PORTLAND, Maine — It was not a campaign event, and she was not even the chief speaker, but a Tuesday forum on the “rule of law” gave Gov. Janet Mills her first chance to speak to a crowd since she announced her U.S. Senate campaign earlier in the day.
The discussion took on added interest and media attention after the Democratic governor eschewed on-the-ground campaign events Tuesday and instead used a two-minute video to announce her long-anticipated effort to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Her roughly 10-minute-long opening remarks at the evening forum were a speech that the governor could give anytime as a former district attorney and attorney general, but Mills drew applause and laughter by closing with a nod to her February confrontation with President Donald Trump, an encounter also featured prominently in her campaign launch video.
“I thank you, and I’ll see you in court,” Mills told the audience at the University of Southern Maine’s Hannaford Hall that was heavy on lawyers and skewed older.
Earlier in her remarks, she mentioned the Trump administration’s efforts to go after law firms that have conducted work the White House does not favor, highlighted a prosecutor who resigned after refusing a Justice Department order to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and recalled the Watergate scandal as a “piece of history that seems so long ago but carries some currency today.”
The governor will have many more chances and events to flesh out her campaign message in a primary field that she instantly upended by finally entering it following months of speculation, with Maine Beer Company cofounder Dan Kleban suspending Tuesday his campaign that only began last month and endorsing Mills.
Sullivan oysterman Graham Platner, who has drawn big crowds since joining the race in August, and former Capitol Hill operative Jordan Wood of Bristol, who got a jump on the field by launching his campaign in April, have vowed to stay in the primary that will amplify generational debates tied to age and ideology in the Democratic Party.
Tuesday’s attendees generally respected the 77-year-old Mills and enjoyed her remarks. Interviews outside the forum offered reminders of how a primary victory is not a given for Mills. Christine Snow, a 74-year-old Scarborough resident, said she adores the governor but has not yet committed to voting for her in June. That’s because Platner is also on her mind.
“Platner’s got the it factor,” Snow said.
If she wins the June primary and then beats Collins next fall, Mills would become the oldest freshman senator in U.S. history. She said she would not plan on serving more than one term if elected to the Senate. Collins, 72, would become Maine’s longest-serving senator if she wins a sixth term after saying before her first election win in 1996 she would only serve two terms.
Mills was not even the featured guest Tuesday. Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law School professor and constitutional law expert, was the keynote speaker, with Mills listening to him before she and a spokesperson left the forum early before Attorney General Aaron Frey and officials with the ACLU of Maine and Maine State Bar Association participated in a panel discussion.
Election forecasters moved the Senate race key for determining which party controls the chamber from “Leans Republican” to a “Toss-up” after Mills’ entrance Tuesday. Mills has been the preferred candidate of national Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, whose political arm is helping her raise money after Tuesday’s launch.
