Susan Collins

Senator Susan Collins of Maine said in a new interview that she did not “regret” her vote to confirm Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018 but was “disappointed” that he later helped overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.

“I do not regret that vote,” Ms. Collins, widely seen as the most vulnerable Republican senator up for re-election this year, said when asked about the episode by News Center Maine. “I do disagree with Justice Kavanaugh’s vote.”

Ms. Collins, one of only two Republican senators who support abortion rights, noted that liberal justices whose confirmations she had also supported — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — voted against overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“When I look at a justice, I look at their qualifications, their integrity, their background, their experience in reaching a decision,” she said. “Obviously, I’m disappointed in that decision.”

Maine has since moved to legalize abortion at all stages of pregnancy. But Democrats believe the issue — and Ms. Collins’s support for President Trump’s judicial nominees — will undercut her backing among moderates in both parties, and particularly among female voters, who make up the majority of the state’s electorate. Women, particularly older women, are considered a key swing voting bloc in Maine.

Ms. Collins, long considered one of the most moderate members of the Senate, is locked in a tight race against Graham Platner, an oysterman who has energized Democrats despite facing a series of controversies over his past statements and conduct. The race is widely viewed as central to Democrats’ uphill push to take back the Senate.

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