Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the Maine Senate race on Thursday, making progressive candidate Graham Platner the presumptive Democratic nominee against Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in November.
In a statement issued by her campaign, Mills explained that she had run out of money to continue on, well short of the state’s June 9 primary, and before any debates between her and Platner.
“While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else — the fight — to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources,” Mills said. “That is why today I have made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate.”
“I step back from campaigning with unending love, admiration, and hope for Maine people — a people whose hearts are filled with love and whose integrity and humility is surpassed only by their kindness, generosity, and compassion,” she added.
The writing had been on the wall for the governor’s campaign for some time. It stopped running campaign ads three weeks ago. Mills had made few appearances on the trail. And poll after poll showed her badly lagging behind Platner, in some cases by 30 or more percentage points. She also had few allies among the Senate Democratic Conference, which had been pulling for Platner despite his controversies.
Mills’ failure to launch is an embarrassing blow for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who recruited the two-term governor into the race. The DSCC and allied groups spent large sums of money in support of Mills, with little to show for it. Their intervention in the race antagonized Platner, who railed against Washington insiders and vowed not to support Schumer as Democratic leader in the Senate.
Nevertheless, Schumer and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the chair of the DSCC, said on Thursday they intended to support Platner to defeat Collins in November.
“Democrats are dedicated to fighting back against the chaos of the Trump administration by defeating the Republicans who enable his harmful agenda and that includes Susan Collins,” Schumer and Gillibrand said in a statement. “After years of allowing Trump’s abuses of power, Senator Collins has never been more vulnerable and we will work with the presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner to defeat her.”
“Our North Star is winning a Democratic Senate majority, and over the past year, Senate Democrats have carved out multiple paths to do that. We have recruited strong candidates who have expanded the map, a winning message focused on fighting for hardworking families, and formidable campaigns working every day to hold Republicans accountable. In 2026, Democrats will win a Senate majority,” they added.
Republicans, meanwhile, were giddy about getting their preferred opponent in the race. Despite early polls showing Platner beating Collins, Republicans believe they’ll capitalize on his past remarks disparaging women and rural Americans to win in November.
“Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats just coronated a phony who is too extreme for Maine,” said South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Susan Collins has always put in the work for her constituents and delivered. Washington Democrats always fall short in Maine and will again, because they just nominated a dishonest radical.”
