Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, announced this week that she’s running for incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins‘s seat in the 2026 election. Mills revealed that she has formed a joint fundraising committee with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). It’s called “Maine Senate Victory 2026.”
Graham Platner, an oyster farmer, harbormaster, and U.S. Army combat veteran running in the Democratic primary, responded to the new fundraising committee for Mills by writing: “Chuck Schumer should be focused on fighting Donald Trump and protecting healthcare for millions of Americans, not meddling in a Maine primary. DC’s choice has lost to Susan Collins five times in a row. We can’t afford a sixth.”
Chuck Schumer should be focused on fighting Donald Trump and protecting healthcare for millions of Americans, not meddling in a Maine primary.
DC’s choice has lost to Susan Collins five times in a row. We can’t afford a sixth. https://t.co/6Yu6rEA4HK
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) October 14, 2025
In August, Platner said that if Mills did decide to run — she previously said she wasn’t running — that he would not drop out of the race in deference to her. Platner said: “If we keep running the same kind of playbooks, if we keep having DC choose candidates for Maine that don’t always represent the entire electorate of the state then we run the risk of having another 2020.” (Mills, of course, did win the governorship in the state.)
Note: Democratic candidate Dan Kleban, co-founder of Maine Beer Company, announced on Tuesday that he’s suspending his campaign and “enthusiastically endorsing Gov. Janet Mill.”
Platner has also said that if elected, he would not vote for Senate Minority Leader Schumer to be the next Democratic leader. In another statement also made this summer, before Schumer’s current stand against Republicans and the government shutdown, Platner said: “At this point, we need leaders who have vision and frankly, the ability to fight.”
Platner released the video below and warned Democratic voters: “When you donate to Chuck Schumer, when you donate to the big Democratic super PACs, what they do is share their lists with candidates that they like. They put their thumb on the scale. And what they do is they use access to those lists of donors, those lists of people who have given like yourself, and they use that to give to the candidates that they like, like Janet Mills.
Here’s why you were barraged with spam today. pic.twitter.com/SAurA5T2AD
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) October 14, 2025
When asked about her Democratic opponents on Tuesday, Mills said: “We’ve run people against Susan Collins before, and she has won. She won handily the last few times, and she won because we ran people who were untested. I don’t know much of anything about Graham Platner. I know a couple of the other guys who are running—one of them is a brewer. It’s one of the reasons I said I’d have a beer with him. But, I’m the only one in the race who’s actually won an election, and that’s important to have under your belt.”
Meiselas: What’s your response to what you’re seeing there with someone like Graham, and how do you see yourself in that race versus Graham Platner?
Mills: We’ve run people against Susan Collins before, and she has won. She won handily the last few times, and she won because we… pic.twitter.com/amG1enYpfk
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 14, 2025