WASHINGTON, D.C. — Kate Byrne sat on the cold tile floor outside the office of Maine Sen. Susan Collins.
Four floors below, in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building, police were arresting hundreds of protesters who had swarmed the nation’s capital to oppose Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Upstairs, in the quiet hallway, a small contingent of women from Collins’ home state staked out her office.
“I kind of hope I get to see her face to face,” said Byrne, 34.
Byrne was one of dozens of Maine women who converged on Washington on Thursday with that same desire. They rallied as Collins read the results of an FBI investigation into the allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against Kavanaugh. Her upcoming and still unknown vote on the judge’s nomination has deeply personal meaning to women who have survived sexual assaults, but it also has political consequences for Collins herself.
“If you vote to confirm him, we are not stopping,” Marie Follayttar Smith, co-founder of Mainers for Accountable Leadership, shouted into the microphone during an afternoon rally on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. “We are coming for your Senate seat.”
The senator was not available for meetings Thursday, but her staff met with multiple groups of Mainers throughout the day.
One group of elected women – city councilors and state senators and mayors – caught early morning flights in order to visit Collins’ office.
Samantha Paradis, the mayor of Belfast, said she would bring her own story of sexual assault to Collins’ staff. She said she was unexpectedly emotional when she watched Christine Blasey Ford testify last week about Kavanaugh assaulting her when they were teenagers.
“I wasn’t expecting to relive the same feeling, saying that she is not believed and the comments that followed,” Paradis said. “Sen. Collins is in the position to ensure that women know that we’re heard and that our voices matter and that we’re not going to appoint someone to the Supreme Court who is not of fit character.”
Two dozen people, mostly women who said they have experienced sexual violence, rode more than 600 miles overnight on a bus from Portland. Byrne traveled in that group. She said hearing Ford, a California psychology professor, speak reminded her of the day 20 years ago when a man groped her in a movie theater in Portland. So when she learned about the bus trip on Facebook, she put in a last-minute request for time off at her job at a call center in South Portland.
She said she felt compelled to take action for herself and her friends.
“I have friends who have lived the doctor’s story when we were kids, high school, college and beyond,” Byrne said. “I believe them, and I can’t be a part of minimizing their experience.”
The bus group arrived in Washington at 8 a.m. Thursday as the morning fog lifted.
Former state legislator Diane Russell, who organized the trip and arrived in the city the day before, met the group at Union Station. She updated them on the latest news. Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had scheduled a key vote to advance the judge’s nomination for Friday.
“While you were on the bus, Mitch McConnell pushed the button to move this forward,” Russell told them. “Everyone in the country is counting on our group to persuade (Collins).”
As the group walked through the station and to the office building, passers-by waved at the sight of their signs. “Go get ‘em,” one woman yelled. One man jogged past, chanting, “Trump! Trump! Trump!” Russell led them in chants of their own.
“Maine is wise to Kavanaugh’s lies,” they shouted from the sidewalk.
Friends Heather Everly Berube and Lynnea Hawkins came together from Lewiston.
Hawkins, 38, said she was sexually abused as a girl and has suffered from panic attacks ever since. When she listened to Ford testify about Kavanaugh assaulting her when they were teenagers, she had flashbacks to her own life.
“It was like, ‘Oh, wait a second, I’m not the only one who has been carrying this for years,’” Hawkins said. “I felt like she was speaking for me.”
Berube, 33, said she experienced sexual assault as a teenager and in an abusive relationship as an adult. Now, she wants to protect her young daughter. She wants to tell Collins nothing will change if the senators do not take the allegations against Kavanaugh seriously.
“I feel like it’s too late for us, but our children and our grandchildren are only going to have it worse,” she said.
In a chaotic day in the capital, the group split up and bounced between congressional offices. Maine Sen. Angus King offered a conference room as a home base for them. Some women went to get cash in case they needed bail money.
Half of the group met with a member of Collins’ staff in her office. Rowan Bost, a legislative correspondent who works on the judiciary portfolio, wrote notes while the women spoke about their experiences and their concerns with Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“Thirty-seven years ago, I was a victim of sexual assault,” said April Caricchio, 55, of South Portland. “I called the police, and the police came and told me that they couldn’t help me, because nobody saw it happen. That’s the culture that Dr. Ford was dealing with at that time. Anybody my age that dealt with sexual assault at that time would tell you that was the norm. So for her not to be believed just blows my mind.”
The women spoke for about 45 minutes. Bost at one point paused to roll her wrist, tired from holding her notebook. They encouraged each other with nods of agreements, passed tissues, hugs and applause.
“She needs to stand up,” said Mistie Smith, 42, from Fort Fairfield. “I shouldn’t have to be here doing a little song and dance. All these women shouldn’t have to be here telling their sob stories, pouring their heart and soul out just to get their senator to do what I know the majority of Maine constituents want.”
The Mainers repeatedly expressed disappointment that they could not meet with the senator herself. Later in the afternoon, as they stood in the hot sun, they seemed both invigorated by the women around them and less confident than ever that their senator would vote against Kavanaugh. They cheered the news that North Dakota Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp would vote no, but they worried about the lack of news from Collins. Amanda DoAmaral, 28, of South Portland, had written the trip organizer’s phone number on her arm in purple marker in case she got arrested. But she debated whether that would be an effective way to influence Collins’ decision.
“I feel like it’s not going to do anything,” DoAmaral said.
Later, as they sat in the hallway outside Collins’ office, Kali Bird Isis said she was proud to see so many people speaking about sexual assault.
“I don’t necessarily feel more hopeful about Collins,” Bird Isis, 60, of Portland, said. “I feel more hopeful about the human race.”
Nacole Palmer of Bowdoin rides the escalator at Union Station after arriving in Washington with a group of Mainers on Thursday. The group traveled from Portland in hopes of meeting with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and to urge Collins to vote no. (Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald)
A group of Brett Kavanaugh supporters from Maryland and Virginia write comment cards Thursday at U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ office in Washington. (Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald)
A group of Maine voters who traveled by bus to Washington, and a group of women elected officials from various parts of Maine wait in a conference room at U.S. Sen. Angus King’s office in Washington on Thursday. The group is in Washington in hopes of meeting with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and to meet with King about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. (Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald)
A group of Mainers meets in the Washington office of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to tell their stories and urge Collins to vote no on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. (Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald)
The scene inside the Hart senate office building atrium as protesters are arrested in an act of civil disobedience against Supreme Court nominee #BrettKavanaugh pic.twitter.com/OWLOPqV2kw
— Brianna Soukup (@Brianna_PPH) October 4, 2018
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