Union leaders in latest days have urged Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Democratic Senatorial Marketing campaign Committee to finish their assist for Gov. Janet Mills in Maine’s Senate major, pointing to what they see as her weaker file with labor.
United Auto Employees President Shawn Fain had a dialog with Schumer this month to debate the race, amongst different matters, two folks aware of the decision informed NBC Information. The UAW is supporting Mills’ opponent, Democrat Graham Platner, whereas Schumer and the DSCC are supporting Mills.
An individual aware of the decision mentioned Fain mentioned with Schumer what he views because the “shortcomings” in Democratic leaders’ method to the 2026 midterms, “notably their failure to adequately hearken to working-class voters.” Fain cited the Maine contest for instance, this particular person mentioned.
Individually, on Monday, Michael Monahan, worldwide vice chairman of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Electrical Employees’ 2nd District, which incorporates Maine, despatched a letter to DSCC management, obtained by NBC Information, “to precise our deep concern concerning the DSCC’s ongoing involvement within the 2026 Maine Democratic Senate Major.”
“We strongly urge the DSCC to chorus from intervening additional on this major,” Monahan wrote, including, “Your committee’s assist for Janet Mills is troubling to our membership for a number of causes.”
Monahan referred to as Mills’ file with labor unions “fraught.” He pointed to public polling displaying Platner main Mills and argued that cash spent towards Platner may weaken him for the overall election towards Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
The Maine race is maybe Democrats’ greatest alternative to flip a Republican-held Senate seat this fall, and it’s a must-win for them to have any probability of taking on the chamber. Whereas the nationwide Democratic institution has thrown its assist behind Mills, labor’s push highlights among the base’s discontent with that call — and the resiliency of Platner, who has weathered controversies.
Platner introduced his candidacy in August, and Mills jumped in two months later, sparking a major that embodies Democrats’ generational and ideological divides.
A College of New Hampshire ballot performed in mid-February discovered Platner with a 38-point lead over Mills amongst possible Democratic major voters, effectively past the survey’s margin of error. The Mills marketing campaign disputed the survey in a memo, pointing to different latest misses the survey had in Maine and arguing that the pattern, which skewed a lot youthful than previous Maine electorates, didn’t precisely mirror the state.
The June 9 major is aggressive at the same time as Platner confronted some blowback over a sequence of damaging revelations early in his marketing campaign.
Final 12 months, Platner, an oyster farmer and army veteran, apologized for a string of offensive feedback he made in previous Reddit posts and coated up a tattoo on his chest that has a Nazi affiliation — one he mentioned he was unaware of when he obtained the tattoo. On Thursday, Platner was pressed at size on a podcast about his rationalization for the tattoo.
However Platner and his energetic marketing campaign have rallied extra union assist. He has additionally been endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
Platner’s union backers embody the Worldwide Affiliation of Machinists and Aerospace Employees. David Sullivan, the union’s normal vice chairman of the jap territory, informed NBC Information he’s set to have a Zoom name with the DSCC to debate the race subsequent week. He mentioned his membership was upset about Democratic leaders’ backing Mills after his union had endorsed Platner.
“So I referred to as my folks in D.C. and mentioned, ‘Schumer wants to remain out of Maine,’” Sullivan mentioned, including: “They mentioned they have been going to stay by their weapons and so they have been going to place thousands and thousands of {dollars} in for Janet Mills. … We’re going to battle this all the best way.”
Mills’ marketing campaign highlighted various pro-labor efforts she has supported lately, together with rising the minimal wage, boosting worker-safety requirements and prohibiting employers from retaliating or discriminating towards employees who reported them for violating labor legal guidelines. The Mills marketing campaign additionally pointed to a 2022 endorsement from the Maine AFL-CIO and a supportive assertion from Monahan a couple of invoice she vetoed in 2021.
“Governor Mills’ file of combating for employees’ rights, dignity, and pay has earned her reward from many unions all through the state of Maine,” Tommy Garcia, a Mills spokesperson, mentioned in an announcement. “She has made clear she’s going to proceed combating for working folks within the Senate to decrease prices, defend jobs, and enhance our financial system — and given she is the one candidate on this race who has negotiated and signed laws that delivers actual progress, Maine voters know she’s going to proceed to ship for them.”
The Platner marketing campaign declined to remark.
Mills has had some clashes with organized labor throughout her time as governor. In 2019 and 2021, she vetoed labor-backed measures aimed toward strengthening the ability of a 3rd get together’s rulings in disputes over public-sector employees’ wages, insurance coverage and retirement. The measure stays a precedence for the Maine AFL-CIO.
In her 2021 veto letter, Mills wrote the invoice would delegate “the ability of the purse to unelected officers, irrespective of how these people are chosen.”
Sullivan described labor’s relationship with Mills as “adversarial.”
“So Janet Mills just isn’t someone we are going to assist,” he mentioned. “And if, for some odd motive, she finally ends up going off some miracle win towards Graham Platner, you’ll most likely see a whole lot of unions supporting Collins.”
The UAW, which represents round 2,000 employees in Maine, endorsed Platner the day after Mills launched her marketing campaign in October.
Fain mentioned in an October assertion asserting the endorsement that Platner is “centered on the true issues dealing with employees throughout this nation — not the distractions the billionaire class makes use of to divide us. His marketing campaign is rooted in the identical core points our union fights for daily: a dwelling wage, reasonably priced well being care, retirement safety, and time exterior of labor to really stay our lives.”
Platner additionally has endorsements from the Maine affiliate of Nationwide Nurses United and the Worldwide Federation of Skilled and Technical Engineers.
In an interview, Monahan of the IBEW mentioned he was drawn to Platner’s “spectacular” backstory.
“He’s a powerful particular person, sort of a [former Sen. Joe] Manchin, [Sen. John] Fetterman kind, in that sort of class,” Monahan mentioned, referring to Democrats from West Virginia and Pennsylvania who tacked to the middle and continuously butted heads with the get together’s base. “The numbers I hold seeing out of it, I imply, this isn’t simply his polls. The man’s kicking ass.”
Schumer and the DSCC didn’t reply to requests for remark. They touted Mills as a robust recruit when she launched her marketing campaign again in October. Mills informed NBC Information on the time that she met with Schumer as soon as, a number of months earlier than she launched her marketing campaign, and that he inspired her to run for the Senate.
The DSCC has since backed Mills’ candidacy, signing on to a joint fundraising committee with Mills’ marketing campaign to assist enhance her fundraising. In a memo outlining “a number of paths” to the Senate majority launched final month, the DSCC touted Mills and made no point out of Platner.
“Janet Mills occurs to have such a robust file, not solely as the one Democrat who’s received in 20 years in Maine, however she has a file of combating for Mainers, understanding their points,” the DSCC’s chairwoman, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, informed NBC Information in January. “She stood as much as President Trump, she sued him in courtroom and received. So she uniquely, I feel, has the grit and the chops to actually tackle Susan Collins and win. And in order that’s why we’re so supportive of Gov. Mills.”
Requested whether or not the Maine Senate race would nonetheless be winnable if Platner is the nominee, Gillibrand mentioned, “I’m assured we can have the most effective nominee, and I’m assured that we’ll win.”
