A second U.S. senator will endorse Democrat Graham Platner on Monday, bucking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York)’s choice of Gov. Janet Mills in the hotly contested race to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R) in Maine in the fall.
Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona — who, like Platner, is a Marine combat veteran — said he is backing Platner because he believes he is more electable than the sitting Democratic governor.
“I think right now what people need and want is authenticity and a certain level of populism that they’re not going to get from Gov. Mills and they’re certainly not going to get from Collins,” Gallego said. “This is the candidate that can win.”
Gallego, who won a Senate seat in the swing state of Arizona in 2024 and is a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, joins democratic socialist Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in backing the insurgent political newcomer.
Democrats’ long-shot path back to the majority in the Senate runs through Maine, the only blue state Republicans are defending in the 2026 midterms as the 73-year-old Collins seeks a sixth term. The state has a history of electing senators perceived as moderates, such as Collins. A recent University of New Hampshire poll showed Mills lagging behind Platner by more than 35 percentage points among those planning to vote in the Democratic primary. Polls from last year have variously shown Mills and Platner in the lead.
“Polls, polls come and go,” Schumer told reporters last month. “We’re going to win in Maine and frankly Mills is the only Democrat that’s won statewide that’s in the race.”
Mills, a more moderate Democrat, has argued she has less baggage than Platner, who faced questions over deleted Reddit posts where he expressed controversial opinionsfrom which he’s distanced himself and a now covered-up Nazi-linked tattoo on his chest of a skull and crossbones whose meaning he said he was unaware of.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t have any tattoos,” Mills, 78, joked in a social media post last month.
Gallego said he was “impressed but skeptical” when he first met with the oyster farmer several months ago. He admired how Platner overcame the negative publicity around his tattoo and Reddit posts. “For him it was a growing experience and actually it was beneficial that it happened as early as it did because I think it has made him a better candidate,” Gallego said, offering to appear with Platner in Maine.
Platner said Gallego’s support cuts against the narrative among the D.C. establishment that he’s too liberal to win statewide.
“I’ve never heard the powers that be in Washington refer to Senator Gallego as some kind of radical, and I think that he understands my actual politics and what we’re doing,” Platner, 41, said.
Platner said he’s hopeful he will pick up more endorsements from senators in the future, and that he’s worked to build relationships with lawmakers in Washington despite the lack of support from the minority leader.
“They want to win and they want to be in the majority and they understand that the calculations being made by some in Washington are the wrong calculations,” Platner said.
Gallego and Platner also share a relationship to Rebecca Katz, a strategist who advised Gallego’s Senate race in 2024 and had advised Platner. In other competitive primaries, Gallego has endorsed candidates Schumer is seen as privately favoring, including Angie Craig in Minnesota and Haley Stevens in Michigan. Mills has picked up the endorsements of Schumer and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from the swing state of Nevada.
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