Maine Governor Janet Mills Re-enters Senate Race Against Embattled Democrat Graham Platner
Mills reminds voters she remains on the ballot as Platner faces fresh scrutiny over sexual text messages to other women.
Objective Facts
Mills told a Maine newspaper columnist that she is 'still on the ballot' on Sunday, a day after news outlets reported that Platner's wife had flagged to campaign staff that he had sent sexual text messages to other women. While Mills suspended her campaign over a month ago, her name remains on the primary ballot in a state with ranked-choice voting. Prominent supporters of Maine Gov. Janet Mills are urging her to revive her suspended Senate campaign against Graham Platner. Platner's wife, Amy Gertner, said she was 'deeply hurt' that the details of her husband's messages to other women had become public, accusing a former campaign official of breaking her trust, while the revelations have raised fresh questions about Platner's ability to flip a crucial Senate seat for Democrats in November. The Democratic primary is set to take place on June 9.
Left-Leaning Perspective
The Maine Morning Star reported that Mills suspended her campaign in late April citing a lack of funds, but has declined to endorse Platner, while some Democrats were quick to back Platner, including U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who'd endorsed the governor and touted her as the only one capable of beating Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in November. Sen. Bernie Sanders stood by Platner's campaign Monday, saying he was 'not at all' rethinking his support and telling CNN 'maybe rather than worrying about Graham Platner's marriage, we worry about what's happening to the working families in this country.' Sen. Elizabeth Warren refused to say whether she had concerns about Platner but praised his 'courage and determination' in taking on Collins, saying 'I believe that's what the people of Maine care the most about.' Progressive voters who continue to support Platner said regrettable online comments and thoughtless tattoos may be par for the course if the state wants to elect someone who hasn't been a more calculated career politician, with supporters commending Platner for apologizing and painting his story as one of redemption. Former state Rep. Valli Geiger said in a social media post that the latest revelations about the texts made her disappointed but that she respects the work Platner has done and continues to do to heal, writing 'In the end, their marriage, it is not my or anyone else's business...What is my business, is that I have been waiting for decades for an authentic voice to appear.' Left-leaning outlets noted that before suspending her campaign due to low funds, Mills received endorsements from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, EMILY's List and other groups that were shocked by Reddit posts made by Platner with racist remarks. The left-leaning coverage downplays the sexting controversy's electoral significance, emphasizing instead Platner's policy positions and his status as an anti-establishment outsider.
Right-Leaning Perspective
Fox News characterized Platner as 'scandal-plagued democratic socialist,' whose continued controversies have led his former primary rival to speak out and remind Mainers that she remains on the ballot despite having suspended her campaign. Fox News highlighted that Platner's 'Totenkopf' chest tattoo has been 'the controversy most frequently cited by Republicans,' and noted his campaign 'became embroiled in a separate controversy when a consultant asked Massachusetts-based sports media personality David Portnoy to collaborate on an anti-private-equity campaign against the Boston Red Sox front office,' but 'Portnoy balked at the suggestion, citing his Jewish faith and Platner's Nazi tattoo.' RedState reported that 'news broke of a Platner sexting scandal involving as many as a dozen women whom the candidate explicitly sexted sometime after getting married in late 2023,' with the information first coming from his wife, Amy Gertner, 'who told a now-former campaign official about them in the summer of 2025, when the campaign was doing some self-vetting ahead of the Sanders endorsement announcement.' RedState also noted 'revelations of an active Kik account, which is especially disturbing considering Kik is a known app for sexual predators targeting minors.' Right-leaning coverage notes that Collins is attacking Platner's past Reddit posts and casting him as 'too radical' for Maine. The right emphasizes Platner's accumulated scandals and argues they represent disqualifying character issues that should concern Democrats.
Deep Dive
The Platner/Mills contest was seen as a key contest between the Democratic Party's centrist establishment wing and the populist left-wing and progressive faction, with Mills representing the former and Platner representing the latter. By the time Maine Gov. Janet Mills launched her Senate campaign in October, Graham Platner was already drawing large crowds and raising impressive amounts of money, and the then-77-year-old governor was running for office at a time when many in her party were agitating for generational change, but Mills supporters including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer thought she could prevail with a pitch for electability based on her statewide name recognition and backing from Senate Democratic leadership, and on Thursday, Mills ended her campaign weeks before the June 9 primary. Democrats have been caught in the bind Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sought to avoid when he backed Gov. Janet Mills over Graham Platner in the Maine Senate race, with Democrats must now support an untested and largely unvetted outsider as he faces intense media scrutiny over his relationship with women in a must-win race, and while practically it might be feasible to swap out candidates, politically it will be close to impossible. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto told Axios 'I've heard some of my colleagues' concerns about what we've read in the papers. But at the end of the day, we've got to win,' while Maine law allows a party to replace its nominee if the primary winner withdraws by July 13. For Democrats, it's hard to overstate the importance of this race, as their most viable route to retake the Senate in November begins in Maine, where Platner had ignited a wave of excitement in his bid to oust Collins. On May 29, prediction markets gave Platner a 97.8 percent implied chance of winning the Democratic primary, but by Monday evening, that figure was at 96 percent, with Mills rising from 0.8 percent to 4.6 percent in the same time span. Some of Mills' political allies have encouraged her to reactivate her campaign, but so far, she has demurred. The key unresolved question is whether Mills will formally re-enter the race, and if so, whether the primary's ranked-choice voting system could benefit her candidacy despite Platner's continued polling lead.