Maine Gov Mills joins crowded Dem primary in race to challenge longtime GOP senator

Democrats in Washington landed another high-profile recruit in the 2026 battle for the Senate majority, as two-term Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Tuesday announced her candidacy in the race to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

The long-anticipated campaign launch by the battle-tested 77-year-old Democratic governor is seen as a victory for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. 

The top Democrat in the Senate urged Mills to run and sees her as the best candidate to defeat Collins, the only Republican senator up for re-election next year in a state the Democrats carried in the presidential election. A Collins defeat would be essential for the Democrats to have any chance of winning back the Senate majority.

But before she reaches the general election, Mills first has to navigate a likely competitive and potentially divisive primary among a crowded field of contenders that includes a much younger rising star on the left who's backed by longtime progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

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"I've never backed down from a bully and I never will," the governor said in a statement as she launched her campaign. "Donald Trump is ripping away health care from millions, driving up costs, and giving corporate CEOs massive tax cuts. And Susan Collins is helping him."

Mills' campaign launch video highlighted the February White House meeting of governors where President Donald Trump confronted her for defying his executive order preventing trans athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports.

Trump told Mills, "you're not going to get any federal funding," if she did not comply, to which she replied, "we'll see you in court." 

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Mills, a former elected county district attorney and former state lawmaker, made history serving as Maine's first female attorney general.

She later won election in 2018 as Maine's first female governor, and in 2022 comfortably defeated former Republican Gov. Paul LePage by double digits to win re-election.

Tuesday's launch comes after the Mills campaign appeared to jump the gun last week with a quickly deleted social media post and video on Friday announcing her candidacy.

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While she'll be considered the frontrunner for the Democratic Senate nomination, thanks in part to her vast name recognition in blue-leaning Maine, she could face a serious challenge from 41-year-old Graham Platner, a U.S. Marine and Army veteran and oyster farmer who launched his campaign in August.

Platner, who hauled in over $3 million in fundraising during the first six weeks after declaring his candidacy, is backed by Sanders, the two-time Democratic presidential nomination runner-up, who recently stopped in Maine to headline a campaign rally.

In a warning to Mills, Sanders said on social media last week that "Graham Platner is a great working class candidate for Senate in Maine who will defeat Susan Collins."

"It's disappointing that some Democratic leaders are urging Governor Mills to run. We need to focus on winning that seat & not waste millions on an unnecessary & divisive primary," Sanders added.

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Other candidates vying for the Democratic Senate nomination include Dan Kleban, a co-founder of the Maine Beer Co., and former congressional staffer Jordan Wood, who raked in roughly $3 million during the July-September third quarter of fundraising.

Phil Rench, a former senior engineer for Elon Musk's SpaceX, is running as an independent candidate.

"Maine Democrats are locked in a bruising fight between Chuck Schumer's out-of-touch establishment and Bernie Sanders' far-left radicals," National Republican Senatorial Committee Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez charged in a statement as Mills entered the race.

And Rodriguez argued that "Janet Mills wants to be the oldest freshman Senator in American history after a record of failure that turned Maine into one of the weakest economies in New England. No matter which Democrat emerges, we're confident Mainers will continue to trust independent problem solver Susan Collins to keep delivering for them."

The 72-year-old Collins, a moderate Republican, first won election to the Senate in 1996. She currently chairs the influential Senate Appropriations Committee.

Collins won comfortable double-digit re-elections in 2002, 2008, and 2014.

In her 2020 re-election, Collins faced off against Democratic State House Speaker Sara Gideon, in a hotly contested race that became the most expensive in Maine history. While polls indicated Collins trailing her Democratic challenger, she ended up winning the election by more than eight points.

Mills becomes the third major high-profile Senate recruit for the Democrats this year, following former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina and former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio.

Republicans currently control the Senate 53-47.