Janet T. Mills
Janet T. Mills is an American politician and attorney who has served as the Governor of Maine since January 2019, making history as the state's first female governor. Born on December 30, 1947, in Farmington, Maine, she came from a politically active family, though she initially had little interest in politics. Mills pursued her education at Colby College, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the University of Maine School of Law, earning her law degree in 1976. Throughout her career, she has held significant roles in public service, including fourteen years as a district attorney, and eight years as state attorney general.
Mills' tenure as attorney general was marked by her advocacy for consumer rights, health care, and civil rights, where she often found herself in legal disputes with the state's previous administration. As governor, she has focused on progressive issues, including expanding Medicaid, addressing the opioid crisis, and supporting renewable energy initiatives. Mills was re-elected in 2022 and has continued to prioritize health care access and environmental policies. In her personal life, Mills continues to reside in Maine, where she is also known for her involvement in community initiatives and family life.
Janet T. Mills
Governor of Maine
- Born: December 30, 1947
- Place of Birth: Farmington, Maine
Education: Colby College (attended 1965–67); University of Massachusetts Boston; University of Maine School of Law
Significance: Janet T. Mills became the governor of Maine in January 2019. A Democrat with extensive experience in public service, she had served fourteen years as a district attorney, six years in the Maine House of Representatives, and eight years as state attorney general.
Background
Janet T. Mills was born on December 30, 1947, in Farmington, Maine. The third of five children of politician Sumner Peter Mills Jr. and schoolteacher Katherine Louise Coffin Mills, she lived in Farmington until about age five. The family then relocated to Gorham, Maine, for about nine years while her father was a US attorney. Mills returned to Farmington for high school but was tutored at home for one year while convalescing from surgeries for scoliosis. She graduated from Farmington High School (now Mt. Blue High School) in 1965.
Despite being a member of a prominent political family—her father was a state legislator at the time of her birth and later became a US attorney—Mills had little interest in politics during her youth. She campaigned for her parents’ close friend Margaret Chase Smith while in elementary school and later campaigned for her father, but initially had no desire to become a lawyer or enter politics.
Instead, Mills studied at Colby College, her parents’ alma mater, for about three semesters before dropping out in January 1967 and moving to San Francisco, California. After some months, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and worked as a psychiatric nursing assistant before enrolling in the University of Massachusetts Boston. She spent an academic year studying at the Sorbonne in France and backpacked around Europe. After earning a bachelor’s degree in French with a minor in English in 1970, she worked in a Washington, DC, law firm for two years as a receptionist, legal secretary, and then paralegal. In 1973, she began studying law at the University of Maine School of Law. While a law student, she interned for the Cumberland County District Attorney’s office, American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Law and Social Policy. Mills received her juris doctor and passed the bar in 1976.
Legal and Political Career
In September 1976, Attorney General Joe Brennan hired Mills to work as an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Maine Attorney General. Assigned to the criminal division, she prosecuted murder, tax evasion, and fraud cases. Four years later, Brennan, then the governor, named her the district attorney for Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford Counties to fill a vacancy. She successfully ran for election to fill out the term six months later and was reelected three times.
Prior to her own campaign, Mills became active in politics in the mid-1970s. She served as a delegate to the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas, and then co-founded the Maine Women’s Lobby in 1978. She worked on Brennan’s 1978 gubernatorial campaign and Edward Kennedy’s 1980 presidential bid and served as a delegate to the 1980 Democratic National Convention.
In 1994, Mills resigned as the district attorney to pursue the Democratic nomination for a seat in the US Congress. After being defeated in the primary, she co-chaired Brennan’s unsuccessful 1994 gubernatorial campaign and ran for attorney general, where she was narrowly defeated. In early 1995, she joined her brother Peter Mill’s law firm in Skowhegan, Maine.
