Supreme Court ruling may help widen money advantage for Collins and Republicans in Senate race

[](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/election-2026/) _[Read all of our coverage](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/election-2026/) of Maine's 2026 election or stay up to date with the latest developments through the [Maine Political Report](https://www.pressherald.com/mprnewsletter/) in your inbox or [text messages](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/11/maine-political-news-sent-right-to-your-phone-sign-up-for-text-alerts-from-our-editor/) from politics editor Kirby Wilson._ The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down limits on how much political parties may spend to support candidates, paving the way for even more money to flow into Maine’s high-profile U.S. Senate race between U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic upstart Graham Platner. Tuesday’s 6-3 decision from the Supreme Court’s conservative majority came amid the [latest projections](https://adimpact.com/hubfs/Reports/updated%20projections%202026/AdImpact%20Updated%20Political%20Projection%20Report_2025-2026.pdf?utm_campaign=45932935-Updated%20Projections%20Report%202026&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8hjH-aKaHXXRMau8Aztyq7UdVLLwl9Te5_maMUO31aTnIrAx4kc16qxhdtp_Zvo4lsWZ5n4SaE5vEzph2S26SKyRWi95PmP1ehDvTpvcjliJZY_l0&_hsmi=423154903&utm_content=423154903&utm_source=hs_automation) predicting nearly $500 million pouring into the Maine contest that both parties view as a key race for determining whether Republicans hold their Senate majority or not. That is more than double the existing Maine record of $200 million that was spent on the 2020 race between Collins, a Republican now seeking a sixth term, and Democrat Sara Gideon. Both parties could seek to benefit from Tuesday’s ruling, though Republicans largely hailed the decision while Democrats criticized it as giving billionaire donors even more influence. Vice President JD Vance and the national Senate Republican campaign arm had filed a 2022 lawsuit to overturn the [law](https://www.congress.gov/bill/93rd-congress/senate-bill/3044) limiting political party expenditures that Congress passed in the 1970s after the Watergate scandal took down former Republican President Richard Nixon. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority, in a decision written by [Justice Brett Kavanaugh](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/06/12/susan-collins-doesnt-regret-putting-brett-kavanaugh-on-supreme-court/), found the [law](https://www.congress.gov/bill/93rd-congress/senate-bill/3044) violates the First Amendment rights of political parties by limiting how much they can spend on candidates. That’s a similar reason the high court gave in the past when striking down campaign finance limits, most notably the [Citizens United ruling in 2010](https://www.pressherald.com/2012/05/20/22-states-join-campaign-finance-fight/) that lets corporations spend unlimited amounts on elections. “Whether the Democratic Party, the Republican Party or other parties, all political parties and candidates going forward can compete equally under the same rules regarding coordinated expenditures and can structure their fund-raising, spending and political speech on a level playing field as they see fit within the law,” Kavanaugh [wrote](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-621_h315.pdf). Justice Elena Kagan penned the dissent for the court’s three liberal members, writing that “more than ever … caps on a party’s coordinated expenditures are needed to stop quid pro quo corruption.” Kagan added the party could now “serve as the candidate’s checking account.” (Candidates get lower rates than other groups on television ads.) Advertisement Collins, a 73-year-old Caribou native, has not commented on Tuesday’s ruling other than her campaign saying it was still reviewing it. Platner, a 41-year-old Sullivan oysterman and military veteran, said in a statement that the national Senate Republican campaign arm “wants to make it easier for billionaires to buy elections, and Susan Collins’ Supreme Court opened the floodgates.” The [latest polls](https://www.pressherald.com/?p=7675488) of the Senate race in Maine, which also has high-stakes contests for governor and the 2nd Congressional District this year, [show](https://www.pressherald.com/?p=7675362) Platner and Collins running neck and neck. Up until Tuesday’s ruling, the limits on coordinated party expenditures [ranged](https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-disbursements-political-party/coordinated-party-expenditures/coordinated-party-expenditure-limits/) from $130,600 to about $4 million for Senate candidates, based on each state’s voting age population. Maine had a limit of $152,900 while having about 1.17 million residents of voting age, [according to federal data.](https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-disbursements-political-party/coordinated-party-expenditures/coordinated-party-expenditure-limits/) The limits on how much parties may give to House candidates were $65,300 for Maine and most other states except for those with only representative, where the limit was $130,600. Political action committees have no limits on how much they spend on elections, but they are not allowed to coordinate with candidates, while parties can coordinate with candidates. Platner and his campaign had raised more than $16 million since launching last August, according to the most recent [federal finance data](https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/S6ME00373/?cycle=2026&election_full=false) that went through May 20, while Collins and her campaign had raised about $12 million. But Republican-aligned groups are giving Collins a massive advantage in ads, with nearly $65 million currently booked through early November to either boost Collins or attack Platner versus nearly $27 million that Democratic-aligned groups have booked until the general election to do the same in Maine, according to AdImpact data. Democratic groups will almost certainly seek to close that gap in the coming months, though overtaking the Republican lead is a tall task. Platner told reporters Tuesday his campaign is looking to create a joint fundraising committee with national Democrats. Gov. Janet Mills had that type of agreement with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee before suspending her campaign in late April amid her trailing Platner badly in both polling and fundraising. Advertisement Pine Tree Results PAC, [funded by an array of billionaires](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/06/12/nearly-100-billionaires-and-their-spouses-have-donated-to-reelect-susan-collins/), is among the outside groups supporting Collins. The Republican National Committee, [with about $125 million on hand](https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00003418/1986060/), has maintained a stark cash advantage over the Democratic National Committee, which has more than $14 million on hand while carrying [about $18 million](https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00010603/1986008/) in debt. The National Republican Senatorial Committee [reportedly](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/30/the-supreme-court-just-made-the-dncs-fundraising-woes-a-much-bigger-problem-00983172) has an advantage of roughly $10 million over the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters welcomed Tuesday’s ruling as “a massive victory for the First Amendment.” “The RNC has been preparing for this ruling,” Gruters said in a statement, “and we are ready to expand the ways we directly help and provide resources to Republican candidates across the country.” Platner campaign manager Ben Chin told reporters Tuesday that “we feel really good about going toe to toe with Sen. Collins’ campaign, particularly on the spending side,” but Chin added that “we are being absolutely blown out of the water” by the Republican-aligned outside spending. Tuesday’s ruling essentially overturns a [Supreme Court opinion in 2001](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/533/431/) that upheld the limits in the face of a challenge from Colorado Republicans. Former President Gerald Ford, a Republican who was Nixon’s vice president before taking over after Nixon resigned due to Watergate, [signed](https://www.congress.gov/bill/93rd-congress/senate-bill/3044) the [campaign finance reform package](https://campaignlegal.org/sites/default/files/govb.pdf) into law in 1974 as an addition to legislation that passed in 1971, and the reforms also [established](https://www.fec.gov/about/fec-historical-timeline/) the Federal Election Commission to enforce the new rules. Copy the Story Link Tagged: [election 2026](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/election-2026/), [Graham Platner](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/graham-platner/), [Sen. Susan Collins](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/sen-susan-collins/), [senate race 2026](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/senate-race-2026/) [](https://www.pressherald.com/author/billy-kobin) [Billy KobinStaff Writer](https://www.pressherald.com/author/billy-kobin) Billy covers politics for the Press Herald. He joined the newsroom in 2026 after also covering politics for the Bangor Daily News for about two and a half years. Before moving to Maine in 2023, the Wisconsin. [More by Billy Kobin](https://www.pressherald.com/author/billy-kobin)