Why Janet Mills ended her Senate marketing campaign — and Graham Platner triumphed

[ad_1] One of the vital hotly contested Democratic primaries of 2026 ended with a whimper somewhat than a bang Thursday, as Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) suspended her Senate marketing campaign, making outsider oyster farmer Graham Platner the overwhelming favourite for the social gathering’s nomination.

The seat, at present held by five-term Sen. Susan Collins (R), is considered one of Democrats’ prime pickup alternatives. However the main battle surfaced many desirable tensions inside at present’s Democratic Occasion.

What doomed Mills — anti-establishment sentiment, her age, a foul marketing campaign, or the entire above? How did Platner survive what many anticipated to be a campaign-ending scandal ? Have been his daring left views an asset or a legal responsibility? And may we learn large nationwide traits into this end result, or is it primarily concerning the specific candidates, and the quirky state, concerned?

To reply these questions, I spoke with Alex Seitz-Wald, a longtime nationwide political reporter who moved to Maine and now works as deputy editor for the Midcoast Villager , an area newspaper. Since Maine’s Senate main captivated nationwide consideration, Seitz-Wald has been a form of Maine politics whisperer — a Maine-splainer — to nationwide reporters. Right here’s what he needed to say.

Did Janet Mills’s age — and the Biden hangover — doom her?

<img alt="Gov. Janet Mills at a roundtable event on March 10, 2026." data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2268698756.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Gov. Janet Mills at a roundtable occasion on March 10, 2026. Sofia Aldinio/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures

Janet Mills is the sitting governor and was Democratic leaders’ dream candidate to take out Susan Collins. It was believed by many who she alone may put the seat in play. Now she’s gone all the way down to defeat by a little-known outsider candidate — what went incorrect?

If I needed to choose one factor that explains the Mills-Platner factor, she simply ran a horrible marketing campaign. I’ve seen dozens of Senate campaigns. I coated nationwide politics for 15 years, and this is likely one of the most shockingly dangerous campaigns I’ve ever seen.

The query she by no means actually put to mattress, however that everybody had was: Did she actually need to do that? She sort of dragged her ft on operating, as Chuck Schumer and nationwide Democrats had been very publicly making an attempt to encourage her to run. She ran this very lackluster marketing campaign, not doing quite a lot of public occasions, not quite a lot of power, a media technique that felt very dated. And that was what she may management.

The stuff that she couldn’t management — her age was the largest issue. She would have been 79 when she was sworn in. Final summer season, when she bought in was proper off the entire Joe Biden fiasco, the lack of the presidency to [Donald] Trump.

So quite a lot of Democrats had been very involved about that. It was so recent in individuals’s minds, so uncooked, and other people felt like they'd been lied to by the White Home and the Democratic powers that be — it simply made all of them the extra suspicious.

That is the oldest state in the country , so it’s not like persons are ageist. However I talked to quite a lot of Democrats, together with quite a lot of older girls, who stated they like Janet Mills as a governor, however they wished a recent face with new power and new concepts within the Senate.

She was not a Joe Biden — like, a doddering outdated one who was being protected by employees. I’ve hung out along with her: she is sharp, she’s bodily lively. However Maine Democratic voters simply by no means actually noticed that, as a result of she was simply not on the market, proving it to them.

Did Graham Platner triumph due to his left views — or despite them?

Platner is related to the Bernie Sanders wing of the social gathering. How essential do you assume ideology and views had been in explaining his attraction — versus the extra generic vibes of “he appears robust and he fights.” Or are they intermingled?

Progressives gave Platner a very good base of assist, however I believe they need to watch out in overreading this as a victory of their ideology. As a result of there have been quite a lot of different components right here.

There’s his Maine-ness, if you'll. He simply seems like lots of people. If we went all the way down to city, like a pair miles from the place I'm proper now, we may discover like a half dozen dudes who look similar to Graham Platner. They’re guys who work with their palms who bathe after work as a substitute of earlier than work.

I believe that resonates with people who find themselves extra working class — but in addition particularly with Democratic progressive thought leaders who're extra prosperous, however who acknowledge the necessity for the social gathering to achieve these individuals extra. He can do this sort of code switching as a result of he went to GWU, as a result of he comes from an upper-middle-class household, as a result of he was a bartender at [the Washington, DC, bar] the Tune Inn. He can communicate to the donors and thought leaders and he also can communicate to the fellows on the waterfront.

Having coated one million campaigns, I’m not an enormous believer in campaigns actually mattering usually. I believe it’s structural forces extra typically. However on this case, I actually do assume that the marketing campaign that he ran — and the marketing campaign that Mills didn't run — had been instrumental. It’s a small state, 1.3 million individuals. Everyone is aware of anyone who is aware of anyone.

So the truth that he was simply on the market doing city halls that might get a pair hundred individuals, a thousand individuals, constructing this sort of sense of power — nobody’s ever seen something like that right here. And ultimately, he reaches some sort of vital mass the place he has straight met with or been in a room with a major chunk of the Democratic voting base. That’s earlier than you get to all of the podcast interviews that he’s performed, social media, digital advert campaigns, and all of that that made him omnipresent — he simply related with individuals personally.

