BELFAST — She had the full attention of the 300 people packed inside the high school gym Sunday afternoon, but Gov. Janet Mills knew the crowd was not just there to listen to her.
The governor is running for the U.S. Senate and was one of a handful of Democratic candidates up on the Belfast Area High School gymnasium stage. Each had about three minutes to sell themselves for various local, state and federal offices.
Mills’ elevator pitch: I’m a winner.
“I have a proven record of winning state elections twice, including beating (former Gov.) Paul LePage by 13 points,” Mills said to cheers, her voice with a growl-like edge. “We sent him back to Florida, and I have a proven record of standing up to Donald Trump, and I’ll do it again in the United States Senate. Count on it.”
The speech, part of a weekend packed with campaign events, came at a pivotal time for Mills. In perhaps her last-ever race, a recent poll showed Mills is down big to Sullivan oysterman Graham Platner in the Democratic primary.
Mills and her team have dismissed the University of New Hampshire poll’s methodology — “They’ve missed predictions over and over again,” the governor said Sunday — but there are signs the primary is already slipping away from the Maine political icon. Platner is raising more money, he’s younger and he’s arguably better at playing to the social media attention economy that factors into high-profile races.
But on Sunday, Mills sought to show she could still fire up a room.
Her speech was part of the Waldo County Democratic Committee’s annual caucus, a countywide gathering this year instead of the traditional series of town-by-town meetings to select a delegation for the state party convention.
That gave Mills a larger crowd to face as she made her case for voters to pick her over Platner, a former planning board chair and military veteran. The two will square off in the June 9 primary for the chance to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in November.
Although the crowd sat quietly through much of Mills’ stump speech, supporters cheered when she mentioned pushing back against Trump and protecting reproductive rights.
The 78-year-old Mills has not had many other big crowds on the campaign trail since joining the race in October at the urging of national Democrats, opting mostly for smaller “candid conversations” with local business leaders and other community members.
Platner, a 41-year-old progressive who launched his campaign two months before Mills did, has drawn overflowing crowds at rallies around the state, and even crowd-surfed at a concert in Portland earlier this year.
The differences in style have coincided with a gargantuan gap in polling on the race, with the latest UNH survey last week giving Platner a 38-point lead over the two-term governor. It brought renewed questions about whether Mills is the candidate for this moment in Democratic politics — including from key national union leaders.
But if she is feeling hemmed in, she did not admit it while traveling to 11 counties Saturday and Sunday to speak at caucuses.
She said voters she has talked to noted the same pollster ultimately missed on last year’s two statewide referendums dealing with voter ID and red flag laws. Public polling has shown the race is much closer, she added.
At her events, Mills did not focus much on Platner, whose wife was working at a table for him at Sunday’s Waldo County caucus while Platner was away at different events. The governor ticked off her list of accomplishments: her work to support free community college, universal free school meals and expanded health care for Mainers, all of which “are at risk” because of Trump, she said.
Mills looked happy and relaxed as she posed with supporters for a photo by the stuffed lion display that honors the Belfast school’s mascot. She was keen to tell a reporter about her travels Friday to the Can-Am sled dog races in Fort Kent followed by a packed weekend of events.
On Saturday, she appeared at local Democratic caucuses, spoke at a ceremony honoring two Maine Department of Transportation workers killed in January and attended two state high school basketball championship games at the Augusta Civic Center — the Class C girls final that saw Mattanawcook beat Spruce Mountain, and the Class C boys final that saw Fort Kent beat Maranacook. (Fort Kent basketball’s Aden Jeffers is “frickin’ unbelievable,” the governor marveled.)
Interviews with Waldo County Democrats from the older caucus crowd offered evidence that Mills should remain optimistic. Barbara Cray, a lawyer from Westport Island, said some of Platner’s past online comments about women and rape victims are “deeply troubling.” Cray also argued that Mills has as much ability as Collins, who herself has previously defied poor polling numbers, to bring federal dollars to Maine.
“I respect what he does, but why doesn’t he run for a State House office to get his feet wet on how to negotiate and do things?” Cray asked in regard to Platner.
Others caucus attendees remain undecided on which Senate candidate they will support. Joyce Hillman, who is from Monroe, said she would like to hear Mills and Platner debate each other.
“Part of my indecision with the two of them is, I feel Janet has a lot of experience and would get in there and do the job,” said Hillman, 65. “Graham, I feel like he has the makings for what the job requires, but he doesn’t have the experience.”
Mills, a former attorney general and district attorney, made a similar point about her resume in her Sunday pitch. She also said last week that Republican groups would “make mincemeat” of Platner, who has weathered controversies over his past Reddit posts and a Nazi-linked tattoo, if he is the nominee.
“People know me,” Mills said before leaving the Belfast high school. “There’s no mystery about my views, no mystery about my experiences and my record, no mystery where I am today, where I was yesterday and where I will be tomorrow.”
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