The Bangor Daily News was the first to report this story. What you’re reading here would likely not be made public without the efforts of professional journalists asking questions, interviewing sources and obtaining documents.
This story will be updated.
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Three days after a poll showed U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner with a massive lead over her, Gov. Janet Mills said Republican ads would “make mincemeat of him” if he is the Democratic nominee.
The governor’s comments were some of her strongest so far about Platner, the progressive oyster farmer from Sullivan who powered through a chaotic series of controversies in the fall to outraise both Mills and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins during the last three months of 2025.
His emergence has reshaped the race against the five-term Republican. Mills is supported by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, making her a top recruit in a race that her party effectively needs to win to take back control of the Senate in the November election. Unions loyal to Platner are trying to get Schumer to stand down, NBC News reported.
Mills was defiant while speaking to a reporter at an event in Presque Isle on Friday, challenging the University of New Hampshire poll released Tuesday that showed her 38 points behind Platner and referenced massive ad spending by one outside group tied to Republican leaders to argue that her opponent would be unelectable.
“If he were to make it to the general election, the Republican machinery, which has already put … $42 million behind TV advertising this fall, would make mincemeat of him,” she said.
Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mills’ remarks.
The governor was referring to the October disclosures that rocked Platner’s campaign, including old Reddit posts, some from 2013, that asked why Black people didn’t tip and said sexual assault victims should “take some responsibility for themselves.” He later apologized for the posts, which he said do not reflect his current thinking.
Just after that, it became public that Platner had a chest tattoo of a skull-and-crossbones symbol resembling one adopted by the Nazis. He said he did not know of its association at the time and got it covered last year. He repeated his explanation on a Thursday podcast hosted by comedian Tim Heidecker after he was pressed on the issue by a caller.
“I’m not going to apologize for something that, like, I didn’t know about or do,” he said. “And the moment that we found it … I got it covered, because I don’t want that on my body.”
