Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) said in an interview that aired Friday that she does not plan to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for Senate next year, though she didn’t entirely rule it out.
“I’m not planning to do anything right now, I’m just — I’m not planning to run for anything,” Mills said in an interview with Maine Trust for Local News.
“Things change week to week, month to month, but I’m not … at this moment, I’m not planning to run for another office. I love being governor, despite the hard times we’ve had,” she added.
Pressed again, Mills said, “[I’m] planning to keep being governor as best I can, do my job as best I can.”
Mills is seen as one of the Democrats’ best hopes against Collins, who is up for reelection next year for her sixth term. Democrats tried to oust Collins last cycle with former Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon (D) but fell 9 points short.
A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released Thursday suggested that while most Democratic respondents said they want to see Mills challenge Collins for Senate next year (79 percent), only 40 percent of all respondents supported a Senate run for the governor.
Still, Mills performed better in that survey than Democratic Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, with 36 percent and 29 percent of respondents, respectively, wanting to see them run against Collins.
Golden, a conservative Democrat, was the preferred candidate among Republicans polled: 25 percent of Republicans said they wanted to see him run for her seat.
Senate Leadership Fund Chair Cory Gardner, a former Colorado Republican senator himself, responded to Mills’s announcement, calling it a “recruitment failure” for Democrats.
“Fresh off Senator Durbin’s decision to retire and three other senior Senate Democrats calling it quits, Janet Mills clearly recognizes what the American people have long known: the Democratic Party is shattered beyond repair,” Gardner said.
“While Democrats reel from this recruitment failure and squabble about the direction of their party, Senator Susan Collins continues to deliver results for the people of Maine with effective and proven leadership,” he added.