Janet Mills Quits Maine Main After Lackluster Marketing campaign

Janet Mills, governor of Maine and Democratic US Senate candidate, throughout a roundtable dialogue with neighborhood leaders in Westbrook, Maine, US, on Tuesday, March 10, 2026.
Picture: Sofia Aldinio/Bloomberg/Getty Photos

Maine governor Janet Mills introduced Thursday morning that she is suspending her bid for the U.S. Senate, setting the stage for a general-election matchup between oyster farmer and veteran Graham Platner and five-term Republican senator Susan Collins. 

In a assertion shared to social media, Mills indicated that monetary issues performed a task in her determination to go away the race with rather less than two months to go earlier than the June Democratic main. “Whereas I’ve the drive and keenness, dedication and expertise, and above all else — the struggle — to proceed on, I very merely don’t have the one factor that political campaigns sadly require right now: the monetary assets. That’s the reason right now I’ve made the extremely tough determination to droop my marketing campaign for the US Senate.”

The 78-year-old Mills indicated that she intends to serve out the remaining eight months of her time period as governor, the potential coda to a decades-long political profession that started in Maine’s state legislature in addition to two stints because the state legal professional normal.

Platner acknowledged Mills’ announcement in a assertion, writing that the governor has “devoted her profession to this lovely state” and that he’s “eternally grateful” for her years of public service.

“We each obtained into this race as a result of we knew how crucial defeating Susan Collins is. And her determination right now displays that dedication. I look ahead to working along with her between now and November to just do that,” he mentioned.

Mills’s prospects to turn into the Democratic nominee for Senate had lengthy appeared dim. An Emerson School ballot launched final month discovered Platner, who’s working his first political marketing campaign, with a considerable 27-point lead over Mills. Politico reported earlier this month that Mills was at a major money drawback with Platner bringing in $4.1 million within the first quarter and Collins elevating just a little over $3 million whereas Mills took residence $2.6 million, however solely had $1 million money readily available.

Although Platner had been dogged by months of controversy revolving previous social-media posts and a now-covered-up tattoo that critics say resembled a Nazi image, the Marine veteran’s nationwide profile had solely grown with Platner gaining the endorsements of a number of of his doable future colleagues, together with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona. Mills’s try to hit Platner on the scandals additionally fell brief because the governor aired adverts on Platner’s years-old Reddit feedback a number of months after he had disavowed the remarks and the topic had largely fallen out of dialogue.

Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, who had helped to recruit Mills and strongly backed her marketing campaign, signaled an openness to supporting Platner in a joint assertion with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the DSCC, the Senate Democrats’ marketing campaign arm. The New York senators thanked Mills for her “hard-fought and principled marketing campaign” and mentioned that Senate Democrats have “carved out a number of paths” to attain a celebration majority within the chamber.

“Democrats are devoted to preventing again in opposition to the chaos of the Trump administration by defeating the Republicans who allow his dangerous agenda and that features Susan Collins. After years of permitting Trump’s abuses of energy, Senator Collins has by no means been extra susceptible and we are going to work with the presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner to defeat her,” Schumer and Gillibrand mentioned.

Collins briefly weighed in on Mills suspending her marketing campaign in feedback to NBC Information, saying she imagined it was a “tough determination.” However the veteran senator opted in opposition to commenting on whether or not Platner can be simpler or tougher to beat within the fall. “”I’m not going to get into enjoying pundit,” she informed the outlet.