Maine Gov. Janet Mills ended her campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins on Thursday, and within hours, members of her own party were pointing fingers at the man who recruited her to run: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Mills, a 78-year-old two-term governor once considered a prize Democratic recruit, suspended her U.S. Senate bid after failing to keep pace with first-time candidate Graham Platner in fundraising and grassroots energy. She was blunt about the reason.
"While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else, the fight, to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources," Mills said.
That admission alone should embarrass the Democratic establishment. Schumer spent months courting Mills and announced his endorsement of her in October. He steered donor networks her way. And she still couldn't compete with an oyster farmer and combat veteran who built his following from the ground up. By late March, an Emerson College Poll showed Platner leading Mills 55 percent to 28 percent. Mills carried a 54-percent disapproval rating.
The numbers were not close. And the lesson they carry, that top-down party management is losing its grip, is one Schumer's colleagues are now saying out loud.
Multiple Democratic senators spoke to The Hill on condition of anonymity, and their assessments were pointed. One called Schumer's decision to back Mills over Platner flatly wrong.
"It's a miscalculation. It's easy for there to be inertia in how we approach things and it's a formula that has worked in the past. But I think what Graham Platner did and continues to do in this election cycle is channel the economic frustration of average working people in a way that just cut through all the bull----."
A second Democratic senator was equally direct, saying Schumer was operating from an outdated model.
"I think he's making decisions based on sort of an old-school book of how you win elections and what it takes to win elections. Things are changing a lot."
That same senator said Schumer had tried to "pick winners and losers" and acknowledged the effort fell flat. "I don't doubt his intention. I think he really believed that [Mills] was going to be the very best candidate but it didn't work out that way," the senator told The Hill.
A third Democratic senator, described as familiar with Schumer's thinking, said his "theory of the case" in Maine was that Mills would attract older women voters. Nearly 23 percent of Maine's population is 65 or older. On paper, it made sense. In practice, voters chose someone else entirely.
The pattern here is worth watching. Schumer's political standing has been sliding in his own home state of New York, and the Maine episode adds fresh evidence that his instincts are lagging behind the mood of his party's voters.
To his credit, or perhaps out of necessity, Schumer endorsed Platner on Thursday, the same day Mills dropped out. He and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand released a joint statement framing the pivot as seamless.
"After years of allowing Trump's abuses of power, Sen. Collins has never been more vulnerable and we will work with the presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner to defeat her."
Schumer also declared: "My north star is winning the Senate. We're going to win Maine and beat Susan Collins."
That's the kind of line a leader delivers when the outcome he engineered just collapsed. Schumer now backs the candidate he spent months trying to sideline. Whether Platner's grassroots supporters will forget that remains to be seen.
Platner himself has shown no interest in playing nice with the party's leadership structure. He has said he will not vote for Schumer to serve another term as Senate Democratic leader. After eight Senate Democrats voted in November to end a record-setting 43-day government shutdown, even though Republicans had not agreed to extend enhanced health insurance premium subsidies, Platner called for Schumer to step down.
That kind of defiance from a party's own nominee would have been unthinkable a cycle ago. Now it's a selling point. And it's not just happening in Maine.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who endorsed Platner back in August 2025, claimed the governor's exit proved his broader argument about the direction of Democratic politics.
"It shows that the people in Maine and people throughout the country are sick and tired of status quo politics. They see the very rich getting richer while working families struggle."
Sanders added: "They want a candidate who will stand up for workers. Graham Platner is that candidate. I think you're going to see that phenomenon all over the country."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts endorsed Platner in March. Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico also backed him. Heinrich, on Thursday, applauded Mills's decision as "pragmatic."
"I think it's far enough from the general election that this really gives Democrats an opportunity to heal and come together in a way that bolds very well for us picking up the seat in the fall."
Even Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin offered a blunt read. "I think she saw the writing on the wall," the Illinois Democrat said.
None of this is the language of a party rallying behind its leader's judgment. It's the language of colleagues politely noting that the boss got it wrong. Progressive frustration with Schumer's leadership has been building for months, with some activists openly calling for his replacement atop the Democratic caucus.
The Maine race has become a proxy for a wider argument inside the Democratic Party: whether establishment-backed candidates or younger populist outsiders are better positioned to win competitive seats in 2026. And Schumer's preferred approach keeps running into resistance.
One Democratic senator told The Hill that Schumer is also trying to tip the scales in Michigan, where the DSCC has made clear it views Rep. Haley Stevens as the best candidate for the general election. Sanders, meanwhile, endorsed former Detroit health department director Abdul El-Sayed, a Medicare for All supporter. Warren endorsed state senator Mallory McMorrow. The establishment and the progressive wing are pulling in different directions, again.
In Minnesota, a similar dynamic is playing out. Schumer's allies have steered donors toward Rep. Angie Craig, while Warren, Sanders, and Sens. Ed Markey, Chris Murphy, Tina Smith, Chris Van Hollen, and Jeff Merkley have all endorsed Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. The anonymous Democratic senator who called Schumer's Maine strategy a miscalculation urged him not to intervene in Michigan, Minnesota, or Wisconsin.
Schumer's defenders point to his recruiting successes elsewhere. They note that former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper agreed to run for the seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, and that former Rep. Mary Peltola was persuaded to challenge Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska. No one in the Democratic caucus, Schumer's allies argued, is complaining about those moves.
Fair enough. But Cooper and Peltola did not face the kind of grassroots revolt that swamped Mills. The Maine race was a test of whether Schumer's top-down model could survive contact with an energized primary electorate. It could not. And the broader pressure on Schumer, from speculation about primary challenges in his own state to open dissent in his caucus, shows no sign of easing.
The facts here are simple. Schumer recruited a 78-year-old governor with a 54-percent disapproval rating to run in a state where voters were clearly looking for something different. He endorsed her in October. He steered money her way. She was outpolled by nearly 30 points in her own primary. She dropped out citing a lack of funds. And his own colleagues, speaking anonymously, called the whole effort a miscalculation driven by inertia and an outdated playbook.
Platner, the combat veteran and oyster farmer who generated online enthusiasm and outraised the sitting governor, is now the presumptive Democratic nominee against Collins. He owes Schumer nothing. He has said so publicly.
The broader question for Republicans is whether this internal Democratic turmoil helps or hurts Collins in the general election. A unified party behind a populist outsider could be more dangerous than a fractured one propping up a tired establishment pick. But the fractures are real, and they extend well beyond Maine. Schumer's record of missteps and controversies has made him a lightning rod even within his own ranks.
When your own senators call your strategy a miscalculation and your handpicked candidate can't raise enough money to stay in the race, the problem isn't one bad bet. It's the bettor.
