Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins has run for U.S. Senate five times already and only lost five counties — ever.

Since Sen. George Mitchell left the scene after winning each of Maine’s 16 counties in 1988, his last race, it’s hard to overstate how terribly the Democrats have done in Senate contests. In eight of the 10 Senate races in the post-Mitchell era, Democrats didn’t win a single Maine county. They never got more than 44% of the overall vote.

On the other hand, Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins, have won seven of the 10 Senate races in that same period. Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King prevailed in the other three.

Democrats failed so spectacularly in part because the four people who won Senate races — King and Republicans Collins, William Cohen and Olympia Snowe — successfully portrayed themselves as middle-of-the-road politicians. (Whether they really were moderates is a separate question, but voters bought it.)

In 1990, Cohen rolled over Democrat Neil Rolde, a state representative who got 39% of the vote and lost every county.

Two members of Congress faced off in 1994 for an open seat, Snowe and Democrat Tom Andrews. Snowe crushed him by a 60-40 margin, winning every county.

When President Bill Clinton won Maine in his reelection bid in 1996, Democrats came as close as they have since 1988 at a Senate victory. In another race with no incumbent, Collins defeated Joseph Brennan, a former member of Congress and an ex-governor who got 44% of the vote and won three counties: Cumberland, Androscoggin and Kennebec.

Snowe crushed Democrat Mark Lawrence, a former state Senate president, by a 69-31 margin in the 2000 Senate contest. Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat, simultaneously won Maine’s presidential race.

In 2002, Collins wiped out Democrat Chellie Pingree, majority leader of the state Senate.

Democratic activist Jean Hay Bright garnered 21% of the vote in a lopsided loss to Snowe in 2006.

While Barack Obama racked up a big win over the GOP in Maine in 2008, Collins easily brushed aside a challenge from Democratic Tom Allen, a U.S. House member.

In 2014, Collins blew past Democrat Shenna Bellows.

Democrat Zak Ringelstein collected 10% of the vote in another three-way race in 2018, which King easily won with 54% of the total.

In 2020, when Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden breezed to victory in Maine, Collins fended off former state House Speaker Sara Gideon, a Democrat, by a 51-42 margin. Gideon, snagged wins only in Cumberland and Knox counties.

King last year came out on top in another three-way race that saw Democrat David Costello pull in 11% of the vote.

Tallying every election since 1990, Republican Senate candidates in Maine won a county 144 times, King snagged 33 and Democrats came out on top only five times. That’s a remarkably poor showing for Maine’s majority party.

Can the Democrats find a way to win in 2026? History offers us a heavy hint at what might happen.