From a young age, I have supported Susan Collins as Maine’s senator. I’ve looked up to her as a role model who is a renegade and a logical, intellectual thinker, in a party that has recently embraced ignorance as its mantra.

However, I am concerned about Collins’ repeated behavior in the Senate of supporting the highly partisan nominees presented to her (“Sen. Susan Collins pushes approval of Jeff Sessions for attorney general,” Jan. 7).

As Mainers, we pride ourselves on our independent, mostly moderate spirit that has made us a tough, enduring people. Senator Collins has represented this well in the past. Yet assisting far-right extremists from the “swamp” is problematic.

Most prominent is her publicized endorsement of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general, someone who has a history of extreme views on immigration and voter rights suppression, along with a troubled history with comments on civil rights.

The purpose of the position for which Sessions is the nominee is to help Americans receive just and fair legal representation in the eyes of the government. His policy positions on critical matters of interest to every American run contrary to the commitments an attorney general makes. Alabama’s standards are not Maine’s.

I am asking Sen. Collins to be who we asked her to be: a moderate, level-headed senator from Maine whose principles are not compromised. To her, I say, “Please keep your heart where it has been before, and do not fall into a framework of fear, anger and hatred. You have lost a supporter today.”

Brendan Bayer

Falmouth