Democratic U.S. Senate primary rivals Graham Platner and Gov. Janet Mills are running starkly different campaigns, with the front-running newcomer spending heavily on ads and digital content while the governor pulls back on ads while keeping a big staff.
Campaign finance reports released this week show Platner’s team making more than two dozen combined media, digital advertising and video production purchases during the first half the year. Advertising and outreach has made up nearly three-quarters of his spending to date, while Mills has put more than a quarter of her haul into staffing and consultants.
The divergent campaign styles put the spotlight on an uphill battle for Mills ahead of the June 9 primary. Her campaign has no ads booked through the June primary after a blitz last month highlighted Platner’s vulnerabilities that Mills says the five-term Collins could exploit in one of the most pivotal and likely costly Senate races this year.
But targeting the military veteran’s old social media posts and a tattoo of a Nazi-linked skull and crossbones long after it was reported in October has shown no signs of reversing Mills’ underdog status. Recent polls show Platner with a large advantage over the 78-year-old governor, the only Democrat to win statewide office in Maine in 20 years.
“A total newbie has overtaken the Senate race,” Pennsylvania-based Republican consultant Christopher Nicholas, who has worked on several Senate campaigns, said.
Platner’s campaign reported $4 million in fundraising through the first three months of 2026. After announcing $2.6 million for Mills last week, the governor’s campaign manager, Chelsea Brossard, said the team was heading “into the final quarter of the primary in a strong position to earn the Democratic nomination.”
With debates and forums still to come, Mills released a reform-based policy platform and launched a statewide tour, so far including visits in Bangor and a town hall at Bowdoin College. Platner has done more than 50 town hall-style events across the state.
His campaign is working hard to tell that story. It has ramped up video and digital ads and spent at least $111,000 on video projects with Workers Productions, LLC. Leaders for the Philadelphia-based firm previously worked on ads for the successful campaigns of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland and several other prominent Democrats.
The populist Platner has called for drastic overhauls of the political system and shunned corporate political action committee donations, as has Mills. He has also invested in fundraising consultants, strategists and admakers based in New York, Washington and elsewhere.
For example, his campaign spent about $175,000 on direct mail fundraising in the first quarter. In an Instagram video last week, he railed against glossy “mailing garbage” from a PAC supporting Collins. His campaign said Thursday that his direct mail efforts do not include glossy fliers that “you can’t even burn in your woodstove.”
Platner has also hosted Washington and other out-of-state fundraisers, and some have included lobbyists that have counted major health and pharmaceutical companies as clients. But he notes his Medicare for All messaging has remained consistent no matter where he campaigns.
Mills has also relied on digital consulting, advertising and research from outfits based in Washington such as Liftoff Campaigns LLC, and New York City-based Global Strategy Group, one of the country’s top Democratic polling firms.
The Collins campaign on Thursday shrugged off the Platner camp’s confidence, saying it’s right where it wants to be. Collins’ team noted that Platner and Mills combined raised less than the $7.1 million of former state House Speaker Sara Gideon in the first quarter of 2020.
Outside Republican groups have heavily outspent Democratic ones so far in a costly ad war over defining Collins, who stockpiled cash to the tune of $10 million on hand as of the end of last month. Catching up will be difficult for either Platner — at $2.7 million — or Mills — at $1 million — once the primary finishes.
“We have the resources we need at this point — not more, not less,” Collins spokesperson Shawn Roderick said.
