“I am looking at where I can do the most good for the people of Maine,” Sen. Susan Collins said on Tuesday. | Getty Susan Collins mulling Maine gubernatorial run

Maine Sen. Susan Collins is considering another run for governor.

“I am looking at where I can do the most good for the people of Maine,” the Republican senator told Newsradio WGAN in an interview Tuesday.


Collins unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1994, losing to her now-independent Senate colleague Angus King.

If elected, Collins would become the first female governor in Maine.

Because the state limits governors to two consecutive terms, Paul LePage, Maine’s controversial governor, is barred from seeking reelection in 2018. LePage has said he wants a post in President Donald Trump’s administration but will challenge King for his Senate seat in 2018 if that doesn’t work out.

Collins said she was torn about her ambitions by what she can accomplish in the Senate versus the possibility of what she could do as governor.

“In the Senate, I now have significant seniority, and that allows me to do a lot,” said Collins, who was first elected to the upper chamber in 1996.

Collins is a moderate Republican in the Senate. She announced last year in a Washington Post op-ed that she would not support Donald Trump in the presidential election. She opposed the president’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, and the White House-backed legislation in the House to repeal and replace Obamacare.

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“Coming to be governor, if I were fortunate enough to be elected … you can work on issues that I care a lot about, like economic development, jobs, education,” she said. “And I would try to heal the state and bring people back together, which I think is important as well.”

She reiterated, however, that her decision will ultimately boil down to “where I can do the most good.”

“I’m being totally honest with you,” she said. “I truly don’t know. I really don’t. It’s a hard decision.”