Maine women’s voices were front and center Tuesday as U.S. Senate candidates Graham Platner and Gov. Janet Mills ratcheted up their rhetoric in ads and public comments as they fight for the chance to oust incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Platner, a military veteran and oysterman from Sullivan, dismissed as “divisive” the first attack ad from the Mills campaign. The video spot unveiled Tuesday morning highlighted Platner’s own widely-criticized 2013 Reddit posts on sexual violence, with prominent Democratic women supporting the governor accusing the 41-year-old of victim-blaming.
Just a few hours after releasing their ad, the governor’s campaign team announced a slate of fresh endorsements by women lawmakers in Augusta. The campaign also emphasized backing from a host of women leaders and Democratic organizations across the country, including EMILY’s List and Reproductive Freedom for All.
Planter and his supporters, including multiple women, later gathered in an Augusta union hall to counter what they described as negative politics from the 78-year-old governor. They called for generational change and asserted that Platner was not only a supporter of women, and working families but the best bet for Democrats hoping to unseat Collins in a pivotal midterm year.
“We’re seeing what feels like a last-ditch effort to tear down the very candidate who is energizing people across the state,” Megan Smith, a Bangor community organizer, said.
Platner apologized for his past comments but spoke briefly, greeted supporters and left the union hall without taking questions from reporters.
The sparring gained more national attention for the race. Democrats view the five-term Collins, who has historically overperformed with women, as one of few vulnerable Republicans in the chamber. This year’s race has already sparked more than $80 million in ad spending.
Platner, an insurgent populist whose ads have often recently relied on women, has consistently led Mills, the state’s first woman governor and a recruit of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, in primary polls. Recent polls showed him leading both her and Collins in a general election matchup. He significantly outraised both during the last part of 2025.
But the latest Pan Atlantic poll showed Platner and Mills effectively tied at 41% support among likely women Democratic primary voters. Mills is behind in the race and is trying to gain traction among that group that is likely to be overrepresented in Maine’s primary electorate.
The Reddit comments Mills targeted were first reported by the Bangor Daily News in October following coverage from CNN and Politico about his ideology and thoughts on political violence. Days later, news broke that Platner had a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest, which he quickly covered.
In one of those posts, Platner said many women should “take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f—ked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.” His campaign issued a statement saying Mainers know the candidate “should not be defined by the worst thing he said on the internet over a decade ago.”
Peggy Schaffer, the former Maine Democratic Party vice chair and one of the women featured in Mills’ campaign ad, said she and many women will only support a Senate candidate who has “never thought a woman is responsible for her own sexual assault.”
While she supports much of Platner’s progressive agenda, Schaffer said Mills is more prepared to get things done in turbulent times on Capitol Hill. Platner’s controversial comments suggest he should run for state office first, she said.
“He’s mad about a Democrat coming after him in just a 30-second ad,” Schaffer added. “Wait ‘til Republicans open fire with their $50 million.”
But Rebecca Hartwell, a Platner volunteer who said he’d earned her trust, blasted “smear campaigns” against the oyster farmer from Sullivan. She said that without heeding voices calling for real change, “our hopes and dreams for a better future will die in the purity tests and infighting.”
Republicans were happy to let the candidates fight. Mills’ ad savvily included a supporter saying she wasn’t aware of Platner’s inflammatory comments, Christopher Nicholas, a Pennsylvania GOP consultant who has worked on several U.S. Senate campaigns, said.
That creates a permission structure for those leaning toward Platner now to be pushed away from him, he said. It also could help the incumbent in the long run.
“They’re going to be doing Susan Collins’ job for her between now and June,” Nicholas said. “Whichever one wins is going to be bloodied, bruised and battered and potentially broke.”