Collins' Supreme Court vote on Kavanaugh looms in Maine Senate race

GORHAM, Maine — For years, Planned Parenthood's endorsement of Susan Collins was enough to persuade Erin Evans to vote for Maine's longtime U.S. senator, believing that the moderate Republican would protect abortion access.

Evans is now "just furious with myself" for those votes. The 56-year-old from Portland described Collins' critical vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, where President Donald Trump's nominee eventually helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion, as a betrayal.

“I was a really uninformed voter,” Evans said. “I thought any woman from Maine was probably in line with me.”

The Nov. 3 election will be the first time Collins is on the ballot since the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, resulting in abortion being banned in much of the United States. This time, Evans says she is backing Democrat Troy Jackson, a former state lawmaker and logger trying to deny Collins a sixth term.

Jackson and Democrats are hoping that voters like Evans will help flip a seat in a state the party has made a priority in the quest to retake the Senate.

Both Collins and Jackson have made an effort to appeal to women, who make up the majority of Maine's population and have had a slightly higher rate of voting than men, according to a recent report by democracy advocacy groups. In campaign ads from both candidates, women are featured prominently.

Democrats' ads have focused heavily on Collins' vote in support of Kavanaugh and describe her as caving to Trump. The Democratic-aligned advocacy group Affordable Maine has spent nearly $10 million on ads stressing the senator's backing of other Trump-appointed judges who oppose abortion. An additional $32 million has been spent by Win Senate, a political action committee focused on Collins. Planned Parenthood Votes has so far spent at least $500,000 to run ads that include a female voter who regrets voting for Collins because of her Kavanaugh vote.

Yet Jackson is facing a steep challenge.

Collins has a 30-year record of winning elections even as Maine voters have spurned Republican presidential nominees, including Trump, since 1988.

And the issue trails others in terms of importance to voters. A New York Times/Siena poll conducted in September found that when asked in their own words what one issue will be most important in deciding their vote for Congress in November, almost no likely Maine voters mentioned abortion.

‘I do not regret’ voting to confirm Kavanaugh, Collins says

Collins has long called herself a “pro-choice” Republican and a supporter of a woman’s right to an abortion. She was one of the few Republicans endorsed by Planned Parenthood earlier in her political career. In 2022, she co-sponsored legislation to put federal protections for abortion into law.

The position has put her at odds with her party but was in line with Maine voters.

In 2020, the last time Collins sought reelection, the vast majority of Maine voters in the Senate race, 76%, said the Supreme Court should not overturn Roe v. Wade, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate. That included most Collins voters. Some 35% of voters who supported Collins in her successful reelection bid said they wanted Roe to be overturned.

Collins' 2018 vote in support of Kavanaugh was crucial to his confirmation. At the time, Collins waited months before announcing her decision in a 45-minute floor speech. The final vote was 50-48.

Kavanaugh later joined the 6-3 conservative majority in stripping away constitutional rights to abortion.

Collins criticized the high court's decision in 2022, but she has never publicly wavered in her decision to confirm Kavanaugh. She told reporters in June that "I do not regret that vote." Collins had said before the 2018 vote that Kavanaugh, in a two-hour meeting with her, said he viewed Roe as settled law.

But her confirmation vote is what stands out in the minds of voters like Bente Lundh, 67, of Falmouth.

“She’s positioned herself as this moderate voter, but she’s really chopped that down with her vote for Kavanaugh,” Lundh said.

For others, Collins' long-standing record as a moderate continues to draw their support even if they are disappointed with the eventual overturning of Roe.

“I think I’ve tried to not have my allegiance to party make me blind to what may be a better path from time to time,” said Mary Ann Lynch, a Democrat supporting Collins. “Neither party, in my view, has a monopoly on the truth and how best to do things. So I think it’s really important to have people who will reach across the aisle.”

Lynch added that Collins may have voted to confirm Kavanaugh, but she also voted to confirm Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who dissented in the abortion ruling. They were nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama.

Jackson makes his case to women, abortion rights supporters

Since launching his campaign in July, Jackson has announced a “Women for Troy” coalition made up of women from all 16 Maine counties and he has secured endorsements from abortion rights groups Planned Parenthood and Reproductive Freedom for All.

Jackson was serving as a top state senator when the landmark 1973 decision was upended in 2022. He says he worked to pass “some of the strongest protections for abortion access in the country.”

Yet Jackson has had his own hurdles.

The Democrat became a last-minute Senate nominee after Graham Platner dropped out this summer following criticism of his past relationships with women and a sexual assault allegation, which Platner denies. Jackson is now scrambling to win over voters who may be wary of his connection to Platner. The two campaigned together as Jackson initially sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination but lost.

Jackson also has had to explain the evolution of his support on abortion rights and same-sex marriage, both of which he opposed years ago. Jackson now says he was wrong about his past beliefs and changed his mind after talking to women. Jackson's campaign spokesperson Maggie Amjad said Jackson now holds a “100% rating from Maine's Planned Parenthood."

Blake Kernen, a spokesperson for Collins, described the senator as the only “reliably pro-choice” candidate in the race.

Abortion is not top of mind for Maine voters

While Jackson is reminding voters of Collins’ role in the abortion rights fight, he is doing so in a state that was not highly affected by the decision compared with Republican-controlled regions where many abortion clinics have shuttered, said Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine.

“If you were in a state where all of the abortion clinics had closed, then that might be a bigger issue," Brewer said. "That has not been the case here.”

The state's Democratic-controlled Legislature in 2023 approved a law that allows abortions at any time if deemed medically necessary by a doctor, and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has enacted legislation protecting providers of abortion and gender-affirming care from legal action brought by other states.

A CNN/SSRS survey of likely Maine voters conducted in late August and early September found that most voters are still unhappy about the decision to overturn Roe, but that anger over the loss of abortion rights could be overshadowed by broader concerns about the economy.

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Kruesi reported from Providence, R.I. Associated Press polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.