Congress

The Hill -    A group of Senate Democrats are questioning Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) recruiting and broader political strategy heading into the 2026 midterm election after his prize recruit in Maine, Gov. Janet Mills (D), announced Thursday she would drop her bid to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R).

Several Democratic senators who spoke to The Hill on condition of anonymity called Schumer’s support for Mills, whose campaign failed to catch fire, was a “miscalculation” and a “mistake” and urged him to butt out of contested Democratic primaries in other states, such as Michigan and Minnesota.

“It’s a miscalculation,” said one Democratic senator, who argued that “inertia” is driving Schumer’s strategy of recruiting safe bets such as Mills in battleground states when voters are hungry for fresh faces who are promising big change in Washington, such as Platner.