FILE PHOTO: Maine Governor Janet Mills gestures while speaking during a meeting of northeastern U.S. Governors and Canadian Premiers to discuss the impacts of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and how American and Canadian leaders can continue to work together to maintain economic relations that benefit local businesses and residents, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., June 16, 2025. REUTERS/Sophie Park/File Photo
With the sudden exit of Gov. Janet Mills from the Democratic Senate primary in Maine, criticism has begun to pile up around Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who played an essential role in coaxing Mills into the race to begin with.
But Schumer's allies are laying the blame squarely at the feet of Mills herself, for running a lackluster campaign, reported Stephen Neukam of NOTUS, who shared what he called the "spicy fallout."
"The Schumer allies pointed to Mills' delayed campaign launch, and said her polling was so poor that it was no guarantee that an intervention from Democratic leadership would have saved her," reported Neukam. "More aggressive action from Schumer, the sources said, would have been politically controversial. Insiders describe a campaign that failed to really launch, and in the end met dire financial straits."
Mills, who gained national notoriety after she publicly stood up to Trump for threatening funding to her state, specifically cited a lack of funds as her reason for suspending the campaign.
"A Democratic operative with ties to the race told us that Mills 'needed significant money' but 'didn’t have it,'" wrote Neukam. As for why Schumer or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee didn't intervene to help fund Mills through the primary, the operative said, “You need to show life if you want a life boat.”
With Mills out of the race, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins is Graham Platner, a harbormaster and oyster farmer who is running as a progressive political outsider and was already beating Mills in most primary polls. Democratic leaders who may have been skeptical of his campaign are now falling in line behind him.