Susan Collins’ Approval Rating Is in the Toilet 3 Years After ‘Dobbs’

The Maine Senator, who single-handedly sealed the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, faces a tough re-election battle next year.

By Susan Rinkunas  |  June 25, 2025 | 5:07pm
Photo: Getty Images AbortionPolitics
Susan Collins’ Approval Rating Is in the Toilet 3 Years After ‘Dobbs’

Three years ago this week, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and unleashed devastation across the entire country with abortion bans and increased pregnancy criminalization. Since 2026 is an election year, it’s worth remembering the significant role that one purportedly “pro-choice” Senator had in that outcome.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has not officially announced whether she will seek a sixth term, but she told CNN in May she’s planning to run. “It’s certainly my inclination to run and I’m preparing to do so,” she said. “I’ve obviously not made a formal announcement because it’s too early for that.” Collins was first elected in 1996 and is now the only Republican Senator to represent New England. She’ll face re-election next November for the first time since the fall of Roe and, wouldn’t you know it, she appears to be in the fight of her political life.

A Morning Consult survey released in April found that the 72-year-old Collins is the second most unpopular Senator in the U.S. behind only Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell. The quarterly update found that 51% of Maine voters disapprove of Collins, compared to 42% who approve. That’s a net approval of negative 9 points. Her net approval also declined more than any other Senator since the previous report.

This week, the Maine Democratic Party launched a website to remind voters of Collins’ disastrous anti-abortion votes, but her team waved it away as a “tired” talking point. Let’s unpack that.

Collins voted to confirm two of the Justices who overturned Roe, first Neil Gorsuch in 2017, then Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Collins infamously cast the deciding vote to confirm Kavanaugh and claimed that she not only believed he supported the Roe precedent and that people were being alarmist, but also dismissed the sexual assault allegations against him by saying he had the “judicial temperament” to be on the court. That feels like a lifetime ago, but the vote was 50-48, meaning Collins single-handedly put him on the court. (Yes, Collins voted against confirming Amy Coney Barrett in 2020 weeks before she was last on the ballot, but she notably did so only after it was clear that Barrett had enough votes.)

After the Dobbs decision overturning Roe leaked in May 2022, Collins acted concerned. When the final opinion came out the following month, the Senator claimed she was duped by both Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. And later that year, Collins also voted against a Democratic bill to codify Roe into federal law in part because she claimed it would infringe on the religious liberty of healthcare workers who object to providing abortion.

But Collins’ campaign spokesperson is acting like her votes are no big deal. Shawn Roderick dismissively told The Hill this week, “It’s deja vu all over again—these are the same tired, rehashed attacks voters already rejected in 2020 when they re-elected Senator Collins by 9 points. Mainers didn’t buy it then, and they won’t buy it now.”

Yet, in November 2020, the fall of Roe was merely a hypothetical—it’s now a reality. And Collins was polling much better ahead of the 2020 race than she is now. At this point in that cycle (the first quarter of 2019), she was at 52% approve and 39% disapprove.

 

Collins also voted to confirm some disastrous appeals court judges, including the Fifth Circuit’s Judge James Ho. In August 2023, Ho wrote that anti-abortion doctors should be able to sue the FDA to restrict the abortion drug mifepristone and cited “aesthetic injury” precedent from wildlife cases. He claimed these doctors love to look at their “unborn patients” much like people like to view animals, and they suffer an aesthetic injury from abortions. Ho is considered a Supreme Court contender.

No matter what her campaign says publicly, Collins is likely very concerned.

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