Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced Thursday that she is suspending her campaign for U.S. Senate. That move shakes up a race Democrats see as critical in gaining the majority in the U.S. Senate.
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Sacha Pfeiffer.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
And I’m Scott Detrow. Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, announced today she’s suspending her campaign for the U.S Senate. That move makes Democratic candidate Graham Platner, who’s become a breakout progressive star, the party’s likely nominee this fall against Republican incumbent Susan Collins. For more on this, we turn to Maine Public’s chief political correspondent Steve Mistler in Brunswick. Hey, Steve.
STEVE MISTLER, BYLINE: Hey. How you doing?
DETROW: So Governor Mills said she didn’t have enough money to continue her Senate campaign. And let’s just step back because she was recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. She’s the incumbent governor. She’s got a lot of establishment backing. What happened here?
MISTLER: Well, I think, you know, Governor Mills was a little bit late getting into the race, Scott. And by the time she announced her run in mid-October, Platner had already amassed a healthy lead in fundraising, polling, enthusiasm and arguably message. And she was just really never able to gain ground and effectively stopped running ads in mid-April, prompting a lot of speculation about the viability of her campaign.
DETROW: How did Platner and Collins react to the news?
MISTLER: Well, Platner was gracious about it. During a previously scheduled endorsement rally, he thanked Mills for her service and said they both shared the common goal of defeating Senator Collins.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GRAHAM PLATNER: The race has never been about me or really about one person. It’s about a movement of working Mainers who are fed up with being robbed by billionaires and the politicians who own them. We are now taking back our power.
MISTLER: And Collins, for her part, released a very brief statement that also thanked Mills for her decades of public service and said the decision to drop out must have been pretty difficult.
DETROW: Let’s talk more about what this means for Collins. She’s held the seat since the late ’90s. Does this mean that she’s going to turn her attention now to Platner, that the general election has effectively begun, even though he still has to technically to win the primary?
MISTLER: Yeah. In some ways, she already has, Scott, along with the massive Republican operation hoping to secure her a sixth term. You know, even before Mills left the race, a well-funded super PAC had begun running $2 million worth of attack ads against Platner. And that’s just the beginning of what’s expected to be a very expensive effort to influence the race by outside groups and super PACs.
And Platner has been making the pivot now against Collins for weeks. You know, he still has to win the Democratic primary, but his primary opponent, David Costello, has even fewer financial resources than Mills and is well behind in polling.
DETROW: So looking ahead to the general election – Collins has held the seat since 1997. She has been a top Democratic target before. She’s always won. And Platner is a political newcomer, so what can we expect?
MISTLER: Yeah. I mean, I think the only other political office he’s held is harbor master in this tiny seacoast town of Sullivan. I mean, I guess the good news for him on the endorsement and the money front, really, is he seems to be consolidating support from local Democrats now. Also, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which had been fundraising with Mills, announced today that it will back his candidacy. And that means he’ll benefit from that committee’s resources and won’t have to fight this Republican machine all on his own. And that machine will be formidable. According to AdImpact, nearly $68 million has already been booked for political ads in the general election, and 70% of that is by Republican-aligned groups.
DETROW: And real quick, remind us why this race is being watched so closely.
MISTLER: Well, it’s widely believed that Democrats’ chances of gaining a majority in the U.S. Senate hinges on what happens in Maine. I mean, Collins’ approval ratings are quite low, and this is seen as a big pickup opportunity. And without toppling Collins, that path is very difficult if not impossible. You know, the primary race has also been a proxy fight between divisions within the Democratic Party…
DETROW: Yeah.
MISTLER: …More broadly, that primary about the direction that the party should take after Trump’s election in 2024.
DETROW: Steve Mistler of Maine Public, thanks so much.
MISTLER: Thanks, Scott.
Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
