Sen. Susan Collins announces she won't vote for Trump in November and will instead write in Haley's name on the ballot

Senator Susan Collins announced that she will not vote for Donald Trump in November, but will write Nikki Haley's name on the ballot. So said the Maine Republican, whose relationship with the former president had not been particularly stable. 

The senator, who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997, had publicly endorsed Haley during the Republican primary, claiming the former governor was "extremely well qualified to serve as our first woman president."

"She has the energy, intellect, and temperament that we need to lead our country in these very tumultuous times," she added in a statement. 

Despite Haley's primary defeat, Collins remarked that she was going to write Haley's name on the November ballot, given that she remained her "favorite candidate." When asked if she wasn't concerned that her vote didn't matter in choosing a candidate who wasn't vying for the White House, she said she had to do what she feels is "right."

Collins joined Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) as the only Republican and incumbent female senators to officially endorse the South Carolina Republican for president. 

The rocky relationship between Trump and Collins

The history between Trump and Collins was not the happiest during the tycoon's tenure in the White House. Indeed, the Maine senator voted with the president's position 65% of the time, the lowest percentage among all her Republican colleagues.

They had a moment of grace during the Brett Kavanaugh nomination process for the Supreme Court, in which the senator accompanied her vote with a powerful speech in favor of the judge. "We are indebted to senator Susan Collins, for her brave and eloquent speech and her declaration that 'when passions are most inflamed fairness is most in jeopardy'. How true, how true," Trump expressed at the event to swear in Kavanaugh. 

However, the relationship remained rocky through the end of the Trump's tenure, even with Collins voting against Amy Coney Barrett's nomination in 2020. She was the only Republican to do so, though she was not the only one to vote in favor of a second impeachment trial against Trump as early as 2021.