Maine Gov Janet Mills suspends Senate campaign, boosting Platner
maine gov janet mills ended her U.S. Senate campaign Thursday morning, saying she did not have the financial resources political campaigns require today. Her exit leaves Graham Platner as the presumptive Democratic nominee in a race Democrats view as central to their effort to retake the Senate.
Janet Mills Statement
Mills posted her decision to social media and said she had made the “incredibly difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate.” She also said, “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,”
The shift immediately changes the Democratic field in Maine. Platner, who began as an unknown candidate, now sits as the party’s presumptive nominee to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the incumbent senator from Maine.
Graham Platner Field
Platner’s rise has already altered the race. His progressive and plainspoken approach made him a national name, but controversial actions and comments from his past threatened to hurt his general election viability.
That tension had made Mills a late-entry factor in a race Democrats saw as important beyond Maine. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, while Democrats and the independents who caucus with them hold 47, and Democrats need to hold every seat they control and likely win four of six races in states including Maine to retake the chamber.
Susan Collins Race
Collins has been a difficult target for Democrats through five terms in Washington, and she won re-election in 2020 by more than 8 points. On Thursday morning, Tim Scott, who leads the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, said, “Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats just coronated a phony who is too extreme for Maine. Susan Collins has always put in the work for her constituents and delivered,”
Scott also wrote, “Washington Democrats always fall short in Maine and will again, because they just nominated a dishonest radical.” Democrats aligned with Mills’ campaign said Thursday morning they would work with Platner, putting the party behind the new front-runner as the race moves forward.
