Collins Might Be More Likely to Listen to Constituents Than Outside Groups on Kavanaugh Confirmation
PRRI’s Research Director Dan Cox, PhD., appeared on
Hill.TV to discuss Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is considered a swing vote for the upcoming Kavanaugh confirmation. Cox argued that local constituents may hold the key in influencing Collins’ decision. “I think that these outside interest groups aren’t going to play a huge role in the outside calculations. I think the senator [Collins] will be paying very close attention to the sentiment back home, and so I’m sure her staff are closely monitoring that,” he said. Collins has stated in the past that “a candidate for this important position who would overturn
Roe v. Wade would not be acceptable to me, because that would indicate an activist agenda that I don’t want to see a judge have.” In a
PRRI Spotlight analysis, PRRI Research Assistant Alex Vandermaas-Peeler examines the views of Collins’ constituency on this issue. She writes, “In 2014, two-thirds of Maine residents said abortion should be legal in most (41 percent) or all cases (26 percent). Only three in ten Maine residents think abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. In only two states do residents express greater support for legal abortion: New Hampshire (73 percent) and Vermont (69 percent).”