Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the largest abortion rights organization in the United States, endorsed Democrat Graham Platner for the Senate race in Maine on Monday. This decision came at the expense of Senator Susan Collins, one of the few Republican senators who supports abortion rights.
In May 2025, a Maine affiliate of Planned Parenthood had commended Senator Collins for her longstanding support of the organization and her resistance to Republican efforts to cut federal funding. However, at an event in Portland on Monday, Alexis McGill Johnson, the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood, criticized Senator Collins for not taking bold enough steps to defend abortion rights.
“Senator Collins is a fair-weather feminist at best,” Ms. McGill Johnson stated, while surrounded by women holding signs bearing Mr. Platner’s name in the organization’s hot pink color. “She is conveniently pro-reproductive freedom when it suits her.”
The Senate race presents a challenge for Democrats in Maine. While some have concerns about Mr. Platner’s behavior towards women, they are still upset with Senator Collins for her 2018 vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh later joined the conservative majority that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, which had protected a constitutional right to abortion.
Angela Kuefler, a Democratic strategist with expertise in polling on abortion rights in recent elections, suggested that Platner’s campaign strategy might be to challenge Senator Collins’s moderate reputation and to increase support among female voters, who are the majority in Maine’s electorate.