Maine Gov. Janet Mills enters race to unseat Susan Collins: NPR

Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced Tuesday that she will enter the race to defeat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a top target of national Democrats’ efforts to win back the Senate.

Mills was recruited by Senate Democratic leaders after her high-profile confrontation with President Donald Trump in February over transgender athletes, a dispute that sparked a wave of retaliation by his administration against the state. The exchange is featured in its launch announcement.

“My life’s work has prepared me for this fight and I am ready to win,” Mills says in the video. “This election will be a simple choice: will Maine bow or stand. I know my answer.”

In an interview, Mills said the interaction was a “breathtaking” moment that showcased Trump’s monarchical aspirations. She said it also pushed her to consider running for a Senate seat she previously didn’t want.

“When I was little growing up in Farmington, my dad always told me you have to stand up to bullies. You can’t let them do it or they’ll never stop,” she said. “And I think that’s what’s happening in Congress right now…Congress isn’t standing up to him. Susan Collins isn’t standing up to him.”

She added: “I don’t think I could forgive myself if I didn’t give everything I have to change what’s happening in a very dysfunctional government in Washington.”

To defeat Collins, Mills will first have to navigate a potentially bruising primary. The competition already has more than half a dozen candidates, including two, Jordan Wood and Graham Platner, who take a more progressive approach. Platner also channels Democratic voters’ disillusionment with the party’s leadership and held up Mills’ candidacy as an example of their unwillingness to part with “the same old tired playbook.”

Platner’s candidacy, backed by independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, is part of a national trend in which insurgent candidates attack Democratic incumbents or those favored by national party leaders. Days before Mills’ announcement, Sanders said in a social media post that “it’s disappointing that some Democratic leaders are urging Governor Mills to run.” We need to focus on winning this seat and not waste millions on unnecessary and divisive primaries.”

Mills, who turns 78 in December, said she is looking forward to the primary and looking forward to comparing her accomplishments as governor to those of other candidates. She highlighted her efforts to dedicate more of the state budget to local education, expanding Medicaid health coverage for low-income Mainers and providing free meals in public schools. She also highlighted her long history of defending abortion rights, expanding access to the procedure after the Supreme Court ruling. Dobbs decision and make Maine a haven for women who live in states where it is restricted or outright banned.

“I am the only candidate in this race who has kept these promises,” she said.

Mills proved to be a formidable statewide candidate during her two successful gubernatorial campaigns. In 2022, she defeated conservative Firebrand and former governor Paul LePage to win her second term, holding on in Maine’s conservative 2nd Congressional District.

A strong rise for the Democrats

The U.S. Senate race will present a new and formidable challenge.

Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate race in Maine since former Sen. George Mitchell won reelection in 1988. Collins has held her seat since 1996. Democrats’ controversial and costly attempt to unseat her in 2020 ended in an 8-point defeat in a state that President Joe Biden won by 9 points.

Democrats believe Collins is now more vulnerable. The Maine Democratic Party has repeatedly sought to highlight what it sees as a diminishing influence as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, amid the Trump administration’s attempt to consolidate power in the executive branch.

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, leaves the US Capitol on September 30. Democrats say Collins has lost influence as an appropriator and have attacked her votes to confirm Trump’s controversial Cabinet picks.

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Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

His potential ascension to the budget panel was repeatedly highlighted by his campaign in 2020 as a way to influence Maine’s fickle — and often decisive — independent voting bloc.

Mills also addressed that criticism, saying that Collins’ ascension to the budget committee was a “big deal” but that she had not used her position to oppose Trump’s attempt to wrest more spending power from Congress.

Democrats also attacked his votes to confirm controversial Trump Cabinet picks and to confirm judges they say are hostile to abortion rights.

Mills would be the oldest freshman elected to the Upper House in modern history if she can unseat Collins, who turns 73 in December. The governor acknowledged that age will be “a factor” for some voters, but she believes they will side with her experience, particularly in the Democratic primaries.

“I know I can take this last fight and achieve it,” she said.

A crowded primary field

The governor’s entry into the race will likely discourage other Democratic candidates from running and could oust already declared candidates.

Wood and Platner vowed to stay. Platner, when asked recently about Mills’ seemingly imminent candidacy, told Maine Public that his campaign wouldn’t change its approach much.

“We’re going to take on the same project no matter who comes in,” he said, adding, “This is a campaign to reshape the Democratic Party.”

Platner, an oyster farmer and military veteran, said his campaign aims to build a movement and political infrastructure that will last after next year’s midterm elections. His campaign already boasts 6,000 volunteers and his appearances at town hall have drawn large crowds. She also claims to have raised more than $4 million in just over a month.

Wood, a former staffer for U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, Democrat of California, says her campaign raised a similar amount over a longer period of time.

Mills, a former prosecutor, served two terms as Maine’s attorney general. The second took place between 2013 and 2018, when Republican LePage was governor. The two frequently clashed as LePage, often seen as a prototype of Trump, pushed the limits of executive power. Mills would later defeat him in his bid for a second term as governor.

“We’ll see you in court.”

Mills reacts after challenging President Trump on federal law on the issue of transgender athletes in sports as Trump addressed a meeting of governors at the White House on February 21, 2025.

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His fights with LePage set the stage for his February showdown with Trump at a National Governors Association event at the White House. During the event, Trump called on Mills to obey his executive order banning transgender athletes from competing on women’s sports teams. Mills told her she would follow Maine law, which currently allows the practice. When he threatened to withdraw Maine’s federal funding, Mills told him, “See you in court.”

The looming primary race in Maine is part of a broader pattern of Democratic insurgencies in congressional elections, based on a type of economic populism long championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Platner has been particularly critical of national Democrats, particularly regarding Mills’ recruitment.

“Running DC-selected candidates, running DC-led campaigns, I think that’s a losing strategy,” he said in a recent interview. “I think what we’re doing – which is really trying to build a campaign of Mainers, for Mainers – is how we win the state of Maine.”