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Susan Collins Advanced Trump Tax Bill After Receiving $2 Million from Private Equity Billionaire
The five-term Maine senator's populist opponent has seized on her ties to Wall Street, saying: "I don't think private equity deserves more time with a senator than someone who works two jobs to get by."
Sep 04, 2025
As she gears up for a tough midterm race against a progressive challenger in 2026, Sen. Susan Collins is struggling to shake her reputation as a sellout to corporate interests. A new report out Wednesday may make that even more difficult.
Collins (R-Maine) was one of just three Republican senators not to vote for President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act in July, which slashes over $1 trillion from Medicaid to help pay for tax cuts for the rich and is expected to result in over 10 million people losing health insurance coverage.
But Collins did cast a crucial vote to advance the legislation to the Senate floor. An exclusive report from Tessa Stuart in Rolling Stone gives us damning insight into a possible reason why:
[Collins] cast that vote just one day after private equity billionaire Steve Schwarzman, the chair of the Blackstone Group and a man who will personally reap huge rewards from the bill, kicked in $2 million toward her reelection effort.
On June 27, Schwarzman gave $2 million to Pine Tree Results PAC, a Super PAC backing Collins; on June 28, Collins cast a decisive vote allowing Trump's bill to advance to the floor. The vote was 51-49. Vice President JD Vance was present at the Capitol, on hand to break a tie, but was not needed after Collins voted in favor of the bill.
The bill went on to pass the Senate just a few days later, to Schwarzman's presumed delight, since the legislation both extended the pass-through business deduction—treasured by the owners of private equity firms—and made it permanent, allowing partnerships to deduct 20% of their pre-tax income.
Collins' office has strongly denied that Schwarzman's influence had anything to do with her vote to advance the bill. As press secretary Blake Kernen noted, a tie in the Senate would have been broken by Vance, so "the motion to proceed would have passed without her vote."
However, Stuart notes that this was not Collins' first conspicuous donation from Schwarzman or the private equity industry at large.
According to OpenSecrets, Collins' campaign committee and leadership PAC received over $715,000 from private equity and investment firms—more money than any other person elected to Congress during the 2020 election cycle. It included maximum individual contributions from both Schwarzman and his wife.
That number does not include an additional $2 million that Schwarzman donated to her reelection super PAC in 2020. As Stuart points out, this donation came after Collins dropped a proposed amendment to Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, opposed by private equity. That amendment would have "[made] childcare more affordable, by making changes to the private equity industry's beloved carried interest loophole," Stuart wrote.
While Collins denies that her votes are influenced by the piles of money gifted to her by private equity, one of her most formidable challengers in 2026, oyster farmer and Marine veteran Graham Platner, has often seized on her extensive industry ties to hold her up as the poster child for the "oligarchy" he is trying to unseat from power.
"I believe that input from working people is far more important than input from someone who simply has money," Platner thundered during a Labor Day speech in Portland alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). "I believe that we shouldn't be settling for crumbs while billionaires eat the cookie we baked. I don't think private equity deserves more time with a senator than someone who works two jobs to get by."
If Democrats are going to regain the Senate in 2026, Maine will be an essential state to win, something that looks increasingly possible as approval ratings for Collins have plummeted over the first half-year of Trump's second term.
Nearly 7,000 attended Platner's speech, during which he railed against the five-term senator Collins' long history of casting "symbolic" dissenting votes against her party, like opposing Trump's tax legislation, or voting to codify Roe v. Wade, to posture as a "moderate" without actually disrupting their agenda.
"Susan Collins' charade is wearing thin," Platner said Monday. "No one cares that you pretend to be remorseful as you sell out to lobbyists. No one cares while you sell out to corporations, and no one cares while you sell out to a president, who are all engineering the greatest redistribution of wealth from the working class to the ruling class in American history."
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'10 Years in the Making': DNC Passes Resolution to Limit Dark Money in Primaries
"Corporate money has been a disaster for progressive nominees," said Our Revolution board member Larry Cohen.
Aug 26, 2025
Following years of pressure from progressive advocates, the Democratic National Committee's resolutions panel on Tuesday unanimously approved a measure aimed at limiting dark money—undisclosed independent campaign contributions—in presidential primary elections.
