Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is facing a tough reelection in a state carried by Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024, announced on Tuesday that she will vote “no” on Todd Blanche’s nomination to serve as attorney general.

Collins’s plan to oppose Blanche means he can afford only one more Senate Republican defection and still get confirmed to lead the Justice Department on a longer-term basis, if all members of the Democratic caucus also vote “no.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has an effective majority of 52 seats because Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is still absent from work because of a serious health issue.

Collins called Blanche “a capable lawyer,” but she said the Department of Justice (DOJ) under his leadership has “become increasingly political.”

She cited several actions that she believe have “further eroded the department’s independence” as “the basis for my vote to oppose his confirmation.”

Collins noted that Blanche approved an order to shield Trump, his sons and the Trump family business from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits, protections she said are “unavailable to other American taxpayers.”

She cited his role in approving the nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to compensate Trump’s MAGA allies who said they were unfairly prosecuted by the Biden-era Justice Department.

Collins raised concern about Blanche’s pledge to an anti-abortion organization that he would seek to prohibit the mailing of abortion medication to women nationwide.

And she pointed to federal prosecutors’ efforts under Blanche’s leadership to indict Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) over a video they recorded urging U.S. service members to resist unlawful orders.

Collins called her Democratic colleagues’ statements “ill-advised but constitutionally protected.”

Read the full report from The Hill.