--- title: Maine Gov. Janet Mills Ends Senate Bid, Clearing the Way For Graham Platner description: The move sets the stage for Platner to run against Republican Susan Collins, in what is likely to be one of the hottest Senate races of the midterm elections. Mills had been telling voters she was the more electable candidate against Collins. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/04/30/maine-gov-janet-mills-suspends-senate-campaign-clearing-the-way-for-graham-platner/ author: Julia Terruso article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-04-30T15:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-30T16:14:41.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Maine Gov. Janet Mills Ends Senate Bid, Clearing the Way For Graham Platner og:description: Mills had been trailing in the polls and struggling to gain momentum against political newcomer Graham Platner. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/04/30/maine-gov-janet-mills-suspends-senate-campaign-clearing-the-way-for-graham-platner/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ff17cc93a1aefd7/6998cae707a30d83c377d730/Planter-Mills.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Graham Platner and Gov. Janet Mills of Maine. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Maine Gov. Janet Mills Ends Senate Bid, Clearing the Way For Graham Platner twitter:description: Mills had been trailing in the polls and struggling to gain momentum against political newcomer Graham Platner. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ff17cc93a1aefd7/6998cae707a30d83c377d730/Planter-Mills.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Maine Gov. Janet Mills Ends Senate Bid, Clearing the Way For Graham Platner > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Maine Democrats Pick Graham Platner to Take on Susan Collins for U.S. Senate Seat [Watch (HLS stream): Maine Democrats Pick Graham Platner to Take on Susan Collins for U.S. Senate Seat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XSELxrjU.m3u8) (1:25)  _Published 2026-06-10. Oyster farmer Graham Platner will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November_  by [Julia Terruso](https://time.com/author/julia-terruso/)  ## Julia Terruso Senior Correspondent Updated: Apr 30, 2026 4:14 PM UTCPublished: Apr 30, 2026 3:00 PM UTC  Graham Platner and Gov. Janet Mills of Maine. Graham Platner and Gov. Janet Mills of Maine. Graham Platner for Senate; Scott Eisen—Getty Images  by [Julia Terruso](https://time.com/author/julia-terruso/)  ## Julia Terruso Senior Correspondent Updated: Apr 30, 2026 4:14 PM UTCPublished: Apr 30, 2026 3:00 PM UTC Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign for the U.S. Senate Thursday, all but ensuring progressive oyster farmer Graham Platner will face [Republican SenatorSusan Collins](https://time.com/7301062/susan-collins-big-beautiful-bill-polls/) in November. The announcement marks a stunning denouement for the two-term governor and former attorney general and district attorney in the state. Mills was recruited by national Democrats to run and had the backing of Senate leaders, i[ncluding Minority Leader Chuck Schumer](https://time.com/article/2026/04/07/senate-maine-platner-schumer-open-to-supporting-democrats-sources-say/). For months, Mills had been telling voters she was the more electable candidate against Collins, who has held the seat since 1997 and [defied tough political headwinds before](https://time.com/5492645/susan-collins-center/). But Mills had recently pulled down her TV advertisement buys, and polling of the race showed her trailing Platnerby as many as 30 points ahead of the June 9 primary. Mills did not mention Platner or the general election race in the announcement suspending her campaign, blaming her exit on a lack of financial resources she'd need to continue. Platner has outspent her $4.8 million to $1.5 million since entering the race, according to ad-tracking group AdImpact. The governor pledged to spend the remaining eight months of her term fighting “relentlessly for the people of Maine.” “I step back from campaigning with unending love, admiration, and hope for Maine people—a people whose hearts are filled with love and whose integrity and humility are surpassed only by their kindness, generosity, and compassion," she said in the statement. Despite a decorated political résumé, Mills’ age became a central fault for her when she entered the race. At 78, she would havebeen the oldest freshman senator in U.S. history, and she was asking voters for support in a moment when many Democrats say the party needs generational change. The contrast with 41-year-old Platner only sharpened those anxieties. The announcement came the same morning that Platner had scheduled a press conference to announce endorsements from local Maine state representatives. At that event, Platner thanked Mills for years of service. While he has often acknowledged he was a political