Did Platner win as a result of Democratic voters are livid on the social gathering institution?

<img alt=" " data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2242326134.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Volunteers arrange indicators in assist of Platner, earlier than a city corridor on October 22, 2025. in Ogunquit, Maine. Sophie Park/Getty Pictures

Individuals have been utilizing the phrase “Democratic Tea Occasion,” and saying that is an instance of it. Amongst Democratic voters in Maine, have you ever seen a white-hot rage on the institution usually, or was this extra concerning the specifics of the actual candidates on this race?

I might say it’s extra of a simmering resentment than rage. And I believe it’s existed for a very long time.

Maine is certainly a state that has a chip on its shoulder. Each summer season, we get rich individuals from New York and Boston and DC and in all places who are available, after which they go away. That’s the background music of this sort of resentment of outsiders telling us what to do.

Individuals actually resented the sense that Chuck Schumer, the Washington Democrats, the individuals from away, had been forcing Janet Mills upon them. I picked up quite a lot of that actually early on. They only sort of anointed her because the candidate after which stated, shut up and get behind her. So, greater than the “institution” or coverage, it was simply the sense that individuals who know nothing about Maine try to inform us what to do — and fuck you for doing that.

May Platner have survived Peak Woke?

Then there’s Platner’s tattoo [an image of a skull and crossbones used by Nazis]. This was a huge story to start with of the marketing campaign. Do you assume he overcame this primarily due to his particular expertise and attraction? Or is it as a result of we’re within the post-woke period now and progressives are pondering in a different way about issues like this?

We are able to’t test a counterfactual, however I don’t see any approach that he survives at Peak Woke — and even pre-Great Awokening , when the traditional guidelines of politics existed.

Earlier than it got here out, he’d had sufficient time to construct assist and get individuals emotionally invested in his marketing campaign. And since it was dropped so near the Mills marketing campaign launch, it simply instantly got here with this added valence of, oh, this can be a hit planted by his opponents.

I talked to lots of people, didn’t hear any preliminary abandonment, and it simply stored going. After which it really form of inoculated him going ahead as a result of he was seen as speaking about it a lot. He went on quite a lot of podcasts, he talked to anybody who wished to ask him the query, he bought requested at city halls. He was perceived as being very open and trustworthy about it. After which it was taken as an indication of development — of his realness — as a result of he was prepared to confess a mistake and never attempt to clarify it away, like most politicians. So it ended up reinforcing this notion that he’s an everyday man.

I additionally assume, in the event you have a look at his bio, he was voted Most More likely to Begin a Revolution in highschool, the place he’s holding up indicators with Free Palestine and Free Tibet. By means of that, and thru the Reddit posts , we've got one thing like an unvarnished window into his uncooked political id. And the Nazi factor simply doesn’t actually cross the scent take a look at to me.

Will Susan Collins be doomed by the nationwide pattern — or can she defy that pattern but once more?

<img alt=" " data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/GettyImages-2251924958.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Senator Susan Collins on December 18, 2025. Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg through Getty

Susan Collins is likely one of the final so-called reasonable Republicans, who her critics say is now not a lot of a reasonable in any respect. She’s now dealing with what may very well be her hardest setting ever. What’s your sense of how Maine voters are viewing Collins proper now? Has she managed to retain a long way from Trump and her popularity for doing what’s greatest for Maine?

Low cost or underestimate Susan Collins at your personal threat, as a result of she has confirmed repeatedly that she’s a really efficient politician at profitable campaigns in robust environments. That stated, I do assume that is in all probability the hardest setting that she’s confronted. It’s a midterm; Trump gained’t be on the poll. The nationwide setting, and domestically right here, may be very a lot shaping as much as be anti-Trump. She’s older. She’s extra established, extra establishment-coded.

That stated, it’s actually arduous to gauge her assist as a result of it’s very sub rosa. She has simply been round for therefore lengthy. She has these private relationships with, like, everyone within the state and appears to simply concentrate on all the pieces happening. I speak to individuals on a regular basis who're like, “all proper, simply emailed with Susan,” or “I simply bought off the telephone with Susan.” So she’s simply making these one-on-one connections. She appears to be a step forward of everybody, understanding all the pieces that is occurring. And I believe that goes a good distance.

She’s the chair of the Appropriations Committee. In olden occasions, that was like a assured lock on profitable reelection. It isn't as highly effective because it was once, however I do assume it’s significant in a state like Maine that depends so much on federal cash — and she or he has simply completely opened the spigots previously yr.

You'll be able to go on her website and you may see all the cash and all of the initiatives she’s funded, and there’s these little pins on the state of Maine, masking your complete map. When this cash falls from the sky, it’s an enormous boon.

And a phrase of warning on the polling. In 2020, polls all had Collins down heading into election day. She had been outspent by her Democratic opponent two to at least one. After which she ended up profitable by 9 share factors. So it seems very anti-Collins on the market — however I believe behind the scenes, she has much more assist than is apparent.