Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner on Thursday vowed to defeat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, after the withdrawal of Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, rendered him the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Mills suspended her campaign for the Democratic primary nomination on Thursday, citing the lack of campaign funding. In a statement, Platner celebrated Mills's career and vowed to move forward against Collins.

"Janet Mills has dedicated her career to this beautiful state," he said. "We are all eternally grateful for her service to Maine as Governor, Attorney General, district attorney, and in the legislature."

"This race has never been about me or about any one person. It's about a movement of working Mainers who are fed up with being robbed by billionaires and the politicians they own, and who are taking back their power," he went on. "We will defeat Susan Collis. We will go to Washington, and we will start tearing down the system that for too long has forgotten and written off the people who make Maine and this country what it is."

Collins is facing reelection in 2026. She has long positioned herself as a moderate with the GOP conference and has managed to hold on to her seat as a Republican, despite representing a state that hasn't backed a Republican for president in decades.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.