Platner campaign criticizes confirmation vote
Ben ChinGraham Platner campaign manager
A rival campaign manager criticized Collins's vote for Kavanaugh for its effect on national abortion rights.
Responding to
Collins's 2018 vote to confirm Kavanaugh remains justified despite his vote to overturn Roe and Casey in Dobbs.
“Thanks to Susan Collins’ decisive vote for Brett Kavanaugh, the freedom to choose was stripped away from millions of women”
Interview
Original text
Where this statement fits
Was Susan Collins's 2018 vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh justified after Dobbs?
In 2018 Susan Collins supported Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation, citing his discussion of precedent and Roe v. Wade. He joined the 2022 Dobbs opinion overruling Roe, which Collins said conflicted with what he had told her about long-standing precedent. In June 2026 she said she did not regret the confirmation vote while disagreeing with his Dobbs vote. Her critics argue that the confirmation enabled the loss of nationwide abortion protections.
Source and context
Interview
About this source
Collins's remarks to reporters after a banking conference in Portland, in which she defends her 2018 confirmation vote while disagreeing with Kavanaugh's Dobbs vote. The article also records campaign criticism. It names Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson among the Dobbs dissenters, but the Court's opinion lists Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan.
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About this source
Court docket establishes that Kavanaugh joined the majority overruling Roe and Casey; Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan dissented. It does not establish what Kavanaugh privately promised Collins.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
The Press Herald reported Collins's statement that she did not regret confirming Kavanaugh.
After the quotation
Chin's statement addressed the nationwide consequences of Dobbs; Collins separately discussed Maine's state protections.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Condemns the same confirmation vote that Collins defended; this is an attributed campaign statement.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Susan Collins
More from this case
Read the full caseFried challenges Collins's argument about Kavanaugh's Dobbs vote
“Thus it was a five person majority without the Chief Justice that ended a federal right to abortion.”Read statement
Jackson asks whether Collins should be trusted to pick the next justice
“Would you trust her to pick the next Supreme Court justice?”Read statement
Collins tells CNN she judged Kavanaugh on his qualifications
“I make the decisions based on the qualifications of the individual. And that is what I did with Brett Kavanaugh.”Read statement
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- The Dispute Index
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- Platner campaign criticizes confirmation vote
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- https://disputeindex.com/events/1284-a-rival-campaign-manager-criticized-collins-s-vote
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "Platner campaign criticizes confirmation vote". First published: 2026-09-21. Last updated: 2026-09-21. https://disputeindex.com/events/1284-a-rival-campaign-manager-criticized-collins-s-vote