Maine Gov. Janet Mills signals she's still in the race as Platner's Senate bid unravels

Maine Gov. Janet Mills wants Democratic primary voters to know something: she never actually left. Weeks after suspending her U.S. Senate campaign, Mills told the Portland Press Herald on Sunday that her name remains on the June 9 ballot, and a growing chorus of supporters is urging her to jump back in as her party's presumptive nominee, Graham Platner, faces fresh scrutiny over sexual text messages he sent to other women.

The timing is brutal for Democrats who had already consolidated behind Platner in their bid to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins. And the party's national leadership appears to have no good answer for what comes next.

CNN reported Monday that supporters of Mills' suspended campaign are openly calling on her to revive it, just days after news outlets disclosed that Platner's own wife, Amy Gertner, had flagged his sexual text messages to campaign staff at the start of the race. Gertner said she was "deeply hurt" that details of her husband's messages had become public. Former Platner campaign political director Genevieve McDonald reportedly brought the messages to light.

Mills draws a careful line

Mills suspended active campaigning in late April, citing dwindling campaign funds. She did not endorse Platner at the time. That decision looks more significant now.

In her interview with Portland Press Herald columnist Steve Collins, published Monday, Mills made her position clear:

"People have the impression that I 'withdrew' or 'dropped out,' but I simply suspended active campaigning. I am still on the ballot."

That distinction matters. Maine uses ranked-choice voting in its primaries. Mills' name on the ballot gives Democratic voters a live alternative to Platner, and several state legislators are making sure voters know it.

State Rep. Holly Eaton, part of Mills' "Women for Janet" coalition, said she intends to vote for the governor regardless. State Rep. Allison Hepler said she would rank Mills first on her primary ballot. State Rep. Holly Sargent stated that votes for Mills "still count" in next week's primary.

Platner's mounting problems

This is not the first controversy to engulf Platner's campaign. Before the text-message revelations, he had already faced scrutiny over past online comments denigrating rape victims, remarks he said last year he was "deeply sorry" for having made years before running for office. The sexting scandal that surfaced over the weekend layered a personal conduct problem on top of a record that was already drawing fire.

Former state Sen. Lynn Bromley, who appeared in an anti-Platner ad for Mills, did not mince words about what she wants to see happen.

"I definitely want her to un-suspend her campaign. There are a lot of us."

State Rep. Cassie Julia, another member of the "Women for Janet" coalition, wrote in an email Monday that she did not "blame Gov. Mills for not wanting to engage in this campaign environment." Julia added that if unsuspending helps get the word out that Mills is still on the ballot, she would support that decision.

Melanie Weiss, a Jewish community leader who endorsed Mills, told CNN she would be "thrilled to see her rejoin the field" and noted she did not plan to vote for Platner regardless of the latest controversy.

Washington Democrats dodge and deflect

If Mills' supporters see a clear path, the party's national figures are doing their best to look the other way. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the same man who recruited Mills to run against Collins in the first place, declined Monday to say whether he was confident Platner could defeat the Republican incumbent. His entire answer, delivered as he arrived on Capitol Hill: "Not now."

That two-word brush-off speaks volumes. Schumer had signaled after Mills dropped out that he was ready to work with Platner. Now he won't even vouch for the man's electability.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of Platner's most prominent backers in Congress, stood by the candidate Monday but did so with a notable caveat. Sanders said he was "not at all" rethinking his support, then added:

"I don't know all of the details, but my understanding is that his wife is supporting him, and maybe rather than worrying about Graham Platner's marriage, we worry about what's happening to the working families in this country."

That formulation, "I don't know all of the details", is not exactly a ringing defense. It is the kind of answer a politician gives when he wants to leave himself room to change course later.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren refused to say whether she had concerns about Platner and instead praised his "courage and determination" in taking on Collins. She added, "I believe that's what the people of Maine care the most about." Whether Maine voters agree remains to be seen.

The pattern is familiar across the Democratic Party. When a candidate's personal conduct becomes a liability, national leaders offer vague praise and pivot to policy, until the political cost becomes too high to ignore.

A primary that refuses to be settled

Platner is scheduled to meet Tuesday with Democratic senators, a meeting that will test whether his Washington support holds under pressure. California Rep. Ro Khanna, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, is moving forward with a Friday rally alongside Platner along the Maine coast.

But the ground in Maine is shifting. A University of New Hampshire poll released last week found that 10 percent of primary voters still named Mills as their first choice, a notable number for a candidate who stopped actively campaigning more than a month ago. The same survey showed Platner leading Collins by nine points in a hypothetical general election, a margin that may not survive sustained scrutiny of his personal conduct.

David Costello, a third and lesser-known candidate on the primary ballot, wrote on Facebook Monday that the race is "not settled" and called on Democrats to reschedule debates that were canceled after Mills suspended her campaign. The fact that debates were scrapped entirely once Platner became the presumptive nominee raises its own questions about how seriously the party took the primary process.

State Rep. Anne Graham, a former Mills supporter, did not say whether the governor should revive her campaign but offered pointed praise for the woman who brought Platner's messages to light. "I believe in truth and honesty," Graham said. "I support Genevieve McDonald for being brave enough to speak up."

That is not the kind of statement a party makes about its front-runner's campaign staff when things are going well. It is the kind of statement that signals deeper fractures, the sort of intraparty reckoning that tends to escalate rather than fade.

The stakes for November

Democrats view Collins' seat as essential to any path back to a Senate majority. Collins is seeking her sixth term, and the Maine race was supposed to be one of the party's best pickup opportunities. Schumer invested significant political capital in recruiting Mills, a sitting governor with statewide name recognition and a record to run on.

Instead, Democrats now face a June 9 primary in which their presumptive nominee is fielding questions about sexual text messages, their recruited candidate is technically still on the ballot but not actively campaigning, and their national leaders cannot bring themselves to offer a straight answer about whether they believe their own candidate can win.

The situation carries echoes of other recent Democratic primary disruptions in which party leaders found themselves scrambling to manage ballot chaos of their own making.

Mills has not said whether she will formally unsuspend. But she has made certain that voters know they have a choice. And her allies are making certain that voters understand what the alternative looks like.

On the day Mills suspended her campaign, Platner praised her and said he looked "forward to working with her between now and November" to defeat Collins. That olive branch now reads less like graciousness and more like a candidate who assumed the field was clear.

It may not be. And if Platner's conduct continues to draw the kind of scrutiny that has already cost him a political director and prompted his own wife to flag concerns to staff, Democrats may find that the candidate Schumer recruited was the one they needed all along, and the one they let walk away.

When your party's best argument for its nominee amounts to "his wife is supporting him" and "don't worry about his marriage," voters tend to draw their own conclusions.