unknown until this campaign, he argued Thursday that the populist movement he’s tapped into has long been rising. “For decades, this system has taken piece by piece, store by store, hospital by hospital, shore by shore, town by town," he said Thursday. "They took so much that they began to think that we didn't exist at all. But they don't know Maine. They don't know the power that we have here, and we are taking back what is ours.” Now even more attention turns to Platner to see if the Democratic gamble on a political newcomer pays off. Maine is key pickup for Democrats hoping to net four seats to take control of the chamber in the 2026 midterm elections. Platner has faced significant scrutiny over a series of deleted, [inflammatory Reddit posts](https://time.com/7327351/graham-platner-tattoos-reddit-janet-mills/) made between roughly 2013 and 2021, after he served four tours of duty—three in Iraq with the Marines and a fourth in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard. On the campaign trail, he's found himself constantly explaining those statements and a [tattoo he got](https://time.com/7327351/graham-platner-tattoos-reddit-janet-mills/) in the Marines in 2007 while on leave in Croatia, which has been identified as a Nazi symbol. Platner has said he did not know the significance of the design when he got it etched on his chest drunkenly with fellow infantryman. He covered it up in October. Mills and her supporters have warned that Platner's baggage could cost Democrats in a matchup against Collins. “If you’re headed into a difficult general election you need to be reaching voters who don't know you and who you can convince not to vote for the person they've known for decades,” Emily Cain, a former state representative in Maine and Mills supporter, said. “How much of your time do you want to be spent apologizing?” Collins, in a brief interview with CNN Thursday, wished the governor well but declined to weigh in on whether she saw Platner as the easier candidate to beat. Platner's lead in the polls only grew as Mills ran attack ads against him featuring some of his past social media posts. As he barnstorms the state, he's focused on economic issues and pitched the need for working-class people in the halls of Congress. Two stars of the progressive movement—Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont—have both endorsed his campaign. Platner's also repeatedly addressed his Reddit rants head-on across more than 50 town halls. "I will continue to very publicly take accountability for the fact that I used to believe some really stupid stuff," he said of the Reddit posts at an early April town hall in Orono. "I came out of the infantry. I lived in a world of essentially intense masculinity with some real strange value sets. And you know, I spent 10 years doing that. It bleeds into your being." Maine voters have a long tradition of ticket-splitting in the purple state. Collins has repeatedly outrun the top of her party’s ticket, winning reelection in 2020 when the state backed Biden. She’s widely viewed as focusing her office on constituent services and her role as chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, through which she is able to bring back money to Maine. Platner had already been pivoting toward the general election, focusing his stump speech more on Collins, while a pro-Collins super PAC has spent $2 million in attack ads against him. Asked earlier this month about the prospect of Mills suspending her campaign, Platner told TIME, “This is a campaign to beat Susan Collins. It is also a campaign to entirely change how people in Maine engage with politics, and that is a project that, quite frankly, looks the same regardless of who we're running against.” ## Transcript If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change. And the reason I believe that is because I have lived it. And the reason that I have lived it is because of my wife. Yeah. H me h me h me h me h me h me h me. Over the last nine months, I have seen Mainers come together behind a vision to take back our power from corporations and billionaires. I, I love every single one of you, everyone who has shown up at a town hall, who has knocked on a door, who cast their vote not for me, but for a vision of a life in Maine that you can afford. A life of dignity and a government that actually serves its people. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/30/maine-gov-janet-mills-suspends-senate-campaign-clearing-the-way-for-graham-platner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/30/maine-gov-janet-mills-suspends-senate-campaign-clearing-the-way-for-graham-platner/"},"headline":"Maine Gov. Janet Mills Ends Senate Bid, Clearing the Way For Graham Platner","datePublished":"2026-04-30T15:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-30T16:14:41.000Z","description":"Oyster farmer Graham Platner will face Republican Sen. 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