Democratic ad hits Collins on abortion

Another cycle, another abortion ad aimed at Susan Collins, and you can set your watch by it. This is the same playbook Maine Democrats have run since 2020: paint the most moderate Republican in the Senate as some kind of extremist, hope the label sticks before anyone checks the actual voting record. It didn't work then, when Collins won by nine points in a state Biden carried. There's no obvious reason it works better now.

What's actually telling here is the timing and the vagueness of it. We don't get much detail because there isn't much new to report, just a super PAC-adjacent group recycling a strategy because they don't have a better one against an incumbent who's survived worse. Collins has spent decades building a reputation as someone who breaks from her party on plenty of issues, abortion included. That's precisely why these ads have to work so hard to flatten her into a caricature. Voters in Maine have heard this pitch before and largely shrugged.

None of this means Collins is untouchable or that abortion politics won't matter in 2026. It might. But an ad campaign that leans on outrage instead of specifics tells you the attackers think the issue alone can carry them, without having to engage with what she's actually done in office. That's a bet on emotion over substance, and Maine voters have a track record of seeing through it.