For Maine Democrats, it’s battle-tested Mills vs. populist Platner in Senate primary

AUGUSTA, Maine — Ever since launching her campaign last year, Maine Gov. Janet Mills has tried to make the case that she’s Democrats’ best chance of defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

But the two-term governor finds herself in a difficult Democratic primary against political newcomer Graham Platner, who is trying to use his campaign to tap disenchantment among Democratic voters and build a populist movement to challenge the party establishment.

The result has been a campaign of contrasting styles, rhetoric and promises that highlight larger tensions within the Democratic Party.

Competing visions of Democrats’ path to winning 

For the past several months, Mills and Platner have been engaged in a rough primary contest — with the primary election scheduled for June 9 — that will decide which candidate will take on Collins in the November election.

The Republican is seeking her sixth term and is known as a formidable campaigner, surviving challenges from Democrats even during unfavorable elections for Republicans, including the 2020 election, when Maine voters favored Joe Biden over President Donald Trump.

During a town hall this month at Bowdoin College, Mills acknowledged that Collins will be difficult to beat but argued that she’s the only one who can do it.

“We’ve always put up good people against Susan Collins,” Mills said. “For 30 years, we’ve put decent people up, but nobody who’s actually run a statewide campaign, much less won a statewide campaign,” Mills said, referencing her two terms as governor.

Her electoral success made her a top recruit for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as Democrats eye a long-shot bid to retake the U.S. Senate. But with a month and a half left before the Democratic primary on June 9, Mills finds herself behind Platner — in polls, fundraising and, arguably, message.

According to AdImpact, Mills hasn’t run a television ad since April 10. Her last run of ads attempted to highlight Platner’s old social media posts about sexual assault, but it failed to lower his standing in subsequent polls.

The governor and her campaign have since sought to reassure supporters that she has a plan and that she’s battle-tested while Platner isn’t.

At Bowdoin, Mills tried to highlight her electability argument to the roughly 200 people who attended.

“I’ve done it. I know how to do it. I know how to get through it. They throw everything but the kitchen sink at you,” said Mills, who is 78. “That’s happened to me. I don’t care. I’m too old to care, frankly.”

She later added, “But the point is, I can win this race. And I need to win this race.”

Mills referenced Platner, 41, only once during the event. But the combat veteran turned oyster farmer loomed large anyway.

He visited the same venue the next night. While Mills filled about two-thirds of the available seats, the event was fully booked for Platner. Organizers had to turn people away.

It has been that way throughout the campaign as Platner has sought voter accessibility and maximum visibility. He has held nearly 60 town halls across Maine. The events have become the lifeblood of his campaign and a tool to recruit volunteers for the movement he says he’s building.

“We have 15,000 volunteers on this campaign. Active volunteers. Per capita, that’s more than [New York City Mayor] Zohran [Mamdani] had. Not a big deal,” he said at Bowdoin. “We need more.”

Platner’s reference to Mamdani was no accident. Mamdani is a Bowdoin graduate. His political machine has connections to Platner’s. Both Mamdani and Platner have used Fight Agency to produce viral ads, and Mamdani’s current spokesperson was originally on Platner’s campaign. Both Democrats have tried to build populist movements with a radical overhaul of government as the rallying cry.

“Politics is about power. And in this society, power derives from two places, organized money or organized people. And the money is organized,” he said.

“Retail politics” vs. crowded town halls

Mills has kept a robust campaign schedule too. However, her campaign has favored smaller, controlled events.

“My strategy has always been retail politics,” Mills told Maine Public after an April 10 event in Bangor when asked about her campaign strategy. “That’s what I love to do. That’s what I do. That’s how I’ve won before, and I’ll win again.”

Mills has successfully won two campaigns for governor by relying on the same type of outreach she is doing in running for the Senate — working with local groups to hold small, controlled events. But this year, that approach is being met by an unconventional candidate whose numerous town halls, television ads and social media presence have made him seemingly ubiquitous.

Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, said Mills’ approach makes sense for someone already known to Maine voters, but he said the governor is having difficulty appealing to Democratic primary voters who want a big shake-up in the political system.

“And she has a hard time convincing people, especially with Platner as her opponent, that she represents that kind of change in course,” Brewer said.

Platner, meanwhile, has tried to frame Mills as an example of national Democrats anointing status quo candidates who only fight for “crumbs” once elected. At Bowdoin, he said electing bold candidates is the only way to dismantle a political system rigged for the wealthy and nurtured by Congress.

“They built the system that got us here. They’re not going to be the ones to get us out,” he said. “We are.”

Brewer said even Mills’ attempts to move with the shifting electorate — including recently supporting a millionaires tax that she opposed just last year — isn’t jibing with her centrist track record.

“It’s not going to be seen as credible, right? By a lot of voters, at least. They’re going to look at that and be like, ‘Ah, she’s down in the polls and … she’s doing it, but doesn’t really believe it,'” he said. “Whether she does or not doesn’t matter. It’s how people perceive it.”

At the same time, Platner’s well-documented controversies — including past offensive social media posts about sexual assault, rural white voters and the tipping habits of Black people — haven’t scared off high-profile endorsements by people such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Warren backed Platner in March and held a rally attended by about 1,000 people in Portland, Maine, on Saturday.

“He’s an organizer, and he is the person who is going to beat Susan Collins,” she said.

During the rally, an 80-year-old woman told Platner that she’s going to donate to him her $300 affordability check, a Mills’ proposal to deal with inflation that she recently signed into law.

Platner told the woman that it was a good use of the money.

Collins, meanwhile, has had to spend little of her campaign cash as the Democrats duke it out.

While Platner outraised Collins and Mills during the first quarter of this year, the Republican has more than three times as much cash on hand. The primary is also forcing Platner to draw heavily from his campaign war chest.

Platner has received $4 million in contributions so far this year, but he also spent $5 million over the same period, leaving him with $2.7 million in available cash. Collins, who does not have a primary opponent, spent about one-fifth of that amount and has $10 million in cash on hand.