Probably the most hotly contested Democratic primaries of 2026 ended with a whimper slightly than a bang Thursday, as Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) suspended her Senate marketing campaign, making outsider oyster farmer Graham Platner the overwhelming favourite for the celebration’s nomination.
The seat, at present held by five-term Sen. Susan Collins (R), is one in all Democrats’ prime pickup alternatives. However the main battle surfaced many desirable tensions inside right now’s Democratic Get together.
What doomed Mills — anti-establishment sentiment, her age, a foul marketing campaign, or the entire above? How did Platner survive what many anticipated to be a campaign-ending scandal? Have been his daring left views an asset or a legal responsibility? And might we learn large nationwide traits into this consequence, or is it primarily in regards to the explicit candidates, and the quirky state, concerned?
To reply these questions, I spoke with Alex Seitz-Wald, a longtime nationwide political reporter who moved to Maine and now works as deputy editor for the Midcoast Villager, a neighborhood newspaper. Since Maine’s Senate main captivated nationwide consideration, Seitz-Wald has been a form of Maine politics whisperer — a Maine-splainer — to nationwide reporters. Right here’s what he needed to say.
Did Janet Mills’s age — and the Biden hangover — doom her?
Janet Mills is the sitting governor and was Democratic leaders’ dream candidate to take out Susan Collins. It was believed by many who she alone might put the seat in play. Now she’s gone right down to defeat by a little-known outsider candidate — what went incorrect?
If I needed to choose one factor that explains the Mills-Platner factor, she simply ran a horrible marketing campaign. I’ve seen dozens of Senate campaigns. I coated nationwide politics for 15 years, and this is without doubt one of the most shockingly unhealthy campaigns I’ve ever seen.
The query she by no means actually put to mattress, however that everybody had was: Did she actually wish to do that? She type of dragged her toes on working, as Chuck Schumer and nationwide Democrats had been very publicly making an attempt to encourage her to run. She ran this very lackluster marketing campaign, not doing a whole lot of public occasions, not a whole lot of vitality, a media technique that felt very dated. And that was what she might management.
The stuff that she couldn’t management — her age was the largest issue. She would have been 79 when she was sworn in. Final summer time, when she received in was proper off the entire Joe Biden fiasco, the lack of the presidency to [Donald] Trump.
So a whole lot of Democrats had been very involved about that. It was so recent in individuals’s minds, so uncooked, and folks felt like that they had been lied to by the White Home and the Democratic powers that be — it simply made all of them the extra suspicious.
That is the oldest state within the nation, so it’s not like persons are ageist. However I talked to a whole lot of Democrats, together with a whole lot of older girls, who mentioned they like Janet Mills as a governor, however they wished a recent face with new vitality and new concepts within the Senate.
She was not a Joe Biden — like, a doddering outdated one who was being protected by employees. I’ve hung out along with her: she is sharp, she’s bodily energetic. However Maine Democratic voters simply by no means actually noticed that, as a result of she was simply not on the market, proving it to them.
Did Graham Platner triumph due to his left views — or regardless of them?
Platner is related to the Bernie Sanders wing of the celebration. How vital do you assume ideology and views had been in explaining his enchantment — versus the extra generic vibes of “he appears robust and he fights.” Or are they intermingled?
Progressives gave Platner a superb base of help, however I feel they need to watch out in overreading this as a victory of their ideology. As a result of there have been a whole lot of different components right here.
There’s his Maine-ness, if you’ll. He simply appears like lots of people. If we went right down to city, like a pair miles from the place I’m proper now, we might discover like a half dozen dudes who look similar to Graham Platner. They’re guys who work with their palms who bathe after work as an alternative of earlier than work.
I feel that resonates with people who find themselves extra working class — but in addition particularly with Democratic progressive thought leaders who’re extra prosperous, however who acknowledge the necessity for the celebration to succeed in these individuals extra. He can do this type of code switching as a result of he went to GWU, as a result of he comes from an upper-middle-class household, as a result of he was a bartender at [the Washington, DC, bar] the Tune Inn. He can converse to the donors and thought leaders and he can even converse to the blokes on the waterfront.
Having coated 1,000,000 campaigns, I’m not an enormous believer in campaigns actually mattering usually. I feel it’s structural forces extra typically. However on this case, I actually do assume that the marketing campaign that he ran — and the marketing campaign that Mills didn’t run — had been instrumental. It’s a small state, 1.3 million individuals. Everyone is aware of any individual who is aware of any individual.
So the truth that he was simply on the market doing city halls that might get a pair hundred individuals, a thousand individuals, constructing this sort of sense of vitality — nobody’s ever seen something like that right here. And finally, he reaches some type of essential mass the place he has straight met with or been in a room with a big chunk of the Democratic voting base. That’s earlier than you get to all of the podcast interviews that he’s performed, social media, digital advert campaigns, and all of that that made him omnipresent — he simply linked with individuals personally.
