Joe Manchin, a former longtime Democratic U.S. senator and centrist known for breaking with his own party before becoming an independent during his last year in office, endorsed Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ reelection campaign on Monday.

Manchin, who represented West Virginia from 2010 to 2025, described Collins as “the soul of the Senate” in an interview with CNBC.

If Collins were to lose her election, Manchin said, “you’re losing the soul of the Senate — basically, a person you can talk to, who wants to do the right thing all of the time. … Now, everybody says, ‘Oh, she doesn’t do this, doesn’t speak up.’ Susan is always in there, always in the trenches.”

The sentiment from Manchin is not new. He said something similar about Collins in April.

But Collins’ campaign highlighted the endorsement in a Monday news release, likely hoping to boost Collins’ brand as a moderate, independent voice during a tough reelection campaign. Democrats are working overtime to tie Collins to President Donald Trump, who polling shows is deeply unpopular amid the ongoing war in Iran, and amid tariff disputes with allies such as Canada.

In the release, Collins noted that she worked with Manchin after the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol to update the Electoral Count Act, which clarified the rules for counting votes in presidential elections and transitions between administrations. Collins was one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump after he was impeached following those riots.

Collins also noted the pair’s work in the Common Sense Coalition, a bipartisan group that helped end federal government shutdowns in 2013 and 2018.

Collins is locked in a tight race against Democrat Troy Jackson, a former Maine Senate president and logger from Allagash, in one of the most closely watched campaigns this fall. It’s one of a handful of races that could determine the balance of power during Trump’s final two years in office.