US Senate 2026

Natasha Alcala of Madawaska is a fashion designer who moved to Maine from California about four years ago. She has degrees in international relations and criminal justice and is a U.S. Navy veteran. Alcala previously filed to run against U.S. Sen. Angus King in 2024 but withdrew before the primary.

David Costello was active in state and federal government campaigns before spending several years working for the U.S. government abroad. Between 2007 and 2011, he worked as senior aide to the Governor of Maryland and, then from 2011 to 2015, he helped lead the Maryland Department of the Environment. He later served as interim climate and clean energy program director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Costello was born in Bangor and raised in Old Town. He previously unsuccessfully ran for independent U.S. Sen Angus King’s seat in 2024.

David Evans is ​​a veteran and former Pentagon policy writer. He served in the U.S. Army for nearly 20 years, including as the Operations and Training Chaplain for the Army National Guard at the National Guard Bureau, where he helped craft national policy. Following his tour at the National Guard Bureau, David was hired as a civilian action officer and policy writer supporting the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs and the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1. He is also a former corporate accountant for Disney. He lives in Aroostook County.

After enlisting in the U.S. Army in 2009 after high school, Tucker Favreau attended West Point and commissioned as an officer in the recently established cyber branch. Since moving back to Maine following the end of his service in 2021, he has continued to work in cybersecurity at Cisco Talos. Favreau was born in Brunswick.

Andrea LaFlamme of Bangor is the chapter president for adjunct faculty of Maine's Community Colleges with the Maine Service Employees Association, Local 1989 of the Service Employees International Union, and an adjunct professor at the University of Maine, teaching courses in Women's Studies, particularly Women's Health and the Environment and Reproductive Health. She was also previously adjunct faculty at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, Husson University and Eastern Maine Community College, both in Bangor.

Janet Mills, the current governor of Maine who terms out in 2026,  was born in Farmington and first entered public service as an assistant attorney general. In 1978, she co-founded the Maine Women’s Lobby to advocate for abused women after seeing faults in how the criminal justice system handles such cases. She then went on to become district attorney for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties and later serve in the Maine House of Representatives. After serving as attorney general from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2013 to 2019, Mills was elected governor in 2019.

Graham Platner of Sullivan is an oysterman and a U.S. Marine and Army veteran. Born in Blue Hill and raised in Ellsworth and Sullivan, he enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served three deployments to Iraq. After attending George Washington University on the G.I. Bill, he later enrolled in the Army National Guard and served in Afghanistan. Following his service, he started working on an oyster farm on Frenchman Bay, which he now runs. He is also chair of the planning board and harbormaster in Sullivan.

Susan Collins has served in the U.S. Senate since 1996 and is currently the seventh-most senior member of the chamber and the most senior Republican woman. Her career in public service began in 1975 working with Maine Representative Bill Cohen, who she later succeeded after he also served in her current congressional seat. In 1987, she was appointed by Republican Maine Governor John McKernan as commissioner of the state Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. In 1992, former Republican President George H.W. Bush then appointed her to director of the small business administration’s regional office, and in 1994, she became the founding executive director of the Center for Family Business at Husson College (now Husson University). She was born in Caribou, where her family runs a sixth-generation lumber business.

Carmen Calabrese of Kennebunkport moved to Maine five years ago from Florida and is a driver for Walmart and former small business owner.

Daniel Smeriglio of Frenchville runs the rightwing Voice of the People USA radio and activist group. He is a U.S. Army veteran and former police officer, according to his website.

Phillip Rench of Waterboro owns Ossipee Hill Farm and Observatory in Waterboro. He was a former senior engineer at Elon Musk’s SpaceX, though he said he has no association with Musk or the company now aside from stocks he was awarded as an employee. He returned to Maine in 2020 to raise his children and build a produce farm. He also sat on the board for the Maine Space Corporation from June 2023 until June 2025.