Don’t rule out a Janet Mills campaign for Senate just yet.
Maine’s Democratic governor might still run against Republican Sen. Susan Collins next year, according to a source familiar with her thinking. Mills has not yet made a decision, the source said, but could choose to launch a Senate bid as late as the end of this year and still have time to challenge the GOP incumbent.
The governor hadn’t planned to run against Collins, the source added, but President Donald Trump’s extraordinary actions since taking office have at least convinced her to consider a campaign to “make sure she rises to this moment in history.”
“If there comes a time, she might decide to do all kinds of things,” the source said. “And running for Senate might be one of them.”
Although hardly a commitment to run for Senate, the comments will ease Democrats’ concerns that Mills had ruled out a challenge against Collins. Those worries spiked after the governor, in an interview published Friday with the Portland Press Herald, said she didn’t have any plans to launch a new campaign.
Mills, in her second term as governor, would be a major recruitment victory for Senate Democrats if she did commit to a campaign and would start the race with nearly universal name recognition. Collins, however, has proven a resilient target for Democrats despite the state’s leftward lean, having won reelection in 2020 by nearly 9 points even as Trump lost it by a significant margin.
Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is also widely seen as a potential challenger to Collins, though like Mills, he has said little publicly about a possible campaign.
The source familiar with Mills’ thinking said that how Collins handles her relationship with Trump over the next six months could go a long way toward determining whether she, or other high-profile Democrats, run.
“Right now, she might be the only Democrat who can beat Susan Collins, but that might not be the case in six months,” the source said.
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Alex Roarty is a reporter at NOTUS.