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The Democratic Party\u2019s<\/span> pick for Maine senator suspended her candidacy on Thursday. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who entered the race as the establishment pick and assumed favorite, announced<\/a> her campaign did not have the financial resources to continue.<\/p>\n Mills\u2019s exit less than six weeks before the June primary clears the path for populist candidate Graham Platner, now the presumed nominee, to face off against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the November general election after the party worked to subdue<\/a> Platner\u2019s campaign. The Democratic Party\u2019s decision to wade into the primary at all had reignited a criticism that the Democratic establishment would stop at nothing<\/a> to keep progressives<\/a> out of Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Democratic establishment \u2014 and especially calcified Senate leadership \u2014 is learning in real time that they are wildly out of touch with what Democratic primary voters want,\u201d said Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run for Something, which recruits young progressive candidates for office. \u201cThe establishment simply doesn\u2019t have the juice (or the trust) anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By the time Mills, 78, ended her campaign on Thursday, party leaders had changed their tune on Platner. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who backed<\/a> Mills early in the race, released a statement with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the chair of Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, saying that Collins \u201chas never been more vulnerable\u201d and that they would work with Platner to beat her. The DSCC had financially backed Mills\u2019s campaign, forming<\/a> a joint fundraising committee with her in October. And they stuck by Mills even as her campaign appeared to languish.\u00a0<\/p>\n Platner, once considered a long-shot candidate marred by controversy, has surged this year in fundraising and polling. In a statement in January, Gillibrand said<\/a> she was \u201cvery optimistic\u201d about Mills\u2019s race. In February, when polling numbers came out showing Platner beating Mills with 64 percent support to her 26, Schumer remained<\/a> in her corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n