Janet Mills has the resume for her Senate bid. Is that enough to win over Maine’s Democratic voters?

CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine (AP) — If there’s one story Janet Mills likes to share as a warning not to underestimate her political prowess, it’s about a blue suit that the Democratic Maine governor once wore.

It was more than four decades ago and Mills, the first female prosecutor working in the state attorney general’s criminal division, secured a successful verdict in a murder trial. Yet a newspaper headline focused on a more trivial angle: “The prosecutor wore pale powder blue.”

“That wasn’t the first time someone underestimated me. And it certainly wasn’t the last,” Mills, now running for U.S. Senate, wrote in a recent memo to campaign donors.

The message is one the two-term governor is returning to frequently as she seeks the Democratic Senate nomination to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Despite having decades in public office and the support of the party establishment in Washington, she’s back to being the underdog ahead of the first Democratic primary debate next week.

Mills’ top opponent in the June 9 primary, military veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner, is drawing bigger, more enthusiastic crowds. He has raised more money than Mills, and has flooded airwaves with ads since entering the race last summer.

Mills argues she is the strongest candidate to face Collins in a race that is crucial to Democrats’ effort to win the Senate. Her smaller, more intimate gatherings help her better connect to voters, Mills says. Their May 7 debate is scheduled to be the first of five, and Platner’s past controversies will undoubtedly be a focus. She’s leaning on her vast experience, while Platner has served no higher than the planning board in a small town.

Speaking after a Portland rally in support of Planned Parenthood, Mills noted she co-founded the Maine Women’s Lobby, which has pushed for gender equity since the 1970s, and that she has been fighting for reproductive rights for years. Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Mills earlier this month.

“He’s been nowhere on these issues,” Mills said of Platner. “He’s never walked the walk.”

Establishment vs. new face

Mills has a long track record of success. She’s been Maine’s first woman district attorney, first woman attorney general and the state’s first woman governor. In the Senate race, she is endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

But it’s not clear that what has worked in the past will work in this year’s Democratic primary, when the party is divided over whether establishment candidates or new faces offer the best way forward. Platner is endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and other progressive leaders who say Democrats’ 2024 losses prove the party needs a new direction.

Age also has surfaced as a factor. Mills, 78, has said she will only serve one term if elected. Platner, 41, argues voters should elect a senator who will stick around in Washington, where it often takes years to gain seniority and influence over policymaking and funding. Age is a double-edged sword in the race, as Maine has one of the oldest median ages in the country and many thousands of older voters, but Democrats have grown increasingly wary of older candidates since Joe Biden’s aborted run for a second term at 81 years old.

“I’m really torn, I want the person who can win,” said Karen Tilbor, 79, who described herself as a supporter of Mills as governor but said she’s unsure how she’ll vote in the primary. She said she thinks “many more young people” will vote for Platner.

While Platner has held large-scale rallies and events around the state, Mills supporters say the governor doesn’t need to pack theaters or hold rallies because she already has the widespread name recognition and voters largely know her positions and personality.

For voters like Denham Ward, 79, that’s important.

“She has got supporters who have known her for a long time, who know what she can do,” Ward said. “She’s a known commodity for the state and has an organization that I think can take on Susan Collins.”

Emily Cain is a former Maine state lawmaker and former executive director of EMILY’s List, a group that supports female Democratic candidates and is backing Mills. She said the question ultimately facing primary voters is: “Who do you think has the best chance of beating Sen. Collins?”

Maine supported Democrat Kamala Harris for president over Donald Trump in 2024, but Collins has served for decades by winning as a moderate in a blue state.

“If it’s just about who you like better, or who makes you feel better, then that is different than who you think can win in the fall,” Cain said.

Political liabilities

Even Mills supporters like Cain hesitate in declaring that she holds the upper hand in the Democratic primary.

“I think the governor has a path to victory,” Cain said. “I think it’s going to be up to her, her team and her supporters to get across that finish line.”

Mills argues that Platner, who has courted controversy since entering the race, has political baggage that makes him the riskier candidate to send to the general election.

There have been lingering questions about inflammatory comments Platner made in old online postings, which he has since disavowed but that Mills highlighted in an attack ad where women described his statements as “disgusting.” He has been dogged by questions about the skull-and-crossbones tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol that he said he got during a night of drinking when on military leave in Croatia. Platner has since covered up the tattoo.

Mills also faces challenges. Some liberal voters have criticized her opposition to a voter referendum to create a red flag gun law in the state. The referendum ultimately passed.

Separately, Mills has fashioned herself as an opponent of Trump, a position that may be helpful in much of Maine but could turn off voters in rural parts of the state. Trump won the presidential vote in the Republican-leaning 2nd Congressional District three times in a row.

Platner has centered his campaign on affordability issues such as housing and healthcare and focused his ire on billionaires and what he calls “oligarchy.”

On a recent Saturday, he was joined at a rally by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who told the crowd of hundreds that the country needs major change.

Mills, meanwhile, spent a recent Friday visiting with small business owners in Cape Elizabeth and South Portland, coastal communities just south of the state’s largest city of Portland.

The events were not designed to attract huge crowds, and they did not. One consisted of her chatting with a handful of patrons at a lunch restaurant and another of her speaking with the owner and staff of a floral shop. They attracted about five to 10 people each.

But some of the voters who were there said Mills’ experience in office could benefit the state.

“Janet Mills has a ton more experience at many levels of government and I think has the best chance to hopefully give Maine a little bit of a leg up in terms of getting federal funding for us, and some federal recognition,” said Shelley Stevens, 51, who owns Fiddleheads, the florist in Cape Elizabeth. “It’s just very pragmatic for me.”

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Kruesi reported from Providence, R.I.