The Story:
Ever since Senator Susan Collins (R- ME) voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as a Justice to the US Supreme Court, it has been clear that she would attract high profile and well-funded Democratic opponents to her reelection to the Senate in 2020. At least three potential opponents have now made that intention known.
Background:
Successful Republican politicians in New England often have an ideological center of gravity to the left of the national party. Indeed, one might say that the Bush family abandoned the region and moved its base to Texas precisely to signal that it was more in tune with the national Republican Party than its Connecticut roots or the family compound in Maine would suggest.
Although Collins has opposed Trump on some important matters, she has generally supported his judicial nominees, most controversially Judge Brett Kavanaugh, elevated to the US Supreme Court despite an accusation regarding a sexual assault. Kavanaugh won confirmation by a vote of 50 – 48 in October 2018.
The Thing to Know:
The single most prominent of the Democratic candidates who now profess a desire to run against Collins for the Senate seat is Sara Gideon, the state’s House Speaker. Gideon has said that she would seek to “elevate the voices of people who deserve and demand to be heard.”
