At a time when Democratic voters are demanding new, antiestablishment leaders, the Democratic Party’s power brokers are pushing a seventy-seven-year-old candidate for a key 2026 Senate race who’s spent the past six years as governor vetoing collective bargaining rights for workers, tax increases on the wealthy, renter protections, and tribal sovereignty protections, according to a Lever review.
That candidate, Maine’s two-term governor, Janet Mills, entered the 2026 Democratic primary race last month to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) as the hand-picked candidate of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Her opponent is Graham Platner, a forty-one-year-old oyster farmer and populist candidate running on delivering Medicare for All and breaking up monopolies. He’s faced scrutiny for past postings in online forums and a tattoo from his time in the military.
Since entering the race, Mills’s campaign has highlighted her stances on a host of progressive causes, including her labor advocacy and her efforts to protect health care and abortion rights.
But the governor’s veto pen tells a different story, say her critics.
When bills arrive on her desk, “there’s a perception that she’s mostly concerned with business interests,” said Andy O’Brien, a former Maine state representative and the current communications director for the Maine AFL-CIO union federation, speaking in his personal capacity. “She’s very good on social issues like reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues, and the environment, but when it comes to economic issues, she’s very conservative.”
Despite her Senate bid receiving endorsements from women’s groups such as Emily’s List, Mills even struck down a bill to set up a tracking system for rape kits, so that authorities could compile an inventory of DNA samples collected after sexual assaults.
Many of the governor’s vetoes benefited the state’s most powerful corporate…
Auteur: Luke Goldstein
