Platner ad blasts Collins over Kavanaugh vote and Roe

Platner ad – Graham Platner’s Senate campaign rolled out a 15-second attack ad that targets Sen. Susan Collins over her 2018 vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, arguing she won’t own the consequences after Kavanaugh’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade. The

A 15-second video is now driving the debate in Maine’s Senate race.

In the new ad from Graham Platner’s campaign. a female narrator opens with a direct accusation aimed at GOP Sen. Susan Collins: “Susan Collins told us she would protect Roe v. Wade.” The message pivots immediately. saying Collins “was wrong” and pressing viewers on accountability: “Now she won’t even admit she was wrong.”.

The ad then cuts to a clip of Collins saying she does not regret supporting Kavanaugh. “No accountability. Wrong on Kavanaugh. Wrong for Maine,” the narrator concludes.

The spot is part of Platner’s effort to reshape how Democrats try to compete for the Senate seat in November—by returning focus to Collins’ voting record rather than on the campaign’s own personal background controversy. including incendiary online posts Republicans have turned into paid advertising. Polling continues to show a tight contest between Collins and Platner.

Collins’ vote has been a flashpoint since Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Kavanaugh later provided a key vote in support of ending federal abortion protections in the 2023 Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Collins has long run her campaigns as a steady supporter of abortion rights. but she has faced repeated questions from both local and national reporters about whether she bears responsibility for what happened after she backed Kavanaugh.

Her answers have come in two phases: deflection, then insistence.

When CNN posed the question early on, she initially dodged it. Pressed days later by local reporters. Collins said she did not regret backing Kavanaugh. pointing to his history of working for conservative judges and for President George W. Bush, a steadfast opponent of abortion rights. “I do not regret that vote,” Collins 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 argued the decision has not landed like a political wound back in Maine. In a blue state where roughly two-thirds of the electorate backs abortion rights, Collins said, “It has not had an impact on the state of Maine, in that Maine has actually expanded its law.”

The campaign attacking her from the left points to the mechanics of how her vote changed the outcome. Collins’ decision put Kavanaugh’s confirmation over the edge by a 50-49 margin. During the confirmation process, then-Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin waited to announce his support until after Collins’ vote.

Collins, for her part, gave a preview of her confidence early—saying of Kavanaugh during the confirmation process, not long before she delivered a dramatic speech revealing she would support him: “I do not believe he’s going to repeal Roe v. Wade.”

Collins is not new to Supreme Court votes, but her record is unusually narrow. She 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 after Dobbs. the political urgency of protecting abortion rights has shifted. especially in blue states—where. according to the race’s current dynamics. the issue has not always held the same heat it once did. But Democrats and the Platner campaign are expected to make the Kavanaugh vote a central issue again. arguing it is a window into how Collins tries to avoid responsibility for backing Republican nominees and the policies they pursue.

For Maine voters, the contest now increasingly turns on a simple fight over accountability—whether Collins’ insistence that she does not regret the vote can survive the reality that it helped put Kavanaugh in position to contribute to the end of Roe v. Wade.

Maine Senate race Susan Collins Graham Platner Brett Kavanaugh Roe v. Wade Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization 2023 Supreme Court abortion rights Joe Manchin Amy Coney Barrett Sara Gideon