Janet Mills, the two-term Democratic governor of Maine, announced on Tuesday that she was running for Senate, aiming to unseat Senator Susan Collins, who is widely seen as the country’s most vulnerable Senate Republican incumbent on the ballot in 2026.
Ms. Mills, who is term-limited, had been heavily recruited for months by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, who was eager to find a proven winner to take on Ms. Collins. Ms. Collins, 72, is a rare Republican to survive in recent years in a Democratic-leaning state and is seeking her sixth term.
The Maine Senate race begins as the Democratic Party’s top pickup opportunity in 2026, with Ms. Collins the lone Republican up for re-election in a state that Donald J. Trump lost in 2024.
Typically, a Democrat of Ms. Mills’s stature would be warmly welcomed into such a contest, with other Democrats deferring to her. But Ms. Mills, 77, will find herself navigating a crowded primary, including against a 41-year-old oyster farmer and veteran named Graham Platner. Despite having never previously run for office, Mr. Platner has generated a national progressive following and raised $4 million in less than two months.
The state’s Senate primary is expected to be a test of some of the ideological and generational fault lines dividing the Democratic Party as it finds itself locked out of power in Washington, D.C.
If she wins next year, Ms. Mills would be 79 at her swearing in the following January, which would make her the oldest elected freshman senator in American history. It is a distinction the party is unlikely to highlight so soon after President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was pushed off the presidential ticket amid questions about his own age and acuity.
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