Mills exits, leaving Graham Platner Susan Collins race to party leaders
Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the Maine Senate race, leaving graham platner susan collins as the contest party leaders are now organizing around. Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said they will work with Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee, to defeat Collins.
Platner Takes The Lead
Platner had already emerged as the Democrat with the strongest early momentum. Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ruben Gallego and Martin Heinrich backed him before the June primary, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the DSCC and EMILY's List lined up behind Mills.
That split had made the June primary into a proxy fight between the party’s progressive and centrist wings. Mills never caught up to Platner in polling, and her withdrawal leaves Collins as the Republican incumbent he is being positioned to face in November.
Schumer Changes Course
After Mills dropped out, Schumer and DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand said they will work with the presumptive Democratic nominee, Graham Platner, to defeat Susan Collins. The shift comes after Mills stopped ad spending when attacks on Platner over his past controversies failed to gain traction.
Platner’s campaign had already been building outside the formal party structure. He drew large crowds beginning in August 2025 while criss-crossing Maine for town halls and other events, even as scrutiny grew over a Nazi-related tattoo from his time in the Marines and old controversial Reddit posts.
For Maine Democrats, the immediate race now runs through Platner’s general-election campaign, not a contested primary. The next public test comes Friday, when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is set to host a general election kickoff event with Platner.
April And Last Week
The campaign also sits inside a broader record of shifts in Mills’ position on Senate fights. In mid-April, she suggested she would have voted against a Senate bill restricting U.S. aid for 1,000 pound bombs and armored bulldozers, and last week she vetoed a data center moratorium bill backed by the Maine Democratic base but opposed by business interests in the state.
Those moves did not change the immediate outcome of the Senate race. With Mills out, party leaders are rallying behind Platner, and the general-election matchup now points directly at Collins.
