How Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death could affect Senate races - and Trump v Biden
On the question of supreme court nominees, the Republican senator Susan Collins has repeatedly threaded the same political needle. It is one with a shrinking eye.
A 64% majority of voters in Collins home state, Maine, believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases yet Collins has voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, two justices nominated by Donald Trump who could roll back abortion rights.
Collins has explained that based on her private impressions, the justices would not overturn the landmark Roe v Wade decision.
But with the death on Friday of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and a vow by Trump and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, to replace the liberal lion despite the proximity of a presidential election, the eye of the needle may have closed.
Collins is in the middle of a difficult re-election fight of her own, one in which voters will weigh her commitment on issues including reproductive rights. Recent polls have put her as much as 12 points behind her Democratic rival, Sarah Gideon.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/19/ruth-bader-ginsburg-senate-presidential-election-trump-biden-collins-democrats-republicans