Scoop: Abortion rights group launches $250K campaign against Susan Collins
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Sen. Susan Collins at a campaign stop in Kittery, Maine, this month. Photo: CJ Gunther / Getty Images
Reproductive Freedom for All is launching a $250,000 campaign targeting Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) over her role in confirming a key member of the Supreme Court majority that overturned Roe v. Wade, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Collins is facing Maine voters for the first time since the fall of Roe — putting her pivotal 2018 vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh back at the center of one of the country's most competitive Senate races.
- Collins, who has long described herself as supportive of abortion rights, told reporters this summer that she does not regret voting to confirm Kavanaugh.
Driving the news: Reproductive Freedom for All and Senate Majority PAC are launching a $250,000 direct-mail campaign Tuesday that will reach more than 100,000 Maine households, according to details first shared with Axios.
- The mailers will target women who support abortion rights and will accuse Collins of breaking her promise to protect reproductive freedom by voting to confirm Kavanaugh.
- They also highlight Collins' votes to confirm more than 100 Trump-appointed judges.
- The effort is part of Reproductive Freedom for All's $23.5 million "My Body. My Ballot" campaign.
The other side: "These partisan groups just don't know what to do about Maine. First, they had to rationalize supporting Graham Platner," said Blake Kernen, a spokesperson for Collins.
- "Now they are stuck with Troy Jackson.… Meanwhile, Susan Collins has always been pro-choice and a champion for Maine women."
The big picture: The effort comes as Democrats are trying to regain their footing in the pivotal race following Graham Platner's exit.
- Platner's campaign had been engulfed by rape allegations, complicating Democrats' ability to attack Collins on issues affecting women.
- Women made up roughly 3 in 5 voters during Collins' 2020 reelection, when she narrowly carried the group over Democrat Sara Gideon, according to CNN exit polling.
- Republicans are trying to keep Platner in the conversation, tying Democratic nominee Troy Jackson to his former rival.
Zoom in: Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju acknowledged that the Platner saga was a "distraction" that delayed Democrats' ability to consolidate around a candidate.
- But during a recent trip to Maine to campaign for Jackson, Timmaraju said, she found women eager to move on. "I didn't hear Platner one time," she told Axios. "Folks are so ready to turn the page."
- "I think women in Maine, women activists, have been through a lot, with the ups and downs of this primary, and coalescing and consolidating around Troy was not an accident. I think they felt like he was somebody who was an honest broker."
Yes, but: Jackson opposed abortion rights earlier in his political career and supported some abortion restrictions before reversing his position.
- Jackson has since said he was "wrong" and has spent roughly the last decade supporting abortion rights, including co-sponsoring legislation in 2023 that expanded abortion access in Maine.
- Timmaraju argued that Jackson's evolution is a strength rather than a liability: "He's apologized, and he's evolved. Meanwhile, Susan Collins has devolved."
- "What I will say about Troy is there's an authenticity and there's an emotion behind his position on abortion that I have not seen in other candidates this cycle. He's really personally motivated by this."
Flashback: Democrats and abortion-rights groups have spent years trying to make Collins answer for her support of Kavanaugh, whom she backed after saying she believed he viewed Roe as settled precedent.
- Collins nevertheless won reelection in 2020, despite Kavanaugh becoming a major issue in the race.
The bottom line: Timmaraju acknowledged that Collins' long-standing identification as pro-choice makes the argument against her more complicated.
- But she said abortion is the "No. 1 attack" against Collins that resonates with Mainers, including independents and Republicans who support abortion rights.
- "Susan Collins can't have it both ways anymore. You know, it effectively does not matter to us as an organization that Susan Collins calls herself pro-choice when she has the voting record that she does. It's irrelevant."
