Quick Check is a Bangor Daily News election feature that fact-checks political ads in 400 words or less. The BDN and Maine Monitor have partnered on a subscription to AdImpact, an ad-tracking platform that powers this feature.
A new Democratic ad says U.S. Sen. Susan Collins decided two of the biggest fights of President Donald Trump’s tenure — over the Supreme Court and Medicaid cuts.
But she opposed the vehicle for those cuts. Only one of her votes on the three justices cited could be construed as decisive, although it was a seismic one.
The claim
“She was the deciding vote for Trump’s Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and the deciding vote for Trump’s Medicaid cuts,” a narrator says.
The context
The Medicaid claim is the most egregious here. Last year, Collins voted with Republicans on a procedural motion to open debate on Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That would have passed 50-50 if she had not supported it, setting up a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance.
On the final vote, Collins was one of three Republicans who opposed it, citing an estimated $5.9 billion hit to Maine’s Medicaid program over a decade. FactCheck.org and PolitiFact have each already rated similar claims false this year.
The Supreme Court claim is mixed. Collins voted to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017 on a 54-45 vote that didn’t need her support. She broke from her party just once on the court, opposing Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation in 2020, which passed 52-48 without her.
Her 2018 vote for Justice Brett Kavanaugh was the most consequential vote of her Senate tenure and prompted major Democratic challenges against her. Republicans could have confirmed Kavanaugh without her, since a “no” would have produced another tie. But her vote was still crucial because its timing essentially clinched his confirmation.
Collins delivered a floor speech defending a nominee who faced sexual assault allegations. All three of the Trump-nominated she helped seat joined the 5-4 majority that overturned Roe in 2022, an outcome Collins predicted would not happen and criticized once it did.
She has defended her support for Kavanaugh on the trail this year, and her team has often noted her votes for three Democratic-appointed justices.
Who’s behind the ad
WinSenate is a super PAC aligned with the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC. It has booked roughly $29.4 million in ad reservations, according to AdImpact tracking. That is part of $87.8 million in overall Democratic-aligned spending against nearly $133 million from Republican-aligned groups.
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