The Obamacare advocacy group Protect Our Care released new TV and radio ads Wednesday urging centrist GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine to oppose Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The ads highlight the chance that Kavanaugh could gut Obamacare and, with it, protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The campaign represents a last-ditch effort to get the centrist senators to oppose the nomination, which would be key to blocking Kavanaugh from getting to the high court.
“Sens. Collins and Murkowski have claimed a commitment to health care — this nomination may be the truest test of where they actually stand yet,” said Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care, in a statement.
Kavanaugh’s hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee begin next week.
Neither Collins nor Murkowski have agreed to support Kavanaugh.
Collins has said repeatedly she wants to see what happens in the hearings before making a decision.
Kavanaugh’s opponents have charged he could vote in favor of a lawsuit led by Texas and 19 other states that would get rid of the entire law, even though legal experts doubt the lawsuit could get to the Supreme Court.
The group is airing TV and radio ads in Maine and radio ads in Alaska.
The TV ad shows a mock news report of Kavanaugh casting the deciding vote to overturn Obamacare.
The GOP has a 50-49 majority in the Senate, following the death of Arizona’s John McCain, and Kavanaugh needs a simple majority vote to reach the Supreme Court. If Collins and Murkowski opposed the nomination, and all Democrats did the same, they would block his nomination.
