‘Voters Haven’t Forgotten Her Betrayal’: 1 Key Issue Is Coming Back To Haunt Susan Collins
Democrats have targeted Susan Collins for her role in the fall of Roe — but their choice of opponent could complicate matters.
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The thing I keep getting stuck on is not Collins herself, it's the "their choice of opponent could complicate matters" part of this, because Democrats have done this before, they will do it again, they will find the one candidate who makes a winnable race complicated, and then spend the next two years explaining why that was actually strategically nuanced.
Collins' Kavanaugh moment is genuinely one of the more clarifying things I've watched happen in real time in politics. She stood at that podium, gave that speech, the one that was treated like a serious act of conscience by serious people, and she had to know. She had to know what Kavanaugh was going to do because everyone paying attention knew. The speech wasn't a conclusion, it was a performance for people who wanted permission to still believe she was a reasonable person.
And the brutal part is it worked. For years. People kept treating her like someone who might break with the party on something that mattered. She kept getting the credulous profile about her tortured independence. Maine kept sending her back.
So yes, voters haven't forgotten. Some of them. The question the excerpt is dancing around without saying is whether the voters who remember are organized enough, and whether the opponent Democrats are running can actually receive that energy or is going to spend the fall explaining some 2019 tweet. That's not cynicism, that's just watching this play run before. I hope I'm wrong. I'm not usually wrong about this specific thing.
Verily, a sharp observation thou dost pen, for the Democrats, in their infinite sagacity, oft pluck a candidate from the fringe of absurdity, only to then marvel at the electorate's bewilderment. 'Tis a dance as old as time, where the "strategically nuanced" becomes but a cloak for utter ineptitude. Yet, the folly is not theirs alone. For Collins, in her theatrical display of "conscience" regarding Kavanaugh, did indeed play a part for those who craved the illusion of reason amidst the partisan tempest. To claim ignorance of the man's bent was either profound naivety or cunning deceit, and given her long tenure, the latter doth seem the more probable truth. That the simpletons swallowed such a tale, like so much sweetmeats, speaks volumes of the hunger for any semblance of independent thought, even when it is but a shadow. Fare thee well.
She looked America in the face and said Kavanaugh wouldn't overturn Roe. LIED. Then voted for him anyway. Now she wants to play moderate again and Maine voters should remember EXACTLY what her moderation cost millions of women.
HuffPost running this story is not about abortion. It is about Senate math in 2026 and they would like you to feel something while they do the arithmetic.
Collins is a reliable villain for the left because she gave them one, and they have been dining on it since 2022. That is fine. But "voters haven't forgotten" is a press release in headline form. Which voters? Maine voters, who have returned her four times, or the national donor base that funds Democratic primaries?
The opponent complications they mention in one sentence are probably the actual story. But that would require less outrage and more reporting, and HuffPost has a lane to stay in.
HuffPost calling a vote to confirm a Supreme Court justice a "betrayal" when that same Court is the highest law of this land tells you everything about where these people stand. Susan Collins voted her conscience and now the Democrat Party wants to make her pay for not being their rubber stamp.
Collins voted her conscience, sure. Her conscience also came with a personal assurance from Kavanaugh that Roe was settled precedent, which he then helped overturn. That's not me being partisan, that's the documented sequence of events. If someone gives you their word to get your vote and then does the opposite, "betrayal" is a pretty accurate word for what happened to Collins, not what she did.
The rubber stamp framing cuts both ways. Republican senators who confirmed justices based on explicit commitments those justices didn't keep also got used. The difference is most of them don't care because the outcome was what they wanted anyway. Collins claimed she cared about the process. That's why it follows her.
HuffPost's framing aside, the underlying political reality is that Maine voters remember what she said Kavanaugh told her and what happened after. That's a legitimate electoral issue regardless of which outlet is covering it.
Kavanaugh said Roe was "settled precedent" and Collins took that as a binding commitment rather than a judge describing the state of existing law. Those are different things. Judges don't make policy promises to senators to get confirmed, and Collins either knew that and chose to hear what she wanted, or genuinely believed a nominee would telegraph his votes in advance, which would itself be disqualifying. Neither version makes her the victim here.
The "he gave his word" framing also depends entirely on what you think he actually said versus what Collins needed to hear to justify a yes vote she probably would have cast anyway. The documented sequence is that she voted yes, he was confirmed, Roe fell. The part where he "promised" is her characterization of a private conversation.
Maine voters can absolutely hold her accountable for the vote. That's how elections work. But Collins as a betrayed innocent who got played by a nominee is a harder sell than Collins as someone who provided the cover she needed for a vote her constituents didn't want.
Susan Collins is one of the last true moderates left in the Senate and it's a tragedy that the left and even some on the right have tried to tear her down for her integrity. To say she was "played" by Kavanaugh is to deny the vile, hateful pressure campaign the radical left launched against him, against every good man and woman who believes in the Constitution. They wanted to destroy him and his family, just like they tried to destroy so many others who dared to stand for American values.
Kavanaugh was a good man put through hell, and Senator Collins saw that. She stood up for what was right, for civility, and for the rule of law at a time when political violence and cancel culture were at an all time high. This idea that she was somehow complicit or naive is just another attack on anyone who tries to bridge the divide, who believes in respectful debate instead of character assassination. She should be honored, not vilified, for her courage in the face of such a disgusting display of political brutality.
You spent three paragraphs lawyering over what Collins knew versus what she "needed to hear" but the bottom line is Roe was bad constitutional law and the Court finally corrected it. That's not a betrayal, that's the system working. Nominees don't owe senators a preview of their rulings, and any senator who thought they were getting one was fooling themselves. Collins voted her conscience, the Court ruled on the merits, and now HuffPost and the left want to make her the villain because they lost. That's it. That's the whole story. Maine voters can do whatever they want in November but calling this a "betrayal" is just Democrats being mad they didn't get a justice who would do their bidding instead of reading the actual Constitution.
"Senator, I want to be clear: I like process. I like it very much. I like a confirmation vote that has spent several productive years explaining, with great consistency, that Brett Kavanaugh was a man of impeccable judicial temperament who would absolutely, certainly, never in a million years touch settled precedent. I liked believing that. I liked it with beer. And I think, if you look at my voting record, you will find that I liked it enough to make it someone else's problem forever."
Susan Collins spent years asking voters to trust her conscience, then helped put judges in place who shattered Roe. That kind of betrayal does not disappear because Democrats think they found a convenient opponent. Maine voters remember, and people of faith remember too, because liberty is not preserved by speeches, it is preserved by courage when the vote is hard.
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Susan Collins voted for the judges that overturned Roe and I'd thank her for it every single day if I could. HuffPost calling that a "betrayal" tells you everything about whose side they're on. Biden spent four years promising to codify Roe and did absolutely nothing with a Democrat Congress, but sure, blame Collins. The voters in Maine will decide and they don't need HuffPost telling them what to remember.