Mills says she is still on Maine Senate ballot amid Platner scandal

Janet Mills kept a live path back into Maine’s Senate race on Monday, saying she was still on the ballot even after suspending her campaign a month earlier. The move left Democrats with an unusual opening just nine days before the June 9 primary and underscored how quickly Graham Platner’s candidacy had become volatile.

Mills said she had only “suspended active campaigning,” not formally withdrawn. Under Maine law, that distinction matters: a candidate must send written notice to the Secretary of State to be removed from the ballot, and votes for a candidate who has not done so still count. That means Mills remains a legal option for Democratic voters even after she halted her active bid on April 30 because of a lack of money.

The ballot is already set to include three names: Janet Mills, Graham Platner and David Costello. Maine uses ranked-choice voting in federal primary elections, which gives the contest added fluidity if voters scatter their rankings or if the race shifts late. Mills’ continued presence keeps alive the possibility that enough voters could rank her first, or that the field could reshuffle in a way that complicates Platner’s expected path to the nomination.

Platner, who had been the likely Democratic nominee, has been hit by a series of controversies that reopened questions about whether Democrats had settled on the right candidate. Those issues included deleted Reddit posts containing offensive remarks, a tattoo resembling a Nazi Totenkopf that he later covered up, and a new scandal involving sexually explicit messages he exchanged with multiple women while married. Platner and his wife, Amy Gertner, pushed back on the latest report and said they had handled the matter through counseling.

The turmoil has mattered far beyond Maine’s party fight. Democrats had recruited Mills as their strongest option against Sen. Susan Collins, who is seeking a sixth term after first taking office in 1997. Mills’ exit had been a setback for national Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who viewed her as the most viable challenger in one of the party’s best pickup opportunities.

The numbers that pushed Mills out also explain why her presence still looms over the race. At the end of March, her campaign had just over $1 million in cash, compared with Platner’s $2.7 million. Public polling had also favored Platner by a wide margin, including a March Emerson College survey that showed him ahead by 27 points, while a University of New Hampshire poll released the prior week put Mills at 10% support.

Even so, Mills’ refusal to fully close the door showed how unsettled the race had become. Platner’s collapse in public standing had turned a once-expected Democratic march into a test of ballot law, ranked-choice mechanics and the depth of the party’s bench in a year when Maine may again decide control of the U.S. Senate.