Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat running to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins during the midterm elections, is under fire for supporting taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, rolled out a new ad on Tuesday morning slamming the Maine Democrat for expanding health care for illegal migrants during her tenure as governor. The 30-second video, first shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation, comes as Republicans have argued that Democrats have shut down the government in part to provide free health care to illegal immigrants.
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“In a world where Janet Mills were a U.S. Senator today, she’d join her Democrat allies and vote to shut down the government,” the ad’s narrator says. “All to fund health care for illegal immigrants.”
Under Mills’ leadership, Maine expanded Medicaid coverage, locally known as MaineCare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to individuals under 21 and pregnant women regardless of immigration status in 2022.
The NRSC is also accusing Mills of supporting Senate Democrats’ hardball tactics to shut down the government until Republicans agree to provide health care to illegal migrants.
“In Maine, Janet Mills is already using taxpayer dollars to give illegal immigrants free healthcare so it is no surprise that she supports Chuck Schumer shutting down the government to give them free healthcare nationwide,” NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell said in a statement. “If elected to the Senate, you can count on Janet Mills to put healthcare for illegal immigrants over paychecks for Mainers.”
A spokesperson for Mills did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
A majority of Senate Democrats have voted against a clean funding measure to reopen the government a dozen times, forcing the shutdown to drag on to its fourth week with no end in sight.
Democrats’ $1.5 trillion counter-proposal to fund the government would restore nearly $200 billion in health care benefits for illegal migrants and other non-citizens that GOP lawmakers cut in July, according to a White House memo.
Maine’s two senators, Collins and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, have consistently voted for a House-passed bipartisan spending bill to temporarily fund the government and end the shutdown. Collins has sharply criticized Democrats for tying their support for reopening the government to unrelated health care policy demands.
Mills, who was recruited into the race by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, has the support of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm and is seen as an establishment favorite.
A new survey from the University of New Hampshire found Mills significantly trailing oyster farmer Graham Platner, a far-left populist supported by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The poll was conducted amid a string of controversies dogging Platner’s campaign, including controversial messages on since-deleted Reddit posts and having a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.
The NRSC is expected to aggressively defend Collins’ reelection bid. Democrats view Maine as a must-win state in their longshot bid to retake control of the upper chamber in 2026. Collins is currently the only Republican senator to represent a state failed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris won in 2024.
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