Maine just sent a blunt message to the Democratic Party’s national leaders. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills was forced to abandon her U.S. Senate campaign on Thursday, unable to generate enough fundraising or enthusiasm to compete against Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who has never served in elected office, according to an Associated Press report.
The announcement marked a sharp defeat for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who had recruited Mills to lead the party’s long effort to defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins. AP said the speed of Mills’ exit—after two terms as governor—underscored a broader shift that has been taking hold as Democrats look to November, including a growing sense among some Democratic voters that the party’s establishment is not meeting their expectations.
Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, framed the change as a desire for a different kind of Democrat. “Rank-and-file Democrats don’t want the Democratic Party as we know it,” Levin said. “Rank-and-file Democrats want fighters.” AP reported that Indivisible chapters and progressive leaders had already rallied behind Platner, who is now almost certain to be the Democratic nominee in one of the nation’s strongest Senate pickup opportunities.
After Mills’ withdrawal, AP said Platner insisted he would keep speaking out against the party’s leadership—including Schumer—while acknowledging that he and Schumer spoke privately the night before. Platner said on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” that the campaign’s progress had come “without the help of the establishment,” and he added that his criticisms would not change even as he said the campaign would take help that comes.
Republicans, meanwhile, projected political payoff from the internal Democratic scramble. Bernadette Breslin, spokesperson for the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, said in response that “Chuck Schumer has officially lost the first battle in his proxy war with Bernie Sanders,” adding that as Sanders campaigns to support progressives in what AP described as messy Democratic primaries, Schumer’s ability to get preferred candidates through “look grim.”
AP said the backlash is spreading beyond Maine, with similar anti-establishment clashes appearing in Senate races in Michigan and Minnesota and Iowa, as well as House contests in multiple states. It reported that Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who is independent but caucuses with Democrats, continued to promote Platner and other critics of national Democratic leadership, including by planning to campaign this weekend in Detroit with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Sanders’ political adviser Faiz Shakir described the shift as part of a broader populist mood. “There’s a desire to turn the page on the old guard,” Shakir said. “It’s not even just the Democratic electorate. There’s a populist mood in this country. You’d have to be blind not to see it.” AP also reported that Minnesota’s and Iowa’s progressive wing is positioning candidates to distance themselves from Schumer in public messaging—for example, AP cited Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow saying in a video posted Thursday on social media that she was “the first person in this country to say no” and warning that the party leadership faces a new political reality.
Veteran Democratic strategists tied the anti-establishment shift to Democrats’ losses in 2024, including President Joe Biden abandoning his reelection bid and Vice President Kamala Harris losing to Donald Trump. AP quoted Lis Smith, who works with candidates nationwide, saying voters were “sick of the gerontocracy” and “sick of the status quo,” and that Schumer “has completely misread that.”
Privately, Schumer’s allies told AP they were not persuaded the anti-establishment backlash would derail the Senate bid. Allison Biasotti, a Schumer spokesperson, said Schumer’s “North Star is taking back the Senate,” adding that he had recruited candidates and laid out an agenda focused on lower costs and better lives. AP also quoted a moderate Democrat, Matt Bennett of the center-left group Third Way, who said Platner’s emergence in Maine “without a doubt” could make it harder to defeat Collins and warned the dynamic could repeat in other states if primary voters rally behind anti-establishment contenders. Bennett said: “Our message is if you would like to beat Donald Trump’s Republicans, you better nominate people who can win.”