In a surprise but widely foreshadowed development, 78-year-old Maine Governor Janet Mills announced Thursday morning she is withdrawing from the 2026 Democratic Senate primary, ending national Democrats’ high-stakes bid to unseat incumbent Republican Susan Collins with a tested, well-known statewide leader.
Mills, a two-term popular governor with a decades-long career in Maine politics, was handpicked by national Democratic establishment figures, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who actively recruited her to run. Party leaders viewed Maine’s open-seat contest ( framed as Collins’ final campaign ) as one of their best chances to flip a Republican-held seat and retake control of the U.S. Senate in this year’s midterm elections. But from the early stages of her campaign, structural and demographic headwinds undermined her bid.
In an official statement announcing her exit, Mills framed her decision as rooted in a modern political reality: “While I have the drive and passion, the 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.”
Mills’ exit clears a nearly unobstructed path to the Democratic nomination for 41-year-old Graham Platner, a first-time candidate, Marine Corps veteran, and small-business oyster farmer who has upended Maine’s Democratic primary in recent months. When Platner launched his grassroots campaign last August, he quickly tapped into a nationwide hunger for new working-class progressive leadership, raising $3 million in just his first seven weeks in the race. He has earned high-profile endorsements from across the Democratic ideological spectrum, including progressive standouts Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, as well as centrist Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, alongside widespread backing from national progressive activist groups and major trade unions.
Platner’s populist message, which blames billionaires and entrenched corrupt politicians for eroding working-class living standards and damaging the environment, has resonated deeply with primary voters, even amid high-profile controversy. Critics have unearthed old social media posts they call homophobic and misogynistic, and revealed that Platner previously had a skull tattoo, since covered, that resembles the Nazi SS Totenkopf insignia. Platner has forcefully disavowed his past comments, explaining the tattoo was chosen impulsively during a night of drinking with fellow Marines while deployed to Croatia, and he had no knowledge of its white supremacist history at the time. Voters have largely shrugged off the scandals, leaving Platner’s polling lead intact.
Long before her exit, Mills had been dogged by questions about her age that set up a stark generational contrast with her much younger challenger. If elected, Mills would have become the oldest first-term senator in U.S. history, and her age became a unavoidable political liability coming on the heels of 82-year-old President Joe Biden’s 2025 decision to abandon his re-election bid and the recent deaths of several senior Democratic members of Congress. Local political observers also noted that even voters who approved of Mills’ tenure as governor largely expressed a desire for new generational leadership in the Senate race.
“ I’ve been struck by how many voters I’ve talked to who really liked Janet Mills, who think she’s been a great governor, but think it’s time for some new voices, ” Josh Keefe, political reporter for *The Maine Monitor*, told BBC’s *Americast*. “ They think it’s time to sort of turn it over to the younger generation. ” Keefe added that Mills also misread the mood of the primary electorate, running a campaign centered heavily on opposition to Donald Trump, while Maine Democratic voters were seeking a broader, forward-looking vision for the party’s future. By contrast, Keefe noted, Platner’s message addresses the root economic grievances that have fueled the rise of Trumpism, rather than just focusing on opposition to the former president.
Mills’ exit now sets up a general election showdown between Platner and three-term incumbent Susan Collins, the only remaining Republican member of Congress representing a New England state. Collins, first elected to the Senate in 1996, has already proven notoriously difficult for Democrats to unseat, holding her seat in 2020 by a 9-point margin. At 73, Collins has confirmed this will be her final campaign, and a pro- Collins political group has already launched a $2 million advertising assault on Platner, kicking off what is projected to be one of the most expensive Senate races of the 2026 cycle.
For national Democrats, the stakes could not be higher: the party needs to flip four Republican-held seats to retake Senate control, and Maine remains one of their most competitive pickup opportunities. Early head-to-head polling shows Platner holding a narrow lead over Collins, but local observers warn that Collins remains a formidable political force in Maine, while Platner is a completely untested outsider who presents a new kind of challenge for the long-serving incumbent. “ Susan Collins is kind of a juggernaut in Maine, ” Keefe said. “ Platner is just a complete anomaly in Maine politics, however, and certainly she’s never faced anyone like him. ”