From The Robinson Report, Oct. 10
DC Media Reporting Janet Mills Will Enter U.S. Senate Primary for Shot at Challenging Susan Collins
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) is making plans to run for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate and a chance to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, according to Axios and Punchbowl.
Two DC-based media outlets appeared confident Thursday evening with their reports that Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) will enter the growing Democratic primary field next for a shot at facing off against Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
Punchbowl News reported that Gov. Mills, 77, had been making phone calls to Democratic Senators letting them know.
Axios reporters posted to X that they’d reviewed internal campaign documents showing Mills was likely to file her candidacy next week.
Punchbowl Reported:
Breaking news: Maine Gov. Janet Mills is calling Democratic senators saying she will launch her bid for the Senate Tuesday.
Mills, a 77-year-old Democrat, will challenge longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins in what will be one of the most hotly contested races of the 2026 cycle.
The Robinson Report has not been able to independently confirm that Mills will enter the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. However, multiple sources from the D.C. Republican establishment said Thursday night that they found the report credible.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is said to have lobbied hard for Mills to enter the race, reflecting the DC-centric view that Mills is best positioned to challenge Collins.
[RELATED: Maine After Five Years of Janet Mills, By the Numbers…]
However, Mills will face an intense and well-funded primary challenge in the form of progressive neophyte Graham Platner.
Platner has energized Maine’s far left with a combination of Mamdani-style socialism and Fetterman-esque masculinity.
As an example of his media savvy and growing national clout, Platner on Thursday secured a thoroughly homoerotic love letter from GQ writer Ross Barkan.
Barkan’s report describes the self-styled oysterman as “virile, earthy working man” and quotes him as saying, “Susan Collins killed my friends.”
Mills, a former state lawmaker and Maine Attorney General, has enjoyed mostly docile media coverage throughout her tenure in office, including from the state’s two major newspapers — both of which have received no-bid contracts from the Mills administration.
She’s also had a mostly amicable relationship with Sen. Collins, who has made a practice of staying out of Maine’s state level political affairs unless it directly concerns the duties of her office.
As she Mills seeks national office, she’ll experience national media scrutiny, including over her lack of action in the face of Chinese organized crime proliferating throughout the state with illicit cannabis grows.
Questions are sure to mount, too, over her brother Paul Mills’ work as an attorney for multiple individuals tied to illicit Chinese cannabis grows, including Chinese nationals living in China at the time Mills executed real estate deals on their behalf.
Paul Mills, an attorney based in Farmington, has confirmed his involvement in at least one transaction related to an illicit, unlicensed Chinese-owned cannabis trafficking site; however, he’s denied any knowledge of the sprawling Chinese Communist-backed drug conspiracy in Maine.
Despite growing national attention, including from Congress and national media outlets, Mills us yet to utter a word about Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations, their activities in Maine, and their ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
According to Chinese state-run media, Mills hosted the Chinese Consul General of New York, the top Chinese Communist Party official in the eastern United States, at her inauguration in 2019.
Consul General Ping Huang must have enjoyed his time with Mills in Maine, because a Chinese think tank would later rank Mills among the most pro-China governors in the entire U.S.
This is a developing story. Follow us on Facebook and X / Twitter for updates.
