Janet Mills facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Janet Mills
Mills in 2019
75th Governor of Maine
Incumbent
Assumed office January 2, 2019
Preceded by	Paul LePage
55th and 57th Attorney General of Maine
In office January 7, 2013 – January 2, 2019
Governor	Paul LePage
Preceded by	William Schneider
Succeeded by	Aaron Frey
In office January 6, 2009 – January 6, 2011
Governor	John Baldacci
Preceded by	Steven Rowe
Succeeded by	William Schneider
Member of the Maine House of Representatives
In office December 4, 2002 – January 6, 2009
Preceded by	Walter Gooley
Succeeded by	Lance Harvell
Constituency	78th district (2002–2004) 89th district (2004–2009)
District Attorney of Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford Counties
In office 1980 – January 1995
Appointed by	Joseph E. Brennan
Preceded by	Thomas E. Delahanty II
Succeeded by	Norman Croteau
Personal details
Born	Janet Trafton Mills (1947-12-30) December 30, 1947 (age 77) Farmington, Maine, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Stanley Kuklinski ​ ​ (m. 1985; died 2014)​
Relatives	Peter Mills (brother)
Residence	Blaine House
Education	University of Massachusetts Boston (BA) University of Maine (JD)
Website

Janet Trafton Mills (born December 30, 1947) is an American politician and lawyer. She is currently the 75th governor of Maine, serving since January 2019. Before becoming governor, she was the Maine Attorney General two times.

Janet Mills is a member of the Democratic Party. She was first chosen as Attorney General by the Maine Legislature in 2009. She served a second term starting in 2013. She was the first woman to hold this important position in Maine. Before that, she was a member of the Maine House of Representatives. In 2018, she was chosen by her party to run for governor. She won the election, becoming Maine's first female governor on January 2, 2019. Governor Mills was reelected for a second term in 2022.

Early Life and Education

Janet Mills was born in Farmington, Maine. Her mother was a teacher, and her father was a lawyer. Her father also worked as a U.S. Attorney for Maine in the 1950s. Janet graduated from Farmington High School in 1965. As a teenager, she had a serious back condition called scoliosis. She spent almost a year in a full-body cast, but surgery helped her recover.

Mills first attended Colby College. Later, she moved to San Francisco and worked as a nursing assistant. She then went to the University of Massachusetts Boston and earned a bachelor's degree in 1970. During her college years, she traveled in Europe and learned to speak French well. In 1973, she started studying at the University of Maine School of Law. She also interned for a civil rights lawyer in Washington, D.C. She earned her law degree in 1976 and became a licensed lawyer.

Beginning Her Political Career

Governor Joe Brennan appointed Janet Mills as Maine's first female criminal prosecutor. From 1976 to 1980, she worked as an assistant attorney general. In this role, she handled serious crimes like homicides. In 1980, she was elected as the district attorney for three counties: Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford. She was reelected three times and was the first woman district attorney in New England.

In 1994, Mills ran for the United States Congress but did not win. She also helped start the Maine Women's Lobby, a group that works to support women. In 2002, she was elected to the Maine House of Representatives. While there, she served on committees dealing with law and money matters.

Serving as Attorney General

In December 2008, Janet Mills was elected as Maine's 55th Attorney General. She took office on January 6, 2009. When another political party gained control of the Maine legislature in 2010, she was not reelected. She then joined a law firm.

After her party regained control of the legislature in 2012, Mills was again chosen as Attorney General. She took office for her second term on January 7, 2013. She was reelected again in 2014.

During her time as Attorney General, Mills had many disagreements with the Republican Governor, Paul LePage. They often disagreed on whether some of his policies were legal. Governor LePage even sued Mills at one point. He claimed she was wrong to refuse to represent the state in some legal matters.

Becoming Governor of Maine

Governor Elections

2018 Election

On July 10, 2017, Janet Mills announced she would run for governor of Maine in 2018. She won the Democratic nomination in June after several rounds of voting.

In the main election, Mills ran against Republican Shawn Moody and two independent candidates. Many major newspapers in Maine and the Boston Globe supported her. She won the election with 50.9% of the votes. This made her Maine's first female governor. She also received more votes than any governor in Maine's history up to that point.

2022 Election

Janet Mills being inaugurated for her second term as Governor of Maine.

Mills ran for reelection in 2022 and had no opponents in her party's primary election. In the general election, she won against former governor Paul LePage. She secured her second term as governor. She received over 373,000 votes, breaking her own record for the most votes ever cast for a gubernatorial candidate in Maine.

Governor's Actions and Policies

One of Governor Mills's first actions was to expand Maine's Medicaid program. This program helps people get health care. This was a promise she made during her campaign. She also removed work requirements for Medicaid that the previous governor had put in place. Mills said these requirements would leave more people without health insurance.

In 2019, Governor Mills started attending Martin Luther King Jr. Day events again in Portland. This was a tradition that had stopped for a while.

In September 2019, the Secretary-General of the United Nations asked Mills to speak about climate change. Mills told world leaders that Maine plans to become carbon neutral by 2045. She was the first sitting Maine governor to speak at the United Nations General Assembly.

On June 11, 2021, Governor Mills announced the end of the state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic. This state of emergency had begun on March 15, 2020, and ended on June 30, 2021.

In April 2022, Mills signed a new state budget into law. This budget included free community college for students who graduated high school in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Political Views

Janet Mills considers herself a moderate Democrat. This means she sometimes holds views that are different from other members of her party.

Environmental Protection

Mills has put in place rules to reduce the use of materials that harm the environment. One rule, which started in April 2020, stopped Maine stores from using plastic bags. She also signed a law banning the use of styrofoam containers in many industries. This rule began in January 2021.

In 2019, Mills approved a plan for a power line project. She had some doubts at first, but changes to the plan led her to sign the agreement.

Mills has also set rules for the quality of water on Indigenous reservations. This is important for tribes who rely on fishing for food.

At the UN General Assembly, Mills promised that Maine would have a carbon-neutral economy by 2045. In 2023, she was chosen to co-chair the bipartisan Climate Alliance, a group working on climate issues.

LGBT Rights

Mills supports LGBT rights. In May 2019, she signed a bill that banned conversion therapy for minors. This practice tries to change a person's sexual orientation and is not supported by science. The previous governor had vetoed a similar bill. In June 2021, she officially declared June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month in Maine.

Tribal Relations

Governor Mills has worked to improve relationships with Maine's native tribes. This is despite some past disagreements when she was Attorney General. She signed a bill to change the Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous People's Day. She also promised to fill empty seats on a state-tribal commission.

She signed a bill to set stricter water quality rules for rivers used by Maine's tribes for fishing. This was something the tribes had wanted for a long time. It also ended a legal disagreement between the tribes and the state.

As governor-elect, Mills said that using Native American names and images for public schools caused "pain and anguish" for Indigenous people. After taking office, she signed a law to ban such references in public schools.

Personal Life

In 1985, Janet Mills married Stanley Kuklinski, a real estate developer. She became a stepmother to his five daughters. Stanley Kuklinski passed away in 2014 after a stroke. Janet Mills has several siblings, including Peter Mills, who is also a politician.

Electoral History

See also

• List of female governors in the United States
• List of female state attorneys general in the United States