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janet mills
Platner Holds 7-Point Lead Over Mills in Poll That Found Him Behind Just 3 Months Ago
The survey found Platner with a 33-point lead among independent voters.
Mar 04, 2026
The Pan Atlantic Research poll from December was something of an outlier survey in the Maine Senate race, finding that Democratic Gov. Janet Mills was leading progressive combat veteran Graham Platner by 10 points while a number of other polls at the time had Platner, a political newcomer, in the lead.
But on Wednesday, the research firm released its latest survey results after speaking with a random sampling of 1,120 Mainers again between February 13 and March 2. It found that respondents now more closely matched the findings of other polls, with Platner leading Mills by seven points ahead of the June Democratic primary.
Platner had the support of 46% of respondents, up nine points since December, while the governor polled at 39%, down eight points.
Voters ages 18-34 overwhelmingly support Platner, according to the new poll, with 61% backing him compared to 45% supporting Mills. Independent voters also expressed more support for the progressive candidate, by a 33-point margin.
Platner had more support among voters who earn less than $50,000 per year, with 43% supporting him and 41% backing Mills, and significantly more support among voters who make $100,000 per year or more, while Mills was one point ahead among middle-income voters.
The poll also asked respondents who they would support in the general election in potential matchups between the two Democratic candidates and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Collins and Mills were tied at 44% each, while Platner was ahead of the longtime Republican lawmaker by four points.
The survey also found that Platner—who has been holding packed campaign events across the state, supports Medicare for All and a billionaire minimum tax, and has loudly condemned the Trump administration's attacks on Venezuela and Iran—is the second-most popular politician in the state, after Sen. Angus King (I-Maine).
Pan Atlantic Research released the poll days after a University of New Hampshire survey found Platner ahead of Mills by 38 points in the primary and with an 11-point lead over Collins; Mills was found to be just one point ahead of the Republican.
Platner's support has steadily risen since he announced his candidacy last August. He was endorsed early on by US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and has spoken out frequently against oligarchy, US support for Israel's assault on Gaza, Republican attacks on transgender rights, and President Donald Trump's deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Maine and elsewhere.
Controversies that broke soon after Mills entered the race—at the behest of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)—regarding a tattoo Platner had that resembled a Nazi symbol and posts he had written on Reddit years ago, have done little to dent the candidate's lead in polls.
Earlier this week he won his second endorsement from a US senator when Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) announced his support, and as the latest poll was released Wednesday, Democratic Maine gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson offered his endorsement.
"I'm sick to death of the establishment telling us what we have to do," said Jackson, who has also been endorsed by Sanders. "And until we elect people like Graham Platner up and down this state, up and down this country, we're never going to change it."
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New Poll Shows Platner Romping in Dem Primary and Comfortably Ahead of Collins for Maine Senate Seat
"Platner stomping Mills in the primary, then cruising to a double-digit win in the general election... wouldn’t just be a Senate-seat victory but a narrative earthquake," said one writer.
Feb 24, 2026
The progressive candidate Graham Platner has a commanding lead in the Democratic primary for Maine's US Senate seat over the state's centrist Gov. Janet Mills. Come November, he's also much more likely than Mills to defeat the Republican incumbent, Sen. Susan Collins.
The University of New Hampshire's Pine Tree State Poll, released Tuesday morning, showed that Platner has built momentum since October. Five months ago, 58% of likely Democratic voters said the 41-year-old oyster farmer was their first choice to be the state's next senator, compared with 24% who preferred the governor.
Now, with the June primary less than four months away, undecided voters have broken hard in Platner's favor: 64% said he’s their first choice, while Mills has only jumped up to 26%.
It's perhaps an unsurprising result, as Democratic voters overwhelmingly support the kind of economically populist anti-oligarchy politics that Platner—a proponent of Medicare for All and a federal billionaires' tax, with backing from labor unions and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—has unapologetically championed.
But Tuesday's poll suggests his message is not only resonating with Democrats. Where a race between Mills and Collins has the Democrat leading by a single point, within the margin of error, Platner would be expected to win the general election comfortably with 49% of the vote to just 38% for Collins.
The steady shift toward Platner comes as affordability issues have become increasingly salient to Maine voters. A full 35% of voters said that either the cost of living or housing was the most important problem facing Maine.
As President Donald Trump suffers historic unpopularity amid a flailing economy, the most marked shift has been concern about the cost of living. Where just 4% of Mainers said it was their No. 1 issue in March 2025, that number has shot up to 20% this month.
Collins' popularity has been in a dramatic freefall in the era of Trump 2.0, to the point where a late January Morning Consult poll showed her to be the second-least popular US senator, behind only the former longtime GOP leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
While Democratic Party insiders have long argued that voters prefer a safer, moderate candidate when ousting a hated incumbent, observers say Platner's success over the candidate backed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and much of the party establishment is redefining what it means to be "electable" in a swing state.
