Sen. Susan Collins said she will support Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles in November at an event in Naples on Thursday.

In some ways, the statement was not surprising. Collins and Charles are both Republicans, and they are running in the highest-profile races in November. To some extent, both of their campaigns depend on Republican voters showing up to the polls.

But the two are starkly different candidates. Charles, a political newcomer, clinched the Republican nomination for governor after inspiring his party’s base with a largely online, anti-establishment campaign. Collins has been in the Senate for nearly three decades.

Last month, a recording surfaced of Charles telling supporters he planned to ask the Trump administration to send immigration enforcement to polling places in Maine; Collins said she wasn’t a fan of that idea.

The polls say Collins is a more formidable candidate than Charles. She’s running in a tight reelection contest against Democrat Troy Jackson in what looks to be a Democratic-leaning election season. Charles trails his Democratic opponent, Hannah Pingree, by double digits in those same surveys.

The senator’s statement came one day after Charles’ sister published an op-ed in the Press Herald saying she would support Pingree.

Collins spoke to reporters at an event celebrating her endorsement by the National Federation of Independent Business.