LEWISTON — With the presidential election a week away, Gov. Janet Mills hit the campaign trail Tuesday to tout Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president.

Urging a crowd of about 45 people to vote for the Democratic ticket, Mills said they should “reject the politics of despair and disparagement.”

Mills, a Democrat who has known Harris for a dozen years, called the vice president “a person of integrity” and competence in a 20-minute speech in the bingo hall at Meadowview Park at 23 Spofford St., the Lewiston Housing Authority’s largest complex with 152 units for seniors and people with disabilities.

She said it bothers her to hear Harris slandered, called names and accused of having “a low IQ.”

“I know better,” Mills said.

Harris is locked in a tight battle for the White House with a former president, Republican Donald Trump, who in recent days has called Harris “lazy as hell,” “a radical left lunatic,” “the worst,” “slow” and someone with a “low IQ.”

Maine Gov. Janet Mills talks Tuesday afternoon with Meadowview Park resident Mary Bielawski in the community center at Meadowview Park, 23 Spofford St. in Lewiston as she campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

On Tuesday, Trump also accused Harris of running “a campaign of hate” against him.

Trump lost a reelection bid in 2020 but never admitted defeat and encouraged followers to storm the U.S. Capitol in 2021 in a violent attempt to block Joe Biden’s victory.

Mills scoffed at GOP signs she saw in downtown Lewiston that claim Harris is for crime and Trump is for safety.

“Are you kidding me?” asked Mills, a former prosecutor and Maine attorney general. “The other guy, he’s got a criminal record.”

Mills pointed out that Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts last spring in New York City. He is scheduled to be sentenced after the election in November and may face jail time.

Mills said she and Harris were both district attorneys fighting “to get drugs off our streets,” traffickers behind bars and criminals of all sorts convicted.

Mills also had kind words for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee, whom she has known for a half dozen years.

Walz, she said, is “a dear, dear man, an honest man of the people” and “a humble, good person, a compassionate person.”

The election is Tuesday.