Collins Reaffirms Kavanaugh Vote as 2026 Maine Senate Race Tightens
A single 2018 confirmation vote has become a defining issue in what independent analysts rate as one of the most competitive Senate seats on the 2026 map.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) stated Friday that she does not regret her October 2018 vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, according to a Washington Examiner report published June 16, 2026. Collins cast one of the decisive votes in Kavanaugh's 50-48 Senate confirmation, as recorded in the Congressional Record for October 6, 2018. Kavanaugh subsequently joined the majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), which overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the federally recognized constitutional right to abortion that had stood since 1973.
Collins's reaffirmation comes as she faces a 2026 reelection campaign in Maine, a state that has trended competitive in recent federal cycles. Maine uses ranked-choice voting in federal elections, a factor that has historically influenced general-election outcomes. No publicly available polling average as of this writing definitively classifies the seat, but it has appeared on competitive-race watch lists published by the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball, both of which are nonpartisan election-forecasting outlets.
The senator has previously said she voted to confirm Kavanaugh based in part on representations she understood him to have made regarding respect for precedent. In a widely reported October 2022 statement following the Dobbs ruling, Collins said she was 'misled' by Kavanaugh during their pre-confirmation meeting, citing his statements about Roe as 'settled law.' Kavanaugh's public position in the Dobbs majority opinion, joined June 24, 2022, was that Roe was 'egregiously wrong from the start.' Collins did not specify Friday whether her current position modifies or supersedes her 2022 'misled' characterization, according to the Washington Examiner account.
Campaign finance records filed with the Federal Election Commission will indicate the fundraising trajectory for Collins and any declared opponents through the June 30, 2026 quarterly reporting deadline. Those filings, due July 15, 2026 under FEC rules, will be the first public data quantifying how the Kavanaugh issue has affected donor activity in the race. It is currently unknown whether Collins has a primary challenger; the FEC's candidate registration database is the authoritative source for that information. The identity and fundraising totals of potential Democratic challengers also remain undisclosed pending the quarterly filing.