Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has always run her campaigns as a steadfast supporter of abortion rights. A new ad from Graham Platner's Senate campaign attacks GOP Sen. Susan Collins over her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and tries to capitalize on Collins' insistence she does not regret it, even given Kavanaugh's role in overturning Roe v. Wade.
"Susan Collins told us she would protect Roe v. Wade," a female narrator says at the start of the 15-second ad for the Democrat. "She was wrong. Now she won't even admit she was wrong." The ad then shows a quick clip of Collins saying she doesn't regret supporting Kavanaugh. "No accountability. Wrong on Kavanaugh. Wrong for Maine," the narrator concludes.
The ad comes as Platner works to refocus the Maine race, which Democrats must win in November to have any chance of winning the Senate, on Collins' voting record rather than on his own turbulent personal history, including incendiary online posts Republicans have turned into paid advertising. Polling continues to show a tight contest between the two.
Collins has recently faced questions from local and national reporters about her vote to back Kavanaugh, who later provided a key vote in support of ending federal abortion protections in the 2023 case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The five-term senator, who has always run her campaigns as a steadfast supporter of abortion rights, initially dodged the question when CNN posed it. Pressed days later by local reporters, she said she did not regret backing Kavanaugh, who had a long record of working for conservative judges and for President George W. Bush, a steadfast opponent of abortion rights.
"I do not regret that vote," she told reporters on Monday. "I do disagree with Justice Kavanaugh's decision. I would point out that in that vote, several Supreme Court Justices who I supported voted the other way." She also downplayed the impact of the decision in Maine, a blue state where roughly two-thirds of the electorate backs abortion rights: "It has not had an impact on the state of Maine, in that Maine has actually expanded its law," she said.
Collins' vote for Kavanaugh put his confirmation over the edge by a 50-49 margin, with then-Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin clearly waiting until after Collins' decision to announce his support for the nominee. "I do not believe he's going to repeal Roe v. Wade," she said of Kavanaugh during the confirmation process, not long before she delivered a dramatic speech revealing she would support him.
Collins has voted against only one Supreme Court justice in her career: Donald Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett. She cast that vote shortly before the 2020 election, a decision operatives in both parties said was crucial to her victory over Democrat Sara Gideon. In the years since the Dobbs decision, the political urgency of protecting abortion rights has faded, especially in blue states. But Democrats and the Platner campaign are expected to make the Kavanaugh vote a key issue in the race, arguing it's emblematic of how Collins tries to dodge responsibility for backing Republican nominees and policies.
