WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leadership is all-in on Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ run to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Rank-and-file Democratic senators don’t seem as certain. Very few were eager to instantly back the 77-year-old Mills, who will have to defeat progressive oyster farmer Graham Platner in a primary to battle Collins in the general, and many seemed loath to discuss a race Democratic operatives expect to poison social media timelines for the next year.
The unease about the race — and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s decision to intervene by backing Mills — extends to both progressives and moderates, and showcases how the Democratic Party is still torn over its ideological direction and the age of its leaders in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.
“I think Janet Mills is a formidable candidate. I feel very optimistic that we will defeat Susan Collins,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the chair of the DSCC, told HuffPost. Asked if a bruising primary would harm Democrats’ odds of flipping the seat, Gillibrand said: “My general view is that primaries make candidates stronger.”
But Gillibrand was not joined by many of her colleagues in unequivocally backing Mills. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who has carved out a lane as a leading moderate since the 2024 election, was the only Democratic senator to explicitly endorse her.
