Mills drops out of Maine U.S. Senate race

By Andrew Rice
The Center Square

Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced she would suspend her campaign in the race for U.S. Senate on Thursday.

Mills was one of the top contenders for the Democratic nomination against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Now, Graham Platner, an oyster farmer, appears poised to be the frontrunner for the competitive Democratic nomination.

Mills said she did not have the financial resources to continue her campaign in a statement posted to social media Thursday.

“While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else – the fight – to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunatley require today: the financial resources,” Mills wrote.

Mills did not endorse another candidate in the Democratic primary for the competitive U.S. Senate Race in Maine.

Platner has faced controversy over past comments and a tattoo some have recognized as resembling a Nazi symbol.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Kirsten Gillebrand, head of the Senate Democrat’s campaign arm, said they would work to support Platner’s campaign against Sen. Collins.

“After years of allowing Trump’s abuses of power, Senator Collins has never been more vulnerable and we will work with the presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner to defeat her,” Schumer wrote in a statement.

Maine’s primary election is set for June 9.