The resolution, which was introduced by Chair Ken Martin, was approved during the DNC's summer meeting in Minneapolis. The measure calls for creating a panel tasked with pursuing "real, enforceable steps the DNC can take to eliminate unlimited corporate and dark money in its 2028 presidential primary process."
Tuesday's move stands in stark contrast with the DNC resolutions committee's past refusals to allow a vote on a dark money ban.
Larry Cohen, a leading campaigner against dark money and board member of Our Revolution, an offshoot of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, told Common Dreams Tuesday that "corporate money has been a disaster for progressive nominees."
"Crypto money and AIPAC knocked out at least three or four people we were all supporting," Cohen noted, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which along with its United Democracy Project (UDP) super PAC spent more than $100 million during the 2024 election cycle. AIPAC's largesse played a key role in helping pro-Israel Democrats defeat former progressive Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—two of Congress' most vocal critics of Israel's genocide in Gaza—in Democratic primary contests.
DNC Resolution 4 opposing dark money in presidential primaries passes unanimously at DNC Resolutions Committee.This is a victory decades in the making after long years of opposition and struggle. Much appreciation to Chair Ken Martin.
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— David Atkins (@davidoatkins.bsky.social) August 26, 2025 at 7:11 AM
"If this party blocks corporate money in the nominating process and blocks dark money, those are two great steps," Cohen said, noting that the measure which passed Tuesday is "just a resolution of intent," not an actual change to the party's platform or a policy shift.
"The next step is [that] there will be a committee named that will talk about how we implement this for the 2028 presidential election, and that committee has to report back by the [DNC] meeting a year from now with specific implementation points," Cohen explained.
"That could mean that every potential Democratic candidate for president must sign the People's Pledge," he said, referring to the agreement between then-US Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren in 2012 requiring candidates to offset spending by outside groups on their behalf.
"So if a candidate says, 'well I had nothing to do with this, but the money got spent,' in the People's Pledge, the candidate who benefited, Scott Brown, had to make a charitable donation of the same amount of money," Cohen said. "That would be an example of an implementation point."
As for possible legislative solutions like the DISCLOSE Act—a campaign finance reform bill repeatedly torpedoed in Congress—Cohen said that he "wouldn't give that too much weight because you have to change Congress."
"We came close," he said, but then-Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Az.) "blocked a rules change that would have put that bill on the floor with 50 supporters instead of 60… and now you have to imagine getting back to a time when [Democrats] will have 50 again."
"So that's in the resolution, there should be legislative change," Cohen added, "but also in the resolution is that all elected Democratic officials should look at what they can do," including at the state, county, and municipal levels.
"They can adopt rules to limit or eliminate the effectiveness of corporate, dark, and other independent expenditures, like Elon Musk money," Cohen said in a nod of infamy to the world's richest person, who spent upward of $290 million supporting President Donald Trump and other Republicans in 2024.
The US Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which allowed unlimited independent financial contributions to support political campaigns, unleashed a tsunami of dark money that has been used by billionaires and corporate interests to sideline progressive candidates and buy elections.
Since Citizens United, nearly $20 billion has been spent on US presidential elections and more than $53 billion on congressional races, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. Spending on 2024 congressional races was double 2010 levels, while presidential campaign contributions were more than 50% higher in 2024 than in 2008, the last election before Citizens United.
The DNC's action on dark money was overshadowed by its rejection of another resolution calling for a suspension of US military aid to Israel.
"This party keeps digging its own grave," said attorney and organizer Asma Nizami. "And it's owned by AIPAC."
Correction: This article originally—and incorrectly—labeled former Sen. Scott Brown as a Democrat.
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'Stain on Our Party': Ilhan Omar Condemns Minnesota Dems for Tossing Fateh's Mayor Endorsement
The Minnesota congresswoman said the decision demonstrated "the influence of big money in our politics."
Aug 22, 2025
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) issued a fearsome rebuke to her state's Democratic Party Thursday, calling its decision to rescind its endorsement of democratic socialist state Rep. Omar Fateh for mayor of Minneapolis "inexcusable."
