While the 2026 election cycle is already heating up in Maine and candidates are launching campaigns for Congress and the governor’s office, one high-profile contest is getting off to a slower start — the race to challenge Sen. Susan Collins.

National Democrats have been working behind the scenes to recruit Gov. Janet Mills, who has publicly downplayed the idea but also not ruled it out. She said last month that she wasn’t planning to run for another office when her second term as governor finishes next year, but spokespeople did not respond to questions last week about whether the governor’s thinking has changed.

U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, another Democrat seen as a potential challenger to Collins, took himself out of the Senate race last week when he announced he plans to run for a fifth term representing Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.

Recent announcements that several high-profile Democrats in Maine are entering the governor’s race have left some political observers wondering who the party will be able to put up for a competitive run against Collins if Mills doesn’t enter the race.

“I’ve actually racked my brain about this, and I can’t really think of anybody,” said Mark Brewer, a professor and chair of the political science department at the University of Maine.

Collins, 72, will be seeking her sixth term, but has been expected to face a tough election cycle as she navigates tricky political waters with Donald Trump in the White House.

Long seen as one of the Senate’s most moderate Republicans, Collins voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and said she wrote in Nikki Haley in the last presidential election. But she’s also taken key votes in line with her party’s agenda, like her February vote in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as U.S. health secretary.

Republicans want her to be more loyal to the president, while Democrats are calling for her to stand up to him.

While some see Collins as vulnerable, Democrats may still be feeling bruised from their 2020 defeat, when former Maine Speaker of the House Sara Gideon lost to Collins by nine points despite outrage over Collins’ pivotal 2018 vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and over $200 million in combined spending by the candidates and outside groups.

Collins said in a written statement Friday that she intends to run for reelection in 2026 and cited her work as chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and in passing legislation such as the Social Security Fairness Act, which was co-authored by Collins and signed into law this year. “This is very rewarding work to me, and I have so much more I want to accomplish,” she said.

STILL EARLY

Party primaries are still a year away. A handful of candidates have declared for the Senate race, including two Democrats: Jordan Wood, who served as chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., and founded the pro-democracy organization democracyFIRST, and Natasha Alcala, who briefly entered last year’s race for Sen. Angus King’s seat but never qualified for the ballot.

Other candidates who have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission include independent Phillip Rench and Republicans Carmen Calabrese and Daniel Smeriglio.

But it’s clear that other Maine Democrats, in addition to Mills, are considering a run for the seat.

Maine Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau, a Biddeford Democrat, said last week he hasn’t yet made a decision on whether he might run. “It’s not a no,” Fecteau said.

Former Democratic state Sen. Cathy Breen, who is the director of government affairs for the Maine Conservation Alliance, said Friday that she is considering a run and plans to make a decision after the expected end of the legislative session in June.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, was listed as a potential candidate in polling done last month by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. But a spokesperson for Pingree said that she is planning to run for reelection to her current seat next year.

The Senate race so far hasn’t attracted the same interest as the Maine governor’s race, which already features several prominent Democrats including longtime legislator and former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Angus King III, a renewable energy entrepreneur and the son of U.S. Sen. King.

Hannah Pingree, a former state lawmaker and official in the Mills administration and daughter of Rep. Pingree, has also been rumored as a Democratic contender to fill the seat of Mills, who can’t run again due to term limits.

“The governor’s race is an open seat, and that’s always more attractive than going up against an incumbent, particularly a multi-term incumbent who Democrats have thought multiple times before they were in a good position to knock off (and then didn’t),” Brewer said.

Some Democrats may be waiting to see if Mills enters the Senate race before making their own decisions.

“I think most of the people who are considering running would consider (Mills) a friend and an ally, so I think people are looking to see what her intentions are before they move forward,” said David Farmer, a Democratic political consultant.

He said there are a “number of very bright prospects” looking at the race, but declined to list any names, saying the potential candidates should have the opportunity to announce on their own terms. “I am confident there will be a competitive field in the Democratic primary,” Farmer said.

MILLS A FAVORITE

Mills is a former attorney general, district attorney and state lawmaker who has shown she can win statewide by appealing to both more liberal southern Maine and the 2nd Congressional District, where Trump has won one of Maine’s four electoral votes in each of the last three presidential elections.

The governor has also been the subject of recent national attention after challenging Trump at a White House event in February over Maine’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports, and that could help in national fundraising efforts should she choose to run for Senate.

But critics have pointed to Mills’ age — the governor is 77 — as a potential deterrent, and Mills herself has downplayed the idea.

“At the moment, I’m not planning to run for another office,” she said in an interview last month.

Charlie Dingman, chair of the Maine Democratic Party, said he has not spoken directly with Mills about the race, though it is a high priority for the state party to have a quality candidate take on Collins.

“I’m aware many people have mentioned (Mills’) name, and I’m sure she is also aware of that and is giving it careful thought,” Dingman said.

National Democrats, meanwhile, are working behind the scenes to recruit the governor. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, has spoken personally with Mills about the race, according to CNN.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, a group dedicated to electing Democrats to the U.S. Senate, did not name Mills in a statement on the race last week, though a committee spokesperson said they are confident Democrats will have a strong candidate.

“Mainers know Susan Collins isn’t standing up for them, and in 2026, they will hold her accountable for selling them out,” said Maeve Coyle.

LESSON FROM THE PAST — OR LOOKING FORWARD?

Republicans used Golden’s announcement that he will not run for a different office as an opportunity to attack Democrats’ prospects.

“Another day, another recruitment failure for Democrats in Maine as reality sets in that they have no one willing to step up and lose to Senator Susan Collins,” said Chris Gustafson, communications director for the Senate Leadership Fund, a fundraising group that supports the Republican majority in the Senate, in an email the fund sent to supporters Thursday.

Polling results have suggested Collins has a low approval rating in Maine among voters in both parties.

Still, enthusiasm for running against Collins is “probably at an all time low” after the 2020 race in which Gideon lost, said Lance Dutson, a Republican strategist in Maine.

“I think prominent Democrats in Maine understand that there’s very little chance you can beat Susan Collins,” Dutson said. “They had their best opportunity in 2020 and she soundly won. And especially with an open governor’s race, I think that’s a lot more appealing to Democratic candidates.”

Dingman, the Maine Democratic Party chair, said potential candidates will be motivated to counter the Trump administration’s efforts to scale back the federal government and “hand it over to the very wealthy at the expense of working people.”

“I don’t think this Senate race will be anything like the past Senate races, and I’d be surprised if potential candidates are sizing it up based on what happened at some point in the past,” Dingman said.