Gov. Janet Mills, a two-term Democrat and the first woman ever elected Maine’s governor, suspended her U.S. Senate campaign this week.

Her reason? “I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources,” Mills said. 

She’d been recruited into the race by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who viewed the seasoned politician as the safest bet to knock off Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.

Safe, as it turns out, doesn’t pay the bills.

The man who starved her out of the race is 41-year-old Graham Platner — a combat veteran and oysterman from the tiny coastal town of Sullivan. Until about eight months ago, he was a complete unknown in American politics.

But Platner raised $1 million in his first nine days in the race, hauled in $4.6 million in the final quarter of 2025 and added another $4 million in the first three months of 2026.

Mills, by comparison, raised $2.6 million in that same first quarter.

Platner didn’t just outrun Mills — he handily lapped her.

Your Rundown for Friday, May 1, 2026...

Collins Just Lost Her “Safe” Opponent

Here’s the thing the party bosses in D.C. missed: Schumer wanted Mills because she was electable on paper.

But Maine Democrats wanted Platner because he’s relatable.

He’s held more than 60 town halls — not obligatory campaign stops, actual packed rooms — and built a small-donor machine with an average donation of $33.

He’s got endorsements from Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and his message sounds like it could have come from either of them: Maine is getting too expensive because the government serves billionaires, not working people.

Collins, the five-term Republican incumbent and the only GOP senator representing a state that Kamala Harris carried in 2024, now faces a very different race than the one she was prepared for.

Still, she has a wall of outside spending behind her. In January, the main super PAC for Senate Republicans announced a $42 million investment in Maine to support Collins.

She’s also got real ammunition against Platner: old Reddit posts where he made comments about women and rape (for which he’s apologized) and a now covered tattoo, with Nazi origins, he says he got unknowingly while on leave in Croatia.

You better believe Collins will relitigate these controversies between now and November.

But consider a March Emerson College poll that showed Platner leading Mills by 27 points among Democratic primary voters — in a purple state where Mills was the only Democrat to win statewide in 20 years.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which had backed Mills, announced it will now support Platner. Even Schumer released a joint statement saying Democrats would “work with the presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner to defeat” Collins.

Collins told CNN she wished Mills well but declined to say whether the shakeup made her race harder or easier. Her non-answer probably tells you everything.

Market Rundown for Friday, May 1, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.29% to 7,265.

Oil is down 2.12% to $102.84 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is down 0.45% to $4,608.80 per ounce.

And Bitcoin is up 2.34% to $78,097.74.