Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign for U.S. Senate on Thursday, essentially handing political newcomer Graham Platner the Democratic nomination.
The two-term governor and former state attorney general had been lagging in a series of recent polls, but Mills said in her statement ending her candidacy that her decision was because of finances.
“While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else — the fight — to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources,” Mills said. “That is why today I have made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate.”
The pick of the Democratic establishment in Washington D.C., Mills entered the race in October to try to oust long-time Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Platner, an oysterman and military veteran from Sullivan, had been scouted by labor and community groups and made a splashy campaign launch back in August.
Platner has grown in the polls and continued to turn out large crowds to events despite revelations about his now-covered Nazi-linked tattoo and controversial online history, including comments about rape and women that Mills had focused on in negative campaign ads.
“When I decided to run for the United States Senate last year, it was because I believed Maine people were getting a bad deal from Washington and because the President of the United States was threatening our democracy and pushing our nation to the brink of disaster,” Mills said. “I continue to believe that today.”
David Costello, the other Democrat in the race, is well behind both Mills and Platner in fundraising and favorability in polls.
by Emma Davis, Maine Morning Star
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