Susan Collins is the abortion rights movement’s biggest test of 2026

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Susan Collins during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, on September 16, 2026. | Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Nationally, abortion has faded as a campaign issue.

Four years after it helped Democrats stave off a red wave , candidates in battleground races are focusing their attention on cost-of-living issues, immigration, and policing.

As of mid-August, abortion was mentioned in less than 5 percent of Democratic Senate ads , a key difference from the past two cycles, according to the Wesleyan Media Project.

Maine is different.

As of September 16, Democratic advertisers had spent roughly 15 percent of their $40.8 million broadcast TV and streaming dollars on ads focused on abortion rights, according to Nate Schwartz from AdImpact.

It’s one of the biggest topics there, he told me, after ads about President Donald Trump and healthcare.

Planned Parenthood’s political arm is also making its biggest ad buy of 2026 against Susan Collins, at $600,000, and WinSenate, a super PAC aligned with Senate Democratic leadership, has spent 70 percent of its TV, streaming, and digital money in Maine on abortion-focused ads.

The target is Collins, the only Republican senator up for reelection in a state Trump lost in 2024, and one of Democrats’ best chances to flip a seat.

Seeking her sixth term, Collins is running in a year when Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by about 9 points .

It’s also the first time she will face voters since Roe v.

Wade was overturned — a decision Justice Brett Kavanaugh helped deliver after Collins, who has long described herself as “pro-choice,” cast the deciding vote to confirm him in 2018.

Key takeaways Abortion has receded as a campaign issue nationally, but Democrats in Maine are spending heavily on it against Susan Collins, who cast the deciding vote for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Few Maine voters name abortion as their top issue, but Democrats believe Collins’s Kavanaugh vote can motivate their base and persuade older women who have supported her before.