Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner had his best fundraising week yet after his strongest primary challenger, Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out of the race last week.
Platner’s campaign told the Portland Press Herald on Tuesday that the candidate pulled in $1.5 million since Mills announced last Thursday that she was ending her campaign to take on five-term incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
The oysterman and military veteran from Sullivan led Mills handily in recent polls despite being a political newcomer. Mills has not endorsed Platner, but Democrats have largely consolidated their efforts behind ther presumptive nominee.
He has also led Collins in polls of a hypothetical face off between the two in the general election.
That matchup is a near certainty since Mills exited the race, but Collins has said she isn’t worried.
As of Tuesday, Mills hadn’t formally withdrawn from the race, and it is too late to have her name removed from the June 9 primary ballot, but she has given no indication that she will return to the race.
