News: Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is in the process of interviewing campaign managers for a potential Senate run, a sign that she’s moving closer to challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), according to sources familiar with her plans.
Mills, a popular term-limited governor, has been flirting with a Senate run for months while other Maine Democrats have eagerly jumped in the race against Collins. Mills hasn’t made any final decisions about whether to run in 2026, but she’s growing more serious in her consideration, a person familiar with Mills’ thinking told us.
Should Mills launch a bid, she’d be the latest in a string of recruitment coups for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the DSCC. These include former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio and former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina.
At an event earlier this week in central Maine, Mills openly praised Collins, telling reporters she appreciates “everything [Collins] is doing.”
But at the same time, Mills certainly sounded like a Senate candidate. “Every day I pick up the newspaper and I read the headlines and I watch the news, and there are a lot of very disturbing things going on in Washington,” she told reporters.
Mills has said she’s aiming to decide by November whether to challenge Collins. Mills’ moves now to ready her political operation and secure key staffers are an indication she is leaning toward a run.
Primary politics. Mills will be 78 years old on Election Day and a possibly awkward standard-bearer for a Democratic base eager for generational change. If Mills chooses to run, she’ll have to navigate a messy primary that includes brewery owner Dan Kleban and oyster farmer Graham Platner.
Mills starts with higher name recognition and solid approval ratings after two successful gubernatorial bids. People who know her say Mills isn’t eager to run for another office but felt obligated to consider it, especially after she sparred with President Donald Trump over transgender athletes at the White House earlier this year.
As we reported, Senate recruitment in Maine has been complicated by Collins’ stature. Few elected Democrats are eager to take her on, and the race to replace Mills in Blaine House has tied up much of Maine’s Democratic bench.
Collins is the only GOP senator up for reelection in a state that Kamala Harris won in 2024. But the long-serving Maine Republican is a formidable foe, dispatching Democrat Sara Gideon in 2020 despite an avalanche of Democratic money and being written off by pundits.
