Susan Collins reveals medical condition but says her job as senator is unaffected
Republican senator for Maine, facing tough re-election battle, says she has had benign essential tremor for decades
Susan Collins, the Republican Maine senator seen by Democrats as vulnerable in November’s midterm election, has revealed a decades-old medical condition she said affects her appearance, but not her ability to do her job.
Collins, 73, told News Center Maine, an NBC affiliate, that she has a benign essential tremor she treats with medication, which sometimes causes her hands, arms and head to tremble.
“I have had it for the entire time that I have served in the United States Senate,” Collins told the outlet, adding that it was an “extremely common” condition. “It has absolutely no impact on my ability to do my job or on how I feel each day,” she said.
The health of Collins – first elected to the US Senate in 1996, and the longest-serving Republican woman in the chamber – has come under recent scrutiny. She is currently serving her fifth term of office in a state that Democrats are eyeing as one that could flip control of the Senate in November.
Polls collated by RealClearPolitics give her presumptive Democratic opponent, Graham Platner, a single-digit advantage less than six months before polling day. Janet Mills, the Democratic former Maine governor and previous frontrunner, suspended her Senate campaign last week.
Collins has angered Republican colleagues by frequently voting with Democrats, particularly during the Biden administration. In 2021, she was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Donald Trump after his second impeachment for inciting the deadly 6 January Washington DC riot.
The revelation about her medical diagnosis, and assurance that it does not affect her work, is likely to be seen as an attempt to shore up her support. She said she had not missed a vote in three decades as a US senator, and was confident in her ability to serve another six-year term.
“If you talk to anybody in Washington, they will tell you that I am the hardest-working person that they have ever worked with,” Collins said. Her voting record was “pretty good evidence of the fact that I am blessed with great health”, she suggested. “It’s inconvenient at times, but that’s all.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, an essential tremor is a neurological condition that is sometimes wrongly confused with Parkinson’s disease. It is most common in people aged above 40, and can worsen with time.
“It causes rhythmic shaking that you can’t control,” the clinic states on its website. “Essential tremor can affect almost any part of the body, but the trembling happens most often in the hands. The trembling occurs especially when doing simple tasks, such as drinking from a glass or tying shoelaces.”
Rees Cosgrove, chief of the division of functional neurosurgery at Mass General Brigham health system, Boston, told News Center Maine that about 5% of adults over 40 have some form of essential tremor, rising to 20% in those over 65.
“It’s not associated with other neurologic impairments,” he said. “So, it’s not associated with cognitive decline or memory decline. It’s not associated with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s not Parkinson’s.”
An article in Newsweek on Thursday said renewed scrutiny of Collins’s health began after she announced her intention to run again in February, and she was seen in campaign launch videos with “visible shaking in her hands and a warble in her voice”.
On Monday, the independent journalist Ken Klippenstein posted on X a video of Collins shaking, and asked: “Can we talk about how 73-year-old Senator Susan Collins is clearly in physical decline?”
Platner, a military veteran, has highlighted comments by Collins during her 1996 campaign in which she said that she would serve only two terms, if elected. “Twelve years is long enough to be in public service, make a contribution, and then come home and let someone else take the play,” she said at the time.
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