A resident of Frenchville, a small town in Aroostook County, filed paperwork Friday to run as a Republican against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, one of the most senior GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Daniel Smeriglio, 42, calls himself “a lifelong Republican with an anti-establishment stance.”

“It’s time to retire the establishment,” he said on a video announcing his candidacy that features thumping music, monsters and a promise to “make Maine great again.”

Smeriglio, a Pennsylvania native, said Tuesday that Collins should have retired two decades ago.

“She’s past her prime,” he said, and “represents the worst of Washington, DC” and what he called “the uni-party” that runs the nation’s capital.

He said if she was doing her job, Maine would be thriving. But it’s not, he said, and north of Bangor “is dying.”

He vowed to “be loud, be blunt and be confrontational, peacefully” as the campaign proceeds.

Smeriglio said he moved to Frenchville in 2023 along with his wife. He briefly ran the St. John Valley Chamber of Commerce, he said, but broke up amicably with it. Now he runs his Voice of the People USA Radio and Activist Group.

“I’m an activist first,” he said.

He said people tell him he is crazy to take on Collins, but he said if people stand by and don’t get involved “nothing would ever get accomplished.”

Smeriglio, who was heavily involved in the Tea Party during the presidency of Barack Obama, is angling to win over enough Republicans to snatch the Republican nomination from Collins in a 2026 primary.

Collins has indicated she plans to run for another term but has not taken any steps to make it official.

On his YouTube site, Smeriglio says he is “a US Army Veteran, a former police officer, grassroots activist, and founder of Voice of the People USA Radio and Activist Group.”

Collins defeated a well-funded Democrat in 2020 by a surprisingly wide margin, but did not face a primary that year. She was first elected to the seat in 1996.

University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a project of the university’s Center for Politics, predicts that the Maine Senate race will see record spending of more than $400 million as both parties vie for a seat either of them could win.

Collins has one independent challenger so far: Waterboro resident Phillip Rench, a 37-year-old former engineer at Elon Musk’s SpaceX who now owns Ossipee Hill Farm and Observatory.

No Democrats have jumped into the race but Gov. Janet Mills said she is weighing a race.

Smeriglio hasn’t got much use for Mills. “She’s a corrupt, socialist, piece of trash governor,” he said.