Senate

Platner-Mills ending in Maine leaves Democrats questioning Schumer strategy

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by Alexander Bolton - 05/01/26 6:00 AM ET

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by Alexander Bolton - 05/01/26 6:00 AM ET

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A group of Senate Democrats are questioning Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) recruiting and broader political strategy heading into the 2026 midterm election after his prize recruit in Maine, Gov. Janet Mills (D), announced Thursday she would drop her bid to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R).

Several Democratic senators who spoke to The Hill on condition of anonymity called Schumer’s support for Mills, whose campaign failed to catch fire, was a “miscalculation” and a “mistake” and urged him to butt out of contested Democratic primaries in other states, such as Michigan and Minnesota.

“It’s a miscalculation,” said one Democratic senator, who argued that “inertia” is driving Schumer’s strategy of recruiting safe bets such as Mills in battleground states when voters are hungry for fresh faces who are promising big change in Washington, such as Platner.

The senator said Schumer’s strategy of recruiting a prominent Democrat with widespread voter identification and a solid record worked in the past but that doesn’t mean it’s in step with what voters want now.

“It’s easy for there to be inertia in how we approach things and it’s a formula that has worked in the past. But I think what Graham Platner did and continues to do in this election cycle is channel the economic frustration of average working people in a way that just cut through all the bull—-,” the lawmaker said.

The senator added that Schumer should take the Mills decision to drop her Senate bid as a signal not to intervene in other races, such as the contested Democratic primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin.

A second Democratic senator who requested anonymity said that Schumer was working out of an old playbook by backing Mills over Platner in one of the top Senate races of the 2026 cycle.

“I’m very excited about Graham Platner,” said the senator. “Clearly Platner has tapped into something in Maine that people are really excited about.”

The senator questioned Schumer’s attempts to “pick winners and losers” in some key primaries.

“I don’t doubt his intention. I think he really believed that [Mills] was going to be the very best candidate but it didn’t work out that way,” the source said. “I think he’s making decisions based on sort of an old-school book of how you win elections and what it takes to win elections. Things are changing a lot.”

The lawmaker said Schumer has tried to tip the scales in favor of more moderate Democratic candidates in other contested Senate primaries, such as Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in Michigan and Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) in Minnesota, by steering donors to them.

Schumer’s allies, however, have argued that no one in the Democratic caucus is complaining about his success in recruiting former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper to run for the seat held by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) or grumbling about Schumer’s coup in persuading former Rep. Mary Peltola (D) to challenger Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) in the Alaska Senate race.

Asked about the criticism from some Democratic colleagues, Schumer said he’s focused on beating Collins and winning a Senate Democratic majority in the November election.

“My north star is winning the Senate. We’re going to win Maine and beat Susan Collins,” he told The Hill.

Schumer endorsed Platner on Thursday after Mills announced the end of her campaign.

“After years of allowing Trump’s abuses of power, Sen. Collins has never been more vulnerable and we will work with the presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner to defeat her,” he said in a joint statement with Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

Platner, meanwhile, has said he will not vote for Schumer to serve another term as Senate Democratic leader.

He called for Schumer to step down as leader after eight Senate Democrats broke ranks and voted to end the record-setting 43-day government shutdown in November even though Republicans didn’t agree to extend enhanced health insurance premium subsidies.

Many Senate Democrats considered Mills a prize recruit when Schumer convinced her to challenge Collins and few of them gave Platner much chance of winning — at least initially.

A Democratic senator familiar with Schumer’s thinking said his “theory of the case” in Maine is that Mills, who is 78, would be well positioned to win the support of older women in Maine who form a core pillar of Collins’s political support.

Nearly 23 percent of Maine’s