Did Platner win as a result of Democratic voters are livid on the celebration institution?
Folks have been utilizing the phrase “Democratic Tea Get together,” and saying that is an instance of it. Amongst Democratic voters in Maine, have you ever seen a white-hot rage on the institution typically, or was this extra in regards to the specifics of the actual candidates on this race?
I might say it’s extra of a simmering resentment than rage. And I feel it’s existed for a very long time.
Maine is unquestionably a state that has a chip on its shoulder. Each summer time, we get rich individuals from New York and Boston and DC and in all places who are available in, after which they go away. That’s the background music of this sort of resentment of outsiders telling us what to do.
Folks actually resented the sense that Chuck Schumer, the Washington Democrats, the individuals from away, had been forcing Janet Mills upon them. I picked up a whole lot of that basically early on. They simply type of anointed her because the candidate after which mentioned, shut up and get behind her. So, greater than the “institution” or coverage, it was simply the sense that individuals who know nothing about Maine are attempting to inform us what to do — and fuck you for doing that.
May Platner have survived Peak Woke?
Then there’s Platner’s tattoo [an image of a skull and crossbones used by Nazis]. This was a big story at first of the marketing campaign. Do you assume he overcame this primarily due to his particular expertise and enchantment? Or is it as a result of we’re within the post-woke period now and progressives are considering in another way about issues like this?
We are able to’t examine a counterfactual, however I don’t see any means that he survives at Peak Woke — and even pre-Nice Awokening, when the conventional guidelines of politics existed.
Earlier than it got here out, he’d had sufficient time to construct help and get individuals emotionally invested in his marketing campaign. And since it was dropped so near the Mills marketing campaign launch, it simply instantly got here with this added valence of, oh, this can be a hit planted by his opponents.
I talked to lots of people, didn’t hear any preliminary abandonment, and it simply stored going. After which it really form of inoculated him going ahead as a result of he was seen as speaking about it a lot. He went on a whole lot of podcasts, he talked to anybody who wished to ask him the query, he received requested at city halls. He was perceived as being very open and sincere about it. After which it was taken as an indication of progress — of his realness — as a result of he was prepared to confess a mistake and never attempt to clarify it away, like most politicians. So it ended up reinforcing this notion that he’s a daily man.
I additionally assume, for those who have a look at his bio, he was voted Most More likely to Begin a Revolution in highschool, the place he’s holding up indicators with Free Palestine and Free Tibet. By that, and thru the Reddit posts, we have now one thing like an unvarnished window into his uncooked political id. And the Nazi factor simply doesn’t actually cross the odor take a look at to me.
Will Susan Collins be doomed by the nationwide development — or can she defy that development but once more?
Susan Collins is without doubt one of the final so-called average Republicans, who her critics say is now now not a lot of a average in any respect. She’s now going through what may very well be her hardest setting ever. What’s your sense of how Maine voters are viewing Collins proper now? Has she managed to retain far from Trump and her status for doing what’s greatest for Maine?
Low cost or underestimate Susan Collins at your individual danger, as a result of she has confirmed again and again that she’s a really efficient politician at profitable campaigns in robust environments. That mentioned, I do assume that is most likely the hardest setting that she’s confronted. It’s a midterm; Trump received’t be on the poll. The nationwide setting, and domestically right here, may be very a lot shaping as much as be anti-Trump. She’s older. She’s extra established, extra establishment-coded.
That mentioned, it’s actually exhausting to gauge her help as a result of it’s very sub rosa. She has simply been round for thus lengthy. She has these private relationships with, like, all people within the state and appears to simply pay attention to all the pieces occurring. I discuss to individuals on a regular basis who’re like, “all proper, simply emailed with Susan,” or “I simply received off the cellphone with Susan.” So she’s simply making these one-on-one connections. She appears to be a step forward of everybody, understanding all the pieces that is happening. And I feel that goes a great distance.
She’s the chair of the Appropriations Committee. In olden instances, that was like a assured lock on profitable reelection. It’s not as highly effective because it was once, however I do assume it’s significant in a state like Maine that depends so much on federal cash — and she or he has simply completely opened the spigots previously 12 months.
You possibly can go on her web site and you’ll see all the cash and all of the initiatives she’s funded, and there’s these little pins on the state of Maine, overlaying your complete map. When this cash falls from the sky, it’s an enormous boon.
And a phrase of warning on the polling. In 2020, polls all had Collins down heading into election day. She had been outspent by her Democratic opponent two to 1. After which she ended up profitable by 9 proportion factors. So it appears very anti-Collins on the market — however I feel behind the scenes, she has much more help than is clear.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