Mills ran for office again in 2002—this time for a seat in Maine’s House of Representatives, representing the Eighty-Ninth District—and won. She was reelected three times. In 2008, the Maine Legislature elected Mills the attorney general. She served from 2009 to 2010 but lost her seat when the Republicans gained control of the House in 2011. She then became the vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party and worked for the practice Preti Flaherty. In 2012, she was reelected state attorney general and served three terms.
As the state attorney general, Mills worked to protect consumer rights, health care, and civil rights. During her first term, she supported the marriage equality bill, refused to challenge the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, and suggested legislation to protect against deceptive free trial offers, a bill that became law. During subsequent terms, she tackled many of the same issues but increasingly came in conflict with then Governor Paul LePage, a conservative Republican whose use of executive authority resulted in multiple lawsuits with Mills. Mills claimed many of his actions, such as his attempt to deny eligible young adults from receiving Medicaid benefits and to carry out a voter-approved expansion of Medicaid, were unlawful.
In November 2018, Mills defeated Republican Shawn Moody, by 7 percentage points, to win the governorship. She was sworn in on January 2, 2019, as Maine’s first woman governor. In her inaugural speech, she announced her priorities as expanding Medicaid, reducing health insurance premiums, leading a coordinated state response to the opioid addiction crisis, and setting a 50 percent renewable energy target. She firmly retained the position in the 2022 election as the sole Democratic nominee, supporting abortion rights and prioritizing environmental issues.
Impact
Janet T. Mills’s career has been marked by a number of firsts for women in Maine’s historically male politics, from district attorney to attorney general to governor. Her gubernatorial victory signified voters’ rejection of LePage’s leadership and an embrace of more progressive policies. During her first full day in office, Mills signed an executive order to expand Medicaid. Within her first two months, she ended a moratorium on wind farm construction; joined the United States Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of states committed to meeting the Paris Agreement emissions goals; and initiated treatment- and prevention-oriented opioid policy. She also supported an Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution. Mills's efforts concerning health care expanded health care to 90,000 people, and her Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan invested millions in job training programs. In 2022, Mills signed the Maine state supplemental budget. Notably, this budget included free community college for pandemic-affected students.
Personal Life
In 1985, Mills married Stanley “Stan” Patrick Kuklinski and became a stepmother to his daughters Alison, Coleen, Tammy, Kristen, and Lisl. The family lived in Wilton and then Strong. After the children were grown, they raised standardbred horses and moved to Farmington. Mills continued to live in Farmington following Kuklinski’s 2014 death until she moved into the governor’s residence, the Blaine House, in Augusta in 2019.
Bibliography
“About the Governor.” State of Maine Office of Governor Janet T. Mills, www.maine.gov/governor/mills/about. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
“Issues.” Janet Mills for Maine, www.janetmills.com/issues. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
"Maine Community Colleges to Offer Free Tuition for Pandemic-Affected Students." WGME, 21 Apr. 2022, wgme.com/news/local/maine-community-colleges-to-offer-free-tuition-for-pandemic-affected-students. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Mills, Janet. “Mills, Janet Oral History Interview.” Interview by Don Nicoll. Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Collection 267, 20 Dec. 1999. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library at SCARAB, scarab.bates.edu/muskie‗oh/267. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
“News Archive.” Office of the Maine Attorney General, www.maine.gov/ag/news/press‗release‗archive.shtml. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Russell, Eric. “Gov. Mills Shifts the Tone in Tackling Maine’s Opioid Crisis.” Portland Press Herald, 28 Jan. 2019. Central Maine, www.centralmaine.com/2019/01/27/on-opioid-crisis-gov-mills-embodies-a-tonal-shift. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Solloway, Steve. “The Rebel with a Cause.” Pine Tree Watch, Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, 30 Oct. 2018, pinetreewatch.org/janet-mills-the-rebel-with-a-cause. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Woodward, Colin. “Janet Mills’ Mission: Break Yet Another Glass Ceiling.”Portland Press Herald, 7 Nov. 2018. Journal Tribune, www.journaltribune.com/articles/front-page/janet-mills-mission-break-yet-another-glass-ceiling. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.