Governor announces she's running for Senate — then deletes the announcement

Maine Gov. Janet Mills' Democratic campaign for Senate appeared to get off to a rocky start Friday afternoon.

A video dropped on X of Mills' campaign announcement, proclaiming she would be a vote for a Democratic majority, harshly criticizing Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, and asking people to donate to her ActBlue page.

But shortly after it appeared, it all vanished.

As NOTUS' Reese Gorman noted, the video was abruptly deleted, an ActBlue donation link was taken down, and the fledgling Senate campaign was erased as quickly as it was announced.

An internal document obtained by Axios earlier in the day appears to suggest the campaign launch was actually scheduled for Tuesday of next week.

Mills, a two-term governor who has spent much of the last year clashing with President Donald Trump's efforts to strongarm Maine's civil rights policy under threat of stripping the state's federal grants, has been aggressively courted for a Senate run for months by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Kirsten Gillibrand. Party leaders hope she can mount a strong challenge to Collins, who has beaten back previous Democratic attempts to oust her.

But there are some key obstacles to Mills' candidacy, including the fact that she is 77 years old, igniting another front of debate within the Democratic Party about whether their House and Senate caucuses are doing enough to recruit fresh blood.

The Democratic primary field in Maine has been relatively sparse so far as potential candidates waited for Mills to make her decision. However, there are already some candidates in the race, including former congressional staffer Jordan Wood, brewery owner Dan Kleban, and former environmental policy official Dan Costello.

One of the biggest upstarts in the race in terms of coverage and fundraising has been Graham Platner, a veteran, harbormaster, and oyster farmer who has gone viral with his message as a progressive outsider who isn't afraid to speak plainly with Trump voters.