Maine Gov. Janet Mills echoes Trump, GOP in call for filibuster reform
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One of President Donald Trump’s biggest Democratic foes running for the Senate is taking a page from his and conservatives’ playbook to fix the filibuster.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who had long tried to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), released her. policy platform recently. Among the various proposals made to voters is a call for filibuster reform.
If elected, Mills said in the 19-page document that he would demand “Senators stay on the Senate floor and actually talk, rather than simply threatening a filibuster to delay action.”
This filibuster has become a flashpoint in the Senate, especially for Republicans, given that the current 60-vote threshold requires legislation to be bipartisan in nature. And Mills’ stance, previously supported by Democrats, is one that Trump and some in the GOP have been pushing to pass a major election integrity bill.
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Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who has long been running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, recently announced her policy platform. (Getty Images)
His desire to replace the filibuster echoes Trump and conservatives, both in Congress and online, demanding that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S.D., launch a vocal filibuster to pass the Protecting America Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE) Act.
“Washington is broken, and the people of Maine are paying the price,” Mills said in a statement promoting the platform. “Donald Trump and Washington Republicans are undermining our basic rights and driving up costs, while Congress is failing to address the big problems facing Maine people. Enough is enough. Maine people deserve better than what D.C. is giving them.”
Mills and Trump have an adversarial relationship that reached a chaotic peak in 2025, when a governors meeting at the White House said “See you in court” over the president’s executive order denying federal funding to states that allow transgender athletes to participate in sports.
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Maine Gov. Janet Mills and President Donald Trump have an adversarial relationship that is reaching a chaotic peak in 2025. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP’s main campaign arm, warned that the change Mills wants in the filibuster is a whistleblower for Democrats’ plan to slow Trump’s agenda.
“Janet Mills says the quiet part out loud: If she goes to Washington, she will use every tool at her disposal to impose her radical anti-Trump agenda on Americans.” NRSC spokeswoman Samantha Cantrell told Fox News Digital.
Trump asked Republicans to go one step further and eliminate the filibuster altogether; That’s an unlikely scenario in the Senate, given the lack of support to eliminate the guardrail in its current form.
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Senate candidate Graham Platner (left) of Maine and two-term Gov. Janet Mills face off in the state’s Democratic Senate primary. (Sophie Park/Getty Images; Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
A talking filibuster, as Mills proposed, would require senators to debate a bill rather than reverting to the typical 60-vote threshold.
The Senate is currently engaged in a version of the filibuster in the GOP’s effort to shed light on Senate Democrats’ refusal to support the SAVE America Act. But that won’t lead to passage of the legislation because the GOP isn’t united to block Democratic amendments that would significantly alter the bill.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DY), who picked Mills to run against Collins in Maine, called the legislation “Jim Crow 2.0” and rallied the group to defeat the measure.
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Before Mills has a chance to challenge Collins, she will have to survive a tough primary battle against insurgent candidate Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who has the backing of Schumer’s left wing.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mills, Platner and Collins for comment but did not receive a response via broadcast.
