Collins’ Approval Down “Significantly” As She Votes to Confirm “Dozens” of Anti-Choice Judges [HuffPost]
A new HuffPost report shows that Senator Susan Collins has voted for “over 90%” of President Trump’s rigidly anti-choice judicial nominees, abandoning her promise to Mainers to remain a moderate voice in the Senate and laying the foundation for unprecedented attacks on women’s health and rights.
Two recent polls show
that Collins is paying the price for losing touch with Mainers. A Critical
Insights poll showing Collins’ approval rating has “dropped significantly” — falling seventeen points in the past year
and a half to its lowest level since she’s been in the Senate — earned wall-to-wall coverage in
Maine last weekend. In April,
Morning Consult reported that Collins’ “net approval has fallen
by 27 points over the last two years.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
HuffPost: Senator Susan Collins
Keeps Voting For Donald Trump’s Anti-Abortion Judges
The Maine Republican says
she’s pro-choice, but she’s voted to confirm dozens of judges who have signaled
their opposition to abortion rights.
By Hayley Miller
Key Points:
- Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of just two Republican senators to publicly express support for abortion rights, has voted for dozens of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees who have signaled they are against abortion.
- The veteran lawmaker has supported over 90% of Trump’s picks for federal judge positions, including 32 nominees who have indicated they oppose abortion rights, according to research compiled by NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Democratic political action committee American Bridge.
- Though Trump repeatedly stated that he planned to nominate justices with the intention of overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal in all 50 states, Collins voted to confirm both of his nominees ― Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh ― to the Supreme Court.
- She famously helped cinch Kavanaugh’s confirmation in October despite multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him from the 1980s. Her vote drew intense backlash from Democrats and women across the country.
- Collins also voted for nine of Trump’s apparently anti-choice district court nominees. Kenneth Bell, who she voted to confirm as a U.S. district judge for the Western District of North Carolina last month, wrote an op-ed in 1995 that attacked what he called the “indefensibility of the abortion rights position.”
- Michael Truncale, while running for Congress in 2012, boasted on his campaign website that he’s a supporter of “strong pro-life and pro-family values.” Collins voted to confirm him as a U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Texas last month.
- Collins also voted for 21 circuit court judge nominees whose past comments align with groups seeking to limit women’s reproductive rights, including Kurt Engelhardt as a U.S. circuit judge for the 5th Circuit. Engelhardt was a member of the Louisiana Lawyers for Life, an advocacy group that provides legal support to the state’s “pro-life movement.”
- Collins’ support for Trump’s judicial picks is setting up a potentially contentious challenge to her likely 2020 reelection bid. A poll conducted by Critical Insights last month shows her approval rating in Maine has dipped 10% since her Kavanaugh vote in October.
Read the full story here.
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