By Manu Raju, Alison Main, CNN
Portland, Maine (CNN) — Gov. Janet Mills was laying out her case against Sen. Susan Collins to several dozen supporters recently when one attendee raised a question on the minds of many voters in Maine.
“How are you and your campaign going to push back against the argument that you are too old?” the voter asked.
“Damn!” Mills remarked with a chuckle before later saying: “The times are too urgent, too dangerous not to send the best person we have, the most tested candidate.”
Democratic leaders in Washington were thrilled when Mills, 78, entered the Senate race last fall, seeing the two-term governor as the type of battle-tested candidate who could finally unseat Collins and give their party a shot at the majority.
But Mills is confronting a persistent problem: Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and political newcomer just over half her age, is appealing to the hunger of many progressive voters eager for a new generation of insurgent Democrats particularly in the aftermath of Joe Biden’s presidency.
Mills takes questions about her age head-on and reiterates that she would serve just one term if elected, given she’d be the oldest Senate freshman ever sworn into office if she wins in November.
“Good Lord. I’m not Joe Biden for God’s sake,” she told CNN in a recent interview.
“I’m healthy, I’m me, I get stuff done. People see me at work every day, and they know what I can do. They know that I can deliver, and I have delivered,” she said after wrapping up a roundtable meeting with a handful of local health care professionals and business owners at a coffee shop in Portland.
No other Senate Democratic primary encapsulates the ideological, tactical and generational divides still gripping the Democratic Party than here in Maine, which is a must-win for the party as it tries to win a net of four seats to take back the Senate. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face a tough battle in November: The GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund already plans to spend at least $42 million to bolster Collins in the campaign’s final stretch.
Polling in the race so far has been scarce ahead of the June 9 primary. Platner, who is backed by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has held 34 town halls across the state, according to his campaign. Mills has opted for smaller roundtables that her campaign dubs “candid conversations” with voters.
Asked about Platner’s large crowds, Mills said, “He has energy, but you also have to have positions that are backed up by knowledge and experience and what you’re going to do and how you’re gonna do it. … It’s easy to talk the talk. It’s a lot harder to walk the walk, and I’ve walked the walk.”
In his own interview with CNN, Platner, 41, called Mills’ comment “ironic,” citing policies he’s rolled out and his push to use “political power that I think is necessary to bring about that kind of policy change. I do not hear that from the governor.”
‘Have you ever gotten into an argument on the internet?’
There are sharp differences between the two. On several hot-button issues, Platner went further to the left, even saying that President Donald Trump should “absolutely” be impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate if Democrats take Congress in the fall.
Platner says Chuck Schumer should be out as Democratic leader, while Mills says she’s undecided on that question. As Platner says tax hikes for the wealthy should pay for universal health care, Mills says such an idea is “too simplistic,” though she backs a similar health care system.
Platner said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement should “abso