The launch this week of 77-year-old Janet Mills’ Senate campaign in Maine reignites a debate about age among Democrats, who have spent the year arguing that the party, still reeling from Joe Biden’s age-related withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, must move on to a new generation of younger leaders.
Maine is not the only state next year where the party faces this issue.
In three key 2026 Senate battlegrounds, Democrats are running older candidates, each of whom has held elected office since the 1980s. In North Carolina, former Gov. Roy Cooper is 68 and coming off of two terms as governor and four terms as the state’s attorney general. In Ohio, former Sen. Sherrod Brown is 72 and running again after losing a bid for a fourth term in office last year.
In Maine, Mills would be the oldest freshman senator ever, and at age 79, would take office at an older age than Biden did when he took office in 2021.
The three candidates have put Democrats itching for generational change in a bind, forced to choose between a sharp desperation to win back the Senate majority in 2026 and an eagerness to find younger leaders. The party needs a net gain of four seats next year to win a majority, a feat most analysts say is unlikely, but not impossible, if the political environment turns sharply against Republicans.
“We are just at the beginning of generational change,” said Amanda Litman, cofounder and president of Run For Something, a group that supports young progressive candidates running for office. “The idea that it’s going to happen all at once, that was never real. It was going to be a cycle-over-cycle thing.”
Cooper and Brown are, at least for now, their party’s de facto nominee for Senate in their respective states, where neither man faces a serious primary.
But Mills faces a more serious race in Maine, where she joins a field featuring two candidates who have already raised more than $1 million in former Congressional aide Jordan Wood and oyster farmer Graham Platner.
At least one of Mills’ opponents in the primary says her age should be considered fair game for voters.
“We are living in a crisis for our country, and in part that is because of Joe Biden’s inability to be our nominee,” Wood said. “And we’re reminded of that reality and that failure of Democratic leadership on a daily basis. So I don’t know how it can not be a consideration.”
An aide to Platner, who received support from progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders and exited the party’s left flank was more circumspect, but said the issue will be evident for voters whether the campaign raises it explicitly or not.
“We’re not going to be running on the age issue because voters can see with their own two eyes that Graham is a 41-year-old who has the energy to crisscross the state and talk to every voter in Maine,” said the Platner aide.
Mills told new outlets this week that she would commit to serving just one six-year term in the Senate, if elected. In a video announcing her candidacy Tuesday, the governor said she was only running because of what she called the unacceptable actions of President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress, saying that her “life’s work had prepared me for this fight.”
“And I’m ready to win,” Mills said.
Maine has the oldest population of any state, and older voters traditionally vote at higher rates than younger people in elections, including primaries. That might make age-related criticisms of Mills awkward for her opponents, especially for voters who hold a personal affinity for the governor.
Her supporters acknowledge that age will be an issue in the primary, but say they expect Mills, whom they describe as energetic and affable, to prove to voters on the campaign trail that she is up for the job. They also say they think voters will ultimately care more about electability, especially against an incumbent like Republican Sen. Susan Collins who has beaten back Democratic attempts to defeat her before.
Mills is the only Democratic candidate to win statewide office in almost 20 years. Her announcement this week caused two major elections handicappers to change their ratings of the Maine contest, ranking it a “toss-up.”
“For people in Maine, they know Janet, they know how old she is, and ultimately they’re going to have to weigh that against who they think can win next November,” said Emily Cain, a Democrat who served with Mills in the Maine state legislature. “And ultimately, I think [age] will fall very low on the list of considerations.”