"The fatal part of this poll for Mills isn’t even the massive lead Platner has," said Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim. "It’s that he is 10 points more electable against Collins, which is the real priority for Maine voters who don’t want her in office anymore."
New York Times columnist David Wallace-Wells said: "This is a small-sample poll, and there’s a long way to go. But if something like this comes to pass—Platner stomping Mills in the primary, then cruising to a double-digit win in the general election—it wouldn’t just be a Senate-seat victory but a narrative earthquake."
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Platner Raises 3 Times as Much as Mills, Collins Combined in Small Donations in Final Quarter of 2025
"Remember back when the national media said our campaign was dead?" said the Democratic Senate candidate.
Feb 02, 2026
At a campaign event over the weekend, Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner repeated a message that's been central to his campaign since it launched last August: that his goal of serving in the Senate is about "movement politics" more than attaining a position of power for himself.
“If we win this race, with this kind of politics and building this kind of organizational capacity,” Platner told the crowd that had packed into the AmVets hall in Yarmouth, Maine on Saturday, “then we get to point to this and show them it works. We get to inspire others in other states. We get to show them that you can win Senate seats with a working-class movement.”
On Monday, new fundraising numbers released by the progressive candidate's campaign on social media showed that Maine voters are responding to Platner's call to help build people-powered movement.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, the veteran and oyster farmer's campaign brought in $3.2 million from people who donated less than $200—about three times the amount collected by Platner's top competitor in the Democratic primary, Gov. Janet Mills, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) combined.
Mills brought in $822,000 in the fourth quarter while the longtime Republican senator reported $230,000 in donations.
Teachers had the most common occupation among Platner's small-dollar donors, according to the campaign.
Platner released the fundraising data soon after announcing the "207 Tour"—a statewide tour currently scheduled to go until at least May with stops in the southern coastal town of York, Fort Kent on the Canadian border, and tiny inland towns like Liberty and Appleton.
Collins has not faced Mainers at a town hall in over two decades, Platner has noted.
"I don't know how we've reached a time when Mainers cannot count on politicians to show up in their communities and openly and honestly answer questions. Our campaign is doing things differently because I'd actually like to hear from you," said Platner last week. "Wherever you are, I'll see you there."
Beyond small-dollar fundraising, the Platner campaign is aiming to mobilize a grassroots army of volunteers across the state and that’s what the slate of town halls in dozens of communities is designed to help build.
The 207 Tour so far appears to offer more proof that Platner's campaign platform—which demands a Medicare for All system to replace for-profit health insurance, a repeal of Citizens United to "ban billionaires buying elections," and a billionaire minimum tax—is resonating with Maine voters.
He spoke to 500 people in Yarmouth, a town of 9,000 people. That same day, 100 people crowded into a venue in South Paris (population: 2,000), and 85 people joined him Sunday at a town hall in Isleboro, a town of fewer than 600 people which is accessible only by ferry.
In Liberty, Platner was greeted with a standing ovation on Sunday.
"Remember back when the national media said our campaign was dead?" he said on social media, referring to stories that broke just as Mills entered the Democratic primary race in October, pertaining to a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol—which had never before raised alarm and which Platner subsequently had covered up—and old Reddit posts he had written that he said no longer reflected his worldview.
The controversies did not slow his momentum, with voters at his campaign events responding positively to Platner's candid comments about how his views have changed throughout his life.
Organizer and attorney Aaron Regunberg said Sunday that Democratic consultants and pundits who wrote off Platner last fall "shouldn’t be allowed to keep being so wrong all the time and still have jobs."
In overall fundraising in the last quarter of 2025, Platner outpaced both of his rivals, reporting $4.6 million in total donations. He has $3.7 million in cash on hand.
Mills reported $2.7 million for the period and has $1.3 million in available cash after the fourth quarter, and Collins raised $2.2 million and has $8 million in cash on hand.
A number of recent polls have also shown Platner favored to win in the primary and general election.
In recent weeks, Platner has taken Collins to task for supporting a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security even as President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign came to Maine and swept up numerous people who had not committed any crimes—and for taking credit when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were ending "enhanced" operations in the state.
In Yarmouth, Platner acknowledged he has built a reputation as a bit of a "bomb-throwing populist" with some of his campaign rhetoric—"and I am," he promised.
But he also said he does not want to go to Washington, DC just to "get in fights with people" with whom he disagrees—but to push for policies that his growing "movement" is demanding by working with anyone he can.
"When we're talking about policy that impacts people's lives and livelihoods," he said, "things don't happen just because you're holding grudge against somebody."
"The point is to go down there and pass things and build power," said Platner. "Sometimes it's not going to work, but that's also why we need to build that secondary power—the movement power—to impose [our power] at those times when relationships won't work."
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