Maine Governor Suspends Senate Campaign Due to Lack of Funds

Janet Mills has trailed behind Graham Platner in the polls—and apparently also in fundraising.

Maine Governor Janet Mills withdrew her campaign to represent the state in the U.S. Senate on Thursday.

Mills was the establishment Democratic favorite to replace Senator Susan Collins, a Republican who has held the seat since 1997. But she severely lagged in the polls behind progressive candidate Graham Platner.

In a statement released Thursday, Mills explained that her exit from the race boiled down to basic resources, specifying that she lacked the campaign funds to continue campaigning.

“While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else—the fight—to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources,” Mills said. “That is why today I have made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate.”

Mills’s late entrance into the race last year hampered her fundraising abilities, and raised questions about her hunger to represent Maine in Washington. Within the first three months of 2026, Mills had raised just $2.7 million, a paltry sum for an establishment favorite expected to have the party’s wealth behind her. Mills’s fundraising efforts were eclipsed by Platner’s campaign, which raised $4.6 million in the same period.

Her withdrawal is a stunning loss for the national Democratic Party, not only as a sign of her waning popularity within the state, but also for the waning popularity of the national establishment that endorsed her.

For nearly two decades, New York Senator Chuck Schumer has selected the party’s Senate candidates with little opposition. That is no longer the case. Schumer’s political apparatus also faces contention in the midwest, where his preferred Senate candidates are facing tough primary competition in Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota.

The race to contest Maine’s Senate seat has also sparked a debate on age, challenging ideas about which generation of candidates should be representing the breadth of America. Platner, a Marine and Army veteran-turned-oyster farmer, is 41 years old. Mills, who has represented the Pine Tree State since the 1980s, is 78.

This story has been updated.

Amid All the Other Chaos, Congress Focuses on a Hasan Piker Bill

A Democrat and Republican representative have decided this is the appropriate use of taxpayer resources in this current moment.

Despite all of the other issues in the country, Congress wants to waste its time on a bill condemning Hasan Piker.

Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer and Republican Mike Lawler on Wednesday introduced a resolution to target “the rise of antisemitic, hate-filled rhetoric disseminated by prominent online personalities, including Hasan Piker and Candace Owens, and calling on social media platforms and public leaders to take stronger action against hate.”

“Piker has openly applauded Hamas’ terrorism, downplayed the mass rape of civilians on October 7th, and dehumanized Orthodox Jews as ‘inbred,’” Lawler said in a statement, taking many of those statements out of context. “Owens has trafficked in vile conspiracy theories, promoted blood libels, and platformed Holocaust deniers. With an audience of millions, they have a responsibility to confront hatred and bigotry in every form, not to amplify it to the masses. So if they won’t call it out, I will.

“I get that speaking up is not easy,” Gottheimer said. “But our constituents didn’t elect us to always take the easy path. That’s what principled leadership is all about.”

Piker, who has built a large following as a left-wing influencer on the Twitch streaming platform, has come under fire from pro-Israel advocacy groups like AIPAC as well as centrist organizations like Third Way for alleged antisemitic rhetoric in his anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian advocacy, despite his repeated condemnations of attacks on Judaism and the Jewish people. Owens, while criticizing Israel from the right, has engaged in openly antisemitic rhetoric, such as, “Jewish people control the media.”

Regardless, amid a war with Iran, a struggling economy, and numerous other legislative priorities in Congress, a symbolic resolution attacking two influencers can hardly be seen as a bipartisan priority for Congress. The resolution is not likely to deter any bigotry, either.

Trump Admits He’s Not Sure James Comey Was Trying to Kill Him

The confession undermines the Justice Department’s entire indictment against the former FBI director.

President Donald Trump’s indictments against his perceived political enemies are getting so flimsy, even he’s not sure he believes in them.

On Wednesday, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Trump about the Department of Justice’s most recent target: former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump already tried and failed to throw in jail last year. (That case was thrown out after the courts discovered Trump’s prosecutor had been illegally appointed. Brilliant move, Mr. President.)

This recent indictment is built on a photo Comey posted on Instagram last year, in which seashells on a beach were arranged to write out “86 47.” The term “86” is often used in the restaurant industry to get rid of or cancel a dish, so the DOJ is jumping to the very reasonable conclusion that this constituted a threat to Trump’s life.

Collins asked Trump whether he actually thought Comey was threatening his life with the post.

“Well if anybody knows anything about crime, they know ‘86,’” Trump said. “It’s a mob term for ‘kill ’em.’ You ever see the movies? … I think of it as a mob term. I don’t know.”

Trump then began talking about mobsters before Collins wisely cut him off: “Do you really think your life was in danger?”

“Probably, I don’t know,” Trump replied. “People like Comey have created tremendous danger, I think, for politicians and others. You know, Comey is a dirty cop. He’s a very dirty cop. He cheated on the elections.”

COLLINS: Do you really think that Comey was threatening your life with that post?TRUMP: Well if anybody knows anything about crime, they know '86' is a mob term for 'kill 'em.' You ever see the movies? pic.twitter.com/jeZixGF9Ks— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 29, 2026

COLLINS: Do you really think that Comey was threatening your life with that post?TRUMP: Well if anybody knows anything about crime, they know '86' is a mob term for 'kill 'em.' You ever see the movies? pic.twitter.com/jeZixGF9Ks

Entertaining as Trump’s rambling monologues are, “Probably, I don’t know,” isn’t going to hold up in court. Comey can very easily defend himself by arguing his seashell art just meant he wanted to be rid of the president.

Even some congressional Republicans have expressed reservations about the Comey indictment, as it becomes clear average Americans care little about Trump’s revenge tour. North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, who serves on the Senate Judiciary........

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