Maine Gov. Janet Mills suspended her Senate campaign on Thursday, acknowledging she lacked the financial resources to win.
Why it matters: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) worked hard to convince Mills to jump into the race. But she was outraised and outpolled by progressive insurgent Graham Platner.
- Mills' exit — five weeks before Maine's June 9 primary — gives Democrats an opportunity to focus their time and energy on defeating five-term GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
- "I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources," Mills said in a statement.
- "That is why today I have made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate."
What they're saying: "I'm sure this was a very difficult decision for Governor Mills," Collins told CNN. "And I wish her well."
- "She has devoted her life to public service in the state of Maine, in many different capacities," Collins added, declining to weigh in on whether the decision made her campaign harder or easier.
- "Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats have just coronated a phony who is too extreme for Maine," said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Susan Collins has always put in the work for her constituents and delivered."
Zoom out: Since last summer, the state has seen heavy spending from super PACs and nonprofit organizations aligned with the leadership of both parties.
- Senate Majority PAC, which is associated with Schumer, has reserved $24 million in TV buys for the fall.
- "Susan Collins will be defeated in November," said Lauren French, a spokesperson for SMP. "Her years of voting against Maine families have left her in the weakest and most vulnerable position of her career."
Zoom in: Schumer recruited Mills to run, a decision and a strategy that aggravated some of his Senate colleagues, with one calling it a "big mistake."
- But Platner caught fire with voters and appeared to weather — at least for Democratic primary voters — scandals surrounding his past comments on women and a controversy over a tattoo with Nazi origins.
- Those issues, and his past comments on Maine voters and women, will continues to be litigated on air, with Collins and her allied super PACs ready to flood the airwaves for the next six months.
The bottom line: In their statement on Mills suspending her campaign, Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said their "North Star is winning a Democratic Senate majority."
- "Over the past year, Senate Democrats have carved out multiple paths to do that."
