Paul LePage rallies against fellow Republican Susan Collins

Maine Gov. Paul LePage rallied against Sen. Susan Collins, a fellow Republican, at a pig roast over the weekend.

“If the Republican base — which is the 290,000 people that voted for me (in his 2014 re-election) — tell her, ’We don’t want you; you’re not winning the primary,’ she’ll back down,” Mr. LePage said Saturday, the Bangor Daily News reported.

Mr. LePage is term-limited and cannot run in 2018. Ms. Collins has not formally declared her intention to run for governor, but expressed interest in a possible run. She said she’d make a decision this fall.

The governor’s issue with Ms. Collins stems from her vote against Republicans’ repeal-and-replace plan last week, which killed it from moving forward. She was among three Republicans to vote against the bill.

Mr. LePage has gone back and forth on his support of the health care bill. He said in a statement in June that he supports repealing and replacing the law, and with some changes he would support Senate Republican’s bill.

Ms. Collins did receive a warm welcome when touching down in Bangor over the weekend with people at the airport applauding her. She called it “heartwarming” on CNN in a Sunday interview.

Mr. LePage has expressed renewed interest in challenging independent Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with the Democrats and is up for re-election in 2018.