“Pledged during her first Senate campaign that if elected she would serve only two terms (twelve years) in the U.S. Senate. She was sworn in for a fifth term in January 2021 and in 2026 launched a campaign for a sixth term, so the term-limit pledge was not kept.”
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Both cited sources are reachable and both quotes appear verbatim. Newsweek documents Collins's unconditional 1996 first-campaign pledge ("I will only serve two terms, regardless of whether term limits law, constitutional amendment passes or not. Twelve years is long enough to be in public service.") and confirms she has since served five terms and is running for a sixth. Bangor Daily News (Feb 10, 2026) confirms she committed to a 2026 campaign for a sixth term that would make her the longest-serving senator in Maine history. The pledge was unconditional and entirely within her control (she simply had to not run again). She broke it not passively but through repeated deliberate affirmative acts — campaigning for and winning terms three, four, and five, being sworn in for a fifth term in January 2021, then launching a sixth-term bid — each act being the direct opposite of the promised action. That is actively working to defeat her own promise: HOSTILE. Her separate 1997 co-sponsorship of a term-limits amendment is a distinct policy action and does not offset abandoning her personal two-term cap. Nonpartisan basis: her documented actions are measured against the promised action, applied identically regardless of party.
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