42.4 percent in the state.

Recently, the Maine senator has also called for an “in-depth investigation” into the Trump Department of Justice’s actions, and, in May, was one of six Senate Republicans to vote to advance legislation to create a commission to investigate the riots and protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Following her vote to convict Trump, Collins told News Center Maine, “I am the sole remaining Republican office holder at the federal level in all of New England … and that tells me that we should focus on growing our party.”

The senator said:

And I think that we need to send a message that you can be a good Republican and not necessarily agree with every position taken by the party. We need to get back to focusing on the principles that unite Republicans: so individual responsibility and freedom and strong national defense smaller government support for our small businesses, opportunity, those are guiding principles of our party. And I think that’s where the focus needs to be rather than on one particular leader.

DeVeau, however, firmly disagrees.

“Sen. Collins has had her way on many issues while in Washington,” he explained. “When 15 out of 16 County Chairs take the time to speak with any elected official on a specific issue, self-interest should be set aside and the voice of the people should be respected.”

“What the Collins team doesn’t understand from the quote numbers from the last election is that the votes the senator received were because the choices were a dangerous Leftist Democrat or Sen. Collins,” DeVeau asserted.