WHY DID SUSAN COLLINS VOTE AGAINST LAUREN MCFERRAN?

The Senator's tie-breaking vote against a highly qualified nominee raises questions

On Wednesday, the Senate voted down Lauren McFerran’s nomination to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by a single vote, 50-49. It was a consequential outcome, because McFerran’s confirmation would have guaranteed a pro-labor majority on the board through to 2026, allowing it to serve as a counterweight to the incoming Trump administration which is expected to look for ways to slash protections for workers.

McFerran isn’t new to the NLRB — she’s already served two terms. And Susan Collins voted to confirm her when Trump renominated McFerran to fill one of the board’s Democratic slots in 2020. So why did Collins cast the tie-breaking vote to block her this time around?

Is it because, unlike in 2020, McFerran’s confirmation would have given the board a majority sympathetic to the rights and prerogative of workers generally and unions in particular? Was it way for Collins to ingratiate herself with Trump — who will now be able to fill the board’s decisive fifth slot? Or does she have some specific, substantive beef with McFerran that led her to vote ‘no’?

My guess is the answer is primarily the first of these, with a side-helping of the second. (Though if pressed, Collins would surely explain it in terms of the third, presumably citing some cherry-picked, mischaracterization of McFerran’s record.)

Maybe one of Maine’s dogged reporters will ask her about it, if they aren’t too busy filing stories about her farewell speeches to Senate colleagues.