(The Center Square) — Planned Parenthood is pumping more than half a million dollars into Maine’s pivotal U.S. Senate race in an effort to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the midterms.
The group’s political action committee announced this week that it plans to spend more than $600,000 on a barrage of ads highlighting Collins’s vote for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was a part of the high court’s 6-3 conservative majority in 2022 that overturned federal abortion protections.
“I was wrong. I voted for Susan Collins and I really regret it,” the woman says in a 30-second ad. “She voted to raise our health care costs and restrict abortion. When Susan Collins says these votes don’t impact women in Maine — of course they do.”
Collin’s campaign pushed back on the claims, pointing out in a statement that the veteran GOP lawmaker has long supported Planned Parenthood and women’s reproductive rights and has bucked her party on the issue of abortion over the years.
“The Planned Parenthood Action Fund cares more about electing Democrats than any issue,” Collins’s campaign spokesperson Blake Kernen said in a statement. “As Planned Parenthood itself said, Susan Collins has always supported access to care for Mainers and all Americans, and she will continue to do so.”
Planned Parenthood Votes said the ad buy is the biggest so far of the election cycle and part of its broader campaign to push back against Republican attacks on abortion access.
“The past two years have made it clear: The Trump administration and its backers in Congress will stop at nothing to steal our reproductive rights,” the group says on its website. “Up and down the ballot we have the power to decide what’s best for our families, our bodies, our lives, and our futures.”
Collins is facing a challenge from Democrat Troy Jackson, an Allagash logger and former state Senate President, who was chosen by the party to replace disgraced Senate candidate Graham Platner after he dropped out of the race in early July amid allegations of sexual assault.
Jackson, a former Republican who previously opposed abortion and same-sex marriage, has shifted his view over the years and been credited for helping expand access to women’s reproductive services during his time in the state Legislature. He has a 100% recent voting rating from the Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund.
Despite that, Planned Parenthood has yet to offer a full-throated endorsement of him in the Senate race.
The organization had previously endorsed Platner in the Senate race but pulled back in July after the allegations of sexual abuse emerged. The group was among a chorus who had called on the ex-Marine to drop out of the race “to give voters the chance to elect someone who reflects their values politically and personally.”
The Maine Senate race is considered a must-win contest for the Democratic Party as it pushes to retake the U.S. Senate, where Republicans currently have a 53-45 majority.
Collins is the only Republican senator running for reelection this year in a Democratic-led state that Kamala Harris carried in the 2024 presidential election.
The latest poll shows a competitive race with Jackson ahead of Collins by more than two percentage points, but within the margin of error.
The Fox News survey, conducted between Aug.6-10, found 55% of voters said they were “concerned” that Collins votes too often with Trump, who had a negative 20-point net favorability rating in the state. That included a majority of self-described independent voters, who make up nearly a third of Maine’s electorate, according to pollsters.
The RealClearPolitics polling average has Jackson leading Collins by 2.3 points.
Both parties are channeling tens of millions of dollars into a crush of TV and digital advertising to sway undecided voters ahead of the election.
The tracking company AdImpact estimates there has been more than $193 million in political ad spending and reservations in the Maine Senate race to date, including $42 million announced by the Senate Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC, and a $33 million ad buy placed by Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC.
