President Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh avoided missteps, and most tough Democratic questions, at his confirmation hearing. However, liberal critics of Kavanaugh are unleashing new ads and grass-roots campaigns in one last shot to derail Kavanaugh from being appointed to the Supreme Court.
Their goal is to keep pressure on the dwindling number of senators still undecided on the president’s high court pick. Abortion-rights groups are playing a key role as the Planned Parenthood Action Fund is unleashing a new six-figure ad buy in Maine urging Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to vote no. Collins has sounded positive about Kavanaugh and seems confident he will protect the “settled law” of Roe v. Wade, but she is still undecided. Planned Parenthood’s ads, depict a group of female voters in Maine discussing their concerns about Kavanaugh and are clearly aimed directly at Collins.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund spokeswoman Erica Sackin phrased the choice for Senator Collins in stark terms, telling reporters earlier this week that women “cannot trust Brett Kavanaugh.” Pro-Choice America is also unleashing ads hitting Senator Dean Heller (R-NV), an early Kavanaugh backer, that is fighting for his seat in a swing seat.
The ads underscore the intensity with which Democrats and their allies have pursued the fight against Kavanaugh, whose confirmation will tip the balance of the Supreme Court for decades.
However, the ads have done little to shake Kavanaugh’s prospects for confirmation before the Supreme Court’s new terms starts next cont. A chamber divided 51-49 means that Democrats must win over Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), while keeping their entire caucus united against Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, democratic members on the Judiciary Committee are not abandoning their quest for hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from the nominee’s past that Republicans have not publicly released. “We are going to be going to court sometime this week to compel compliance with past Kavanaugh documents requests under the Freedom of Information Act.” Meanwhile, several crucial Democratic swing vote senators are still working to schedule meetings with Kavanaugh.
No Democrats or Republican swing votes have given an exact timeline on their decisions, but they will have to make them soon. Kavanaugh is on track to make it to the Senate floor in about two weeks, with a committee vote on track for the week of September 20. That vote is likely to fall along partisan lines.
Since Kavanaugh’s hearings, the Democratic “no” votes have started to pile up, leaving moderate Democrats increasingly on an island as undecided. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Mark Warner (D-VA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), have all announced their opposition to Kavanaugh after the hearings concluded.
