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Cokie Giles of Brewer is president of the Maine State Nurses Association and vice president of National Nurses United. Jenna Schaab of Lewiston is the president of the Young Workers Committee of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 567.
In the coming weeks, we anticipate that Gov. Janet Mills will announce her run for the U.S. Senate. As representatives of union members across Maine, we are delivering a message to Mills: Please do not run for Senate.
Next year’s midterm election results will likely decide the future of our democracy and our nation’s economic stability. In just his first eight months in office, President Donald Trump has successfully pushed forward an authoritarian agenda that has stripped union rights from a million workers, destroyed public health care programs, forced job-killing tariffs, and secured a massive transfer of wealth scheme to help his billionaire friends. Trump is waging a war on working people and seems determined to build an economy where the rich get richer and corporations have complete control over our livelihood.
Before it’s too late, we have to elect people to Congress who are willing to take on the billionaire class. Unfortunately, we do not believe Mills is up for the job.
We have three reasons for urging Mills not to run. First, we believe we must pass the baton to the next generation of leaders who are ready to step up and meet this moment. Across the country, the Democratic Party has failed to open space for new leaders and has left behind working-class voters who understand we can’t continue with business as usual.
Mills would be the oldest freshman senator elected in U.S. history, older than Joe Biden was when he became president, and we anticipate she would only serve one term if elected. Instead, let’s welcome a new voice. Someone who will center workers, build seniority, and be a powerful, long-term voice for Maine workers.
Secondly, we need a candidate who can take on Sen. Susan Collins with a forward-looking vision that offers up a new economy and new system of governance. Collins represents a party who pushed through a massive redistribution of wealth to the rich and that refuses to stand up to the increasingly authoritarian Trump administration. Collins has mastered the political charade of occasional symbolic, calculated votes against her party’s agenda and rhetorical gestures of “concern,” while enabling a path to authoritarianism, crony corruption, and reckless inequality.
A Super PAC backing Collins collected a $2 million donation from private equity billionaire Steve Schwarzman, the chair of the Blackstone Group, right before Collins voted to advance the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which slashes health care, food assistance, and funding for clean energy to give a massive tax cut to billionaires and corporations. Her votes to confirm extremist anti-worker judges Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court have enabled the president to run roughshod over the Constitution and workers’ rights.
In this Senate race, differentiation is essential, especially given Collins’ ability to paint a moderate image. In response to a question about Collins recent performance, Mills said, “She’s in a tough position. I appreciate everything she is doing.” This is not the time for respectability politics, or for a status quo platform. We do not believe Mills has the populist vision that we need to win this race.
Finally, the top issue for working Mainers is rising costs and the affordability crisis. Corporations are squeezing us with rising costs for healthcare, energy, housing, childcare, groceries, and so much more. Mainers need leaders who will take on the billionaire class, tackle inequality, and prioritize affordability.
Mills’ record shows that she’s not willing to take on corporate power. She has opposed taxing the wealthy to fund basic needs, proposed significant cuts to Head Start and childcare affordability, opposed strengthening collective bargaining rights, and repeatedly vetoed basic labor rights for farmworkers. She opposes mandating safe nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals, which is devastating to nurses and patients alike. The governor has also repeatedly opposed tribal sovereignty legislation — to us, a core economic fairness issue — that would finally grant Maine’s indigenous tribes the same status that every other federally recognized tribe in the country enjoy.
Mills has served our state for many decades, and while we appreciate her service, we hope she will open space for new leaders who will take on Collins directly with a vision for an economic system that challenges authoritarianism, corporate greed, and growing inequality.
