If Maine voters were looking for a warning sign about the direction of Janet Mills’ U.S. Senate bid, they just got one, from Massachusetts.
Tuesday, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey (D), widely regarded by critics as one of the worst governors in America, formally endorsed Janet Mills (D) in her campaign to unseat longtime Maine Senator Susan Collins (R).
Healey’s endorsement reads less like a ringing endorsement of leadership and more like a checklist of progressive policy failures exported from Massachusetts to Maine.
This is the same Maura Healey who oversaw the explosion of what critics now call the “Healey Hotels”, a migrant shelter system that has burned through more than $4 billion in taxpayer money. The same migrant shelter where a father impregnated his own teenage daughter and the Governor did nothing about it. The same governor whose policies have accelerated business flight from Massachusetts, driven housing costs even higher, and sparked backlash over her refusal to comply with a voter-mandated audit of state government.
Now, Healey wants to replicate that model in Washington, by backing Janet Mills.
Standing beside Mills, Healey declared:
“I’m here with my friend Governor Mills, who’s running for the U.S. Senate because the people of Maine deserve a leader who will stand up to Donald Trump and put working families first.”
That familiar refrain—stand up to Donald Trump—has become the central credential for modern Democratic politics. Healey accused Donald Trump of threatening Maine’s future and claimed Senator Collins was enabling him through votes on health care, judicial confirmations, and education policy.
Healey praised Mills as “battle-tested,” citing what she described as a progressive wish list: expanded government health care, universal free school meals, free community college, paid family leave, abortion protections, and aggressive state intervention across multiple sectors.
In Healey’s words, Mills is “the only candidate in the race with a proven record of standing up to bullies like Donald Trump and winning.”
Critics hear something very different.
They hear a full-throated endorsement of big government, taxpayer-funded expansion, centralized control, and ideological governance, the same governing philosophy that has left Massachusetts struggling with runaway spending, housing shortages, and declining competitiveness.
Healey framed Mills as a champion of “working families,” while dismissing concerns about corporate influence, despite both administrations presiding over growing regulatory burdens that small businesses say are pushing them out.
Both governors are also well-known for what detractors call Trump Derangement Syndrome, a fixation so consuming that it now substitutes for policy substance. Every problem, every campaign, every endorsement ultimately circles back to opposition to Trump, regardless of whether that obsession actually improves life for working families.
Healey concluded by insisting that Mills is the only Democrat who can beat Susan Collins, declaring that “this moment demands courage.” A clear shot at the other Democrat candidate vying for their party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, Graham Platner.
For many voters, the endorsement raises a simpler question:
If Maura Healey’s Massachusetts is the model, and Janet Mills is proud to follow it, why would Maine want more of the same?
In politics, endorsements reveal more than they intend. This one may end up revealing exactly what kind of Senate career Janet Mills plans to have, and why voters should be paying close attention.
