She has also not been shy about voicing concern about the direction of her party. At a recent one-day retreat at the Library of Congress, Collins told her Republican colleagues that it was time they began to openly court moderates such as herself.

“I’m concerned that our party is becoming increasingly a regional party,” she said in the interview. The depressing political data points roll acridly off her tongue: 22 races for House seats in New England, along with four Senate races, and six states up for grabs in the presidential contest last fall. “I was the only Republican to win federal office in all of New England, and I think that’s a dangerous trend,” Collins said.