Maine Gov. Mills plans to confront President Trump again with her campaign for the US Senate

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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The New England governor who told President Donald Trump to his face that she would see him in court now plans to challenge Maine’s Republican U.S. senator at the ballot box.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills cited her White House confrontation with the Republican president in February as proof that she should serve in the Senate, a bid she formally announced with a campaign launch video Tuesday.

“I'll stand up to Trump, just as I did in February,” Mills said in a telephone interview previewing her campaign with The Associated Press on Sunday.

Mills' comment referred to Maine's legal challenge to Trump's executive order barring transgender athletes from school sports. She publicly resisted pressure from the president during an audience with him and other governors in February.

Mills says she's running to help mount a broader resistance to Trump, who she complained has cut food and health care aid for children and low-income Americans in the enormous tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted in July. She said she's also running to oust five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who voted for the measure.

“I think the moment demands a lot more than we’re seeing from Susan Collins,” Mills said in the interview. “It demands a fighter and someone who will stand up and fight for the future of democracy and fight for the interests of Maine people, just as I have done for my entire career.”

Democrats face an uphill challenge in their effort to retake the majority in the Senate in next year's midterm congressional elections. The party would need to gain a net of four seats, while Trump carried most of the states holding Senate elections next year.

National Democrats see Maine as an important target. It is in the only place on the 2026 Senate election map where Republicans are defending a seat in a state carried last year by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Mills ticked through a list of former Maine senators “who have a proud tradition of defending democracy against those who threatened it,” including Margaret Chase Smith, William Cohen, George Mitchell and Olympia Snowe. Smith, Cohen and Snowe served as Republicans, while Mitchell was a Democrat, though all were known to have crossed party lines.

Collins has long cast herself as a reflection of Maine's independent spirit but has frequently voted with Trump on key issues.

“I see Susan Collins as failing to live up to that legacy and failing to meet this unprecedented moment with the strength and courage that it demands," Mills said.

Though Collins voted to convict Trump after his 2021 impeachment over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Mills points specifically to her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as pivotal to the court's 2022 decision to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade case, which handed decisions about whether abortion should be legal back to the states.

Mills also faults Collins for voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Trump's choice to be secretary of Health and Human Services. While Kennedy has espoused anti-vaccine policy and ousted public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mills said, “I'm taking action with other states to expand vaccines, for instance, and preserve our public health infrastructure."

Republicans were ready for Mills' entry into the race with their own video Tuesday. The National Republican Senatorial Committee accused her, among other things, of defying the Trump administration's push for mass deportations of people in the country illegally and its executive order barring transgender athletes from school sports.

“No, thanks, Janet,” the ad concludes.

Maine GOP Chairman Jim Deyermond said in a Tuesday statement that Mills is a handpicked choice of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who he said is "getting one of America’s most liberal, unpopular Governors to join a race where moderates have had historic success.”

But Mills' campaign sees the fight over transgender rights as a strength.

Speaking to a group of governors in the State Dining Room, Trump called out the Maine governor, asking her “are you not going to comply” with the executive order on transgender athletes, to which Mills replied, “I'm complying with state and federal law.”

“You better comply because otherwise you're not getting any, any federal funding," Trump responded.

Mills answered, “I’ll see you in court."

“Good. I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one," Trump shot back. "And enjoy your life after governor, because I don't think you'll be in elected politics.”

Mills stoked Democratic enthusiasm in April when she said of the lawsuit Maine had filed against the Trump administration, “I’ve spent the better part of my career listening to loud men talk tough to disguise their weaknesses.”

In May, the Trump administration agreed to reverse its decision to freeze federal money intended for a state child nutrition program over the state's policy on transgender athletes.

Mills is barred by law from seeking a third term as governor. Throughout the spring and summer, she seemed to dismiss suggestions that she run for Collins' Senate seat.

A few other challengers have declared candidacies for the Democratic nomination, including oyster farmer Graham Platner, who has launched an aggressive social media campaign. Platner has the backing of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

Mills points to the Republican-backed bill and its Medicaid cuts, a partial shutdown of the federal government entering its third week and still-high inflation as some of the reasons that ultimately compelled her to run.

“The idea of being in D.C. for me is not something that’s fun,” she told the AP. “But the moment demands it.”

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Follow the AP's coverage of Maine Gov. Janet Mills at https://apnews.com/hub/janet-mills.