Maine oyster farmer’s bid to unseat Sen. Susan Collins gains national attention
One of Graham Platner’s high school yearbooks shows him babyfaced with a buzzcut, holding a sign proclaiming, in part: “Free Palestine.” The image is accompanied by a superlative his classmates bestowed upon him: “Most Likely To Start A Revolution.”
“We’ll see!” Platner wrote on X Thursday, posting a photo of the yearbook page, in a post that’s been viewed 4.5m times. Now bearded, burly and tattooed, with a sweep of dirty blond hair above a sunburnt face, Platner still believes in a free Palestine. He also thinks it’ll take something revolutionary to save the US, so earlier this week, when the oysterman announced his candidacy to be the next US senator from Maine, he pulled no punches.
“I did four infantry tours in the Marine Corps and the army. I’m not afraid to name an enemy, and the enemy is the oligarchy. It’s the billionaires who pay for it, the politicians who sell us out,” he said in a campaign launch video, showing him chopping wood and at the helm of a small fishing boat.
“And yeah, that means politicians like Susan Collins. I’m not fooled by this fake charade of Collins’ deliberations and moderation.”
Platner’s video went viral, his message punching through in a crowded field of Democratic primary candidates, all vying for the chance to defeat Collins. Despite her protestations of being a “moderate”, Collins, a 72-year-old Republican senator, has often aligned herself with Donald Trump’s far-right agenda.
Democrats thought they had a real shot to unseat Collins in 2020. Sara Gideon raised $40m more than Collins, and polls showed Gideon in the lead, but she still lost by nine points in a state her fellow Democrat, Joe Biden, won handily.
Now, the Democratic party is trying again, seeing Collins’s seat as crucial to their chances of taking back the US Senate in 2026. Establishment Democrats have eyed Maine governor Janet Mills as a potential candidate, but Mills has yet to jump into the race.
Platner believes the party needs an outsider. He believes that pedigreed, establishment Democratic candidates have failed repeatedly to appeal to working-class Americans, hastening the rise of Maga. [Continue reading…]