PORTLAND — Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Susan Collins warded off a challenge from feisty Democrat Shenna Bellows on Tuesday.

Ten minutes after polls closed, the Bangor Daily News projected Collins as the winner.

In a victory speech delivered about 9:30 p.m., Collins said her priorities in a return to Washington, D.C., are creating jobs, maintaining transportation infrastructure and securing federal investments in biomedical research.

Thanking her family, friends, supporters, campaign workers and volunteers, Collins said she emulates influential Maine politicians that preceded her in the Senate, such as Margaret Chase Smith, Edmund Muskie, William Cohen, George Mitchell and the more recently retired Olympia Snowe.

“We must put an end to the hyper-partisanship and divisiveness that has blocked action on so many issues and created gridlock,” she said. “I’m going to continue to represent common sense Maine values, not to score political points, but to see the common ground.”

Democratic challenger Shenna Bellows, who spent eight years as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, ran a spirited campaign to upend Maine’s senior senator, who was seeking a fourth term.

At 8:51 p.m., Bellows distributed an email to her supporters saying she had called Collins to “congratulate her on winning another term in the U.S. Senate.”

“We ran a campaign that stayed true to our values from the very beginning, and I am both proud and grateful for what we accomplished together,” Bellows wrote, in part. “This is just the beginning. All of us were involved in this campaign because we care about positive social change, and all of us know as well that nothing worth fighting for has ever been easy. But in the end, it’s always been worth it.”

Follow the Election Day news and get results after the polls close.

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