Mark Halperin

But Susan Collins was given up for dead politically six years ago.

The polls showed her behind a lot of people wrote her off and she won.

And so you have to remember that you've got an incumbent, even though it's a Republican incumbent in New England.

And you've got someone who's tenacious.

She does not want to lose.

And she's proven that her tenacity and her will to survive politically is as strong as anybody's.

And she's not – I don't know that she'll run again after this, but she's not ambivalent.

She wants to win again.

And the challenge for Democrats, above all else, is they've got a primary.

June 9th primary between two candidates, okay?

And this shows the challenge the Democrats have.

Because I said to everybody in my reporting, who would be stronger as the general election candidate for the Democrats to do this difficult task of beating Susan Collins?

And my sources in both parties were split.

Janet Mills is the governor, Democratic governor.

She's a statewide proven winner, but she's an establishment figure.

And she's going to have a tough time, some say, if she is the nominee beating Susan Collins, because it's going to be one establishment figure who's been around for a while against another.

Collins is the incumbent.

Incumbents usually win.

Mills is the favored candidate of Senator Schumer and the party establishment who like the thought of a governor running for Senate.

That's safe.