Susan Collins Campaigns with Private Equity Insider Whose Firm Shuttered Paper Mills in Jay, Bucksport

Susan Collins campaigned with former West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin last Wednesday in Androscoggin County. Manchin’s role as an advisor to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management brings into serious question her judgement and her allegiance to out-of-state private equity interests that have devastated, and continue to devastate, Maine communities. Apollo and its subsidiaries were responsible for the closure of paper mills in Bucksport and Jay, resulting in the loss of 500 jobs and 340 jobs respectively. Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, who has donated at least $50,000 to support Collins, had a close relationship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“It is mystifying and insulting that Susan Collins would bring this man to Maine to campaign with her when it is so painfully clear that his private equity firm has exacted so much economic misery on Maine communities, and continues to pursue more opportunities to amass more wealth at the direct expense of Maine families,” said Maine AFL-CIO Pres. Cynthia Phinney. “It’s no secret that Susan Collins has made a habit of selling out our state in the interest of billionaires, but this is such a slap in the face for everyone who has suffered at the hands of the interests Susan Collins has cozied up to in her 30 years in the Senate,” she said. “So to Mr. Manchin and all other private equity interests that seek to do harm to our state and our local economies, we say ‘Welcome to Maine, now go home.”

Collins has taken more money from private equity interests in this election cycle than any other candidate in the country and she also led the pack in private equity financial support in the 2020 cycle too. In 2017, Collins did a huge favor for Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and his private equity cronies when she withdrew a proposal to close private equity’s cherished carried interest loophole. Schwartzman donated $2 million to support Collins the day before Senator Collins cast the deciding vote to advance the One Big Beautiful Bill, which slashes $4.125 billion from food assistance and rural Maine hospitals in order to give a massive tax cut to Collins billionaire donors.