SACO, Maine — Democratic women who have long been a reliable constituency against Republican Sen. Susan Collins now find themselves caught between an incumbent whose Supreme Court vote they consider a betrayal and a Democratic challenger whose personal history has left many unwilling to support him.
Graham Platner won the Democratic primary on Tuesday to challenge Collins, a five-term incumbent who has survived past Democratic waves by building a cross-party coalition, particularly among older women. Platner’s victory speech focused on Collins’s 2018 vote to confirm Kavanaugh, saying, “She got elected promising to protect Roe versus Wade, only to turn around and put a justice on the Supreme Court who overturned it. She lied to us.”
But for many women voters, Platner himself is a hard vote.
“This is a very painful choice for a lot of women,” said Brenda Garrand, 68, of Rockland, who said she had voted for Collins in four of the senator’s five successful elections. “One choice is to vote for somebody who I simply don’t think has the experience, the character or even the political orientation that I find valuable,” she said, referring to Platner. But Collins’s vote for Kavanaugh “was disappointing, and it has been devastating for women.”
Garrand said the possibility of a Supreme Court retirement could make the race even more consequential, giving Collins the chance to vote on another Trump nominee.
Rachel Osborne, 50, an independent voter from Owls Head, said she could not vote for Collins because her Supreme Court vote “really tanked us.” At the same time, she said, “I’m having a hard time voting for Graham Platner.” Osborne said she worried that Platner’s controversial past had made it harder to defeat Collins.
Platner has energized the party’s left wing with calls to break up corporate power and tax the wealthy to expand healthcare and other government services. But a series of disclosures has complicated his general-election path.
His campaign acknowledged that his wife discovered sexually explicit texts with several women on his phone in spring 2025. Lyndsey Fifield, who dated him about a decade ago, accused him of abuse; the New York Times quoted her saying he grabbed her in ways that hurt but never caused injury. A cache of online posts by Platner included a comment that women “take some responsibility” for avoiding sexual assault by not getting drunk.
Platner has said the online comments and his relationship with Fifield came during a difficult period when he was struggling after returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he had been a poor romantic partner at times but that “any characterization beyond that is false.”
Some voters said the disclosures were disqualifying. “I don’t trust him. I don’t trust his values,” said Cheryl Koscak, 65, of Old Orchard Beach. Koscak said she would likely support Collins again, despite describing herself as angry when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She said she would have been open to supporting someone other than Collins but cannot bring herself to back Platner.
Other voters said they saw Platner’s past as irrelevant or accepted his statement that he has changed. “Given his background, his time in the Marines, his PTSD, I can see him as a flawed candidate,” said Jean Bourg, 80, of Unity. “I’m not saying he’s perfect, but I generally vote on policy.”
Lynn Bromley, a former Democratic state senator, said she cannot support Platner and plans to write in a different name on the November ballot. “I’m a Democrat, so I want Democrats to win,” Bromley said. “But I also care how we win. And our argument can’t be that character only matters when it’s candidates from the other party.”
Women, particularly older women, are the key swing voting bloc in Maine elections. In Collins’s last race, in 2020, women backed Biden by 13 percentage points but also Collins over her Democratic challenger by 5 points, an AP VoteCast survey found. Women ages 45 and older were even more likely to cross parties, backing Biden by 15 points and Collins by 7 points.
“Those cross-pressured women are the whole ball game,” said Amy Walter, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Walter said the Kavanaugh vote challenges Collins’s efforts to portray herself as a moderate who works with both parties and supports abortion rights. “Is Susan Collins who she says she is, and what does it mean to have an independent voice in Washington if that person didn’t stand up at the most critical time for women in the state?” Walter said.
Collins has defended her Kavanaugh vote, saying at the time that she found no corroborating evidence of an assault accusation against Kavanaugh and that Kavanaugh had said he believed precedent was important — suggesting he would respect Roe v. Wade as settled law. After he voted to overturn federal abortion rights in 2022, Collins said she felt “misled” by him and later introduced legislation that would have codified Roe into law.
In a written statement, Collins campaign spokesman Shawn Roderick said the senator has a “long, pro-choice record.” Regarding Platner’s criticisms, Roderick said the Platner campaign believes “repackaging old attacks that were litigated in 2020 will distract from the complete dumpster fire happening on their side of the street. They’re wrong.”
Platner has not made Collins’s Kavanaugh vote the central focus of his campaign. He has emphasized economic messaging, accusing Collins of being part of an uncaring system that allowed healthcare companies to consolidate and pharmaceutical companies to charge high prices. But in his victory speech Tuesday, he made the Supreme Court vote a headline.
The general election in November will test whether Collins can again assemble the cross-party coalition that has kept her in office for 30 years, or whether the cross-pressured women at the heart of Maine’s electorate will ultimately have no candidate they are comfortable with.