In what supporters called "a rejection of politics as usual," Fateh was elected last month by delegates at the Minneapolis convention for the Democrats, known in Minnesota as the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, to receive the party's endorsement for mayor over the well-funded two-term incumbent Jacob Frey.
The convention was marred by chaos after a malfunction in the electronic voting system. The final tally of the 577 counted votes had Fateh with 43.8% of the vote and Frey with 31.5%. On the second ballot, which was conducted through a show of hands due to the system failure, Fateh was elected overwhelmingly after Frey told his delegates to leave the convention.
A party investigation initiated after a complaint from Frey found that the malfunction resulted in 176 ballots in the first round of voting being uncounted, which denied the entry of a third candidate, DeWayne Davis, onto the second ballot.
However, these irregularities did not affect the second vote, which is what resulted in Fateh receiving the endorsement.
Nevertheless, DFL announced Thursday that it had "vacated" Fateh's nomination, citing what it said were "substantial failures in the convention's voting process."
As a result, access to party voter rolls, which usually only go to the candidate endorsed by the DFL, will now be given to everyone, which could considerably hurt Fateh's chances of unseating Frey.
Joined by over a dozen other DFL state and local officials, Ilhan Omar issued a statement condemning the party's decision.
"Last month, thousands of caucus-goers and delegates across Minneapolis gathered to participate in the Minneapolis DFL Convention," Omar said. "Now, a month later, a small group of DFL board members, a majority living outside Minneapolis, met privately to overturn the will of Minneapolis delegates who volunteered, organized, and participated in a monthslong DFL process."
"It is inexcusable to overturn the results weeks after the convention because board members did not like the outcome," Omar continued. "Not only does this decision set an extremely dangerous precedent, but it will undermine the DFL endorsing process going forward and fail to center the will of delegates."
"Fateh is getting screwed," said Zach Lindstrom, the mayor of the St. Paul suburb of Mounds View, who served as the sergeant-at-arms during the convention.
"It was clear, crystal clear, Fateh had the vast majority of support in the room; his supporters filled two entire sections. Frey's didn't even fill one," he continued. "I saw with my own eyes someone who clearly had the room, and for him to get rugged is just another reason the party approval is at an all-time low and hemorrhaging support."
Fateh, who won his state Senate seat in 2020, has found success with a campaign that followed in the footsteps of insurgent New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
His message has likewise focused on affordability, including pushing for the city to introduce rent controls and investments in affordable housing paid for by increased taxes on wealthy residents. He has also called for the city to raise its minimum wage to $20 an hour.
Fateh has also said that the city's overwhelmed police department should divert many calls to "non-police responders" better trained to handle issues related to mental health, homelessness, and drug use.
Fateh ran as a harsh critic of the Democratic establishment that he says is personified by Frey.
In past elections, Frey has received substantial support from the real estate and restaurant industries. While information about his fundraising in 2025 is incomplete, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported earlier this month that, despite having fewer individual donors, Frey had amassed a war chest of over $539,000, eight times the size of Fateh's.
One group that fiercely contested Fateh's nomination was the We Love Minneapolis PAC, which has been accused of illegally coordinating expenditures with the Frey campaign in violation of campaign finance laws. Fateh has accused the PAC and others supporting Frey of being organs of "wealthy donors."
After the DFL stripped his endorsement, Fateh said in a video that "28 party insiders voted to take away our endorsement behind closed doors," and asserted that the insiders included "non-Minneapolis residents, Mayor Frey supporters, and even donors."
"This is exactly what Minneapolis voters are sick of," Fateh continued. "The insider games, the backroom decisions, and feeling like our voice doesn't matter in our own city."
Ilhan Omar says the DFL's decision demonstrated the "clear tension between the progressive Democrats who are challenging the status quo and moderate Democrats."
"Throughout this mayoral campaign, we have seen the influence of big money in our politics," she continued. "We know organized people beat organized money. Fateh's campaign organized and won the endorsement. This decision will be a stain on our party for years to come and damage our ability to organize for Democratic wins this year, next year, and beyond."
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