{"id":260,"date":"2026-06-10T22:39:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=260"},"modified":"2026-06-10T22:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:39:27","slug":"democrats-stick-by-platner-with-senate-control-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=260","title":{"rendered":"Democrats stick by Platner with Senate control on the line"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After Graham Platner sailed to the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine on Tuesday, Democrats on Capitol Hill appeared to settle around his campaign as his progressive allies urged the rest of the party to keep their eye on winning the Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more College sports bill sparks unusual alliances<\/a><\/p>\n

Platner\u2019s victory hadn\u2019t been in doubt, but there were questions about what his margin of victory would be. As of Wednesday afternoon, with 92 percent of votes counted, he was leading Gov. Janet Mills, who dropped out of the race but remained on the ballot, 72 percent to 19 percent, according to The Associated Press.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A military veteran and oyster farmer, Platner first shot to national prominence last summer after launching his challenge to Republican Sen. Susan Collins\u00a0as a progressive outsider attacking \u201cthe oligarchy\u201d and seeking to center his campaign around working-class concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But his campaign was soon rocked by reports that he had made several Reddit posts that were derogatory to women and minorities and that he had a tattoo on his chest resembling a Nazi symbol, which Platner has since covered up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He appeared to weather the storm, maintaining his status as the Democratic front-runner as polls showed him leading Collins in hypothetical general election matchups. And he eventually settled into something of an alliance with Democratic leaders shortly after becoming the presumptive nominee in late April when Mills ended her campaign, citing a lack of financial resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Platner faced renewed scrutiny in the lead-up to Tuesday amid reports that he sent sexual text messages to women in the early days of his marriage and a New York Times report described emotionally volatile relationships with three former girlfriends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, Democrats appeared to be sticking by their embattled newly minted nominee, whom the state party could seek to replace under Maine law if Platner were to withdraw from the race by July 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vermont Sen. Peter Welch said Tuesday\u2019s result showed that Maine Democrats were \u201cfully behind\u201d Platner, even with his baggage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a lot of controversies, but that\u2019s been out there,\u201d Welch said. \u201cThe Democratic voters in Maine are fully aware of it, and they gave him a very solid Democratic victory in the primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement Tuesday that Platner\u2019s primary victory showed that voters \u201cwant to elect shake-up-the-system outsiders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight should be a wake-up call for a Democratic establishment that has spent too long underestimating the appeal of economic populism and outsider politics,\u201d he said. \u201cPlatner\u2019s November victory will set the Democratic Party on a bolder economic-populist course, regaining the trust of voters who corporate and establishment Democrats have lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before she dropped out of the race, Mills, who had the backing of Senate Democratic leadership, attempted to attack Platner through ads highlighting his Reddit comments about women and his Nazi symbol tattoo. But polls showed Platner\u2019s lead in the primary remained significant.<\/p>\n

Now, Republicans appear ready to spend millions more than Mills did to attempt to brand Platner as unfit to serve in the Senate and help push Collins toward a sixth term.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Too damaged to win?\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A National Republican Senatorial Committee memo Wednesday called Maine the \u201clinchpin\u201d of this year\u2019s Senate map and said Republicans must race to define their opponent and commit resources to the state, where voters backed Kamala Harris by 7 points in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe political fundamentals in Maine remain challenging, and it is a fatal mistake to assume Platner is too damaged to win,\u201d the memo said. \u201cHe is currently leading.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Collins has emphasized her record in the Senate, including bringing millions back to Maine and touting her position as chair of the Appropriations Committee, other Republicans have sought to paint Platner as out of touch and cast doubt on his \u201ceveryman\u201d persona.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Democrats rebuff Trump pitch on surveillance authority<\/a><\/p>\n

An NRSC ad released Tuesday night as polls closed in Maine cast Collins as a productive senator while saying Platner \u201cruns a hobby oyster farm whose only customer is his mother\u2019s restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSusan\u2019s gonna crush him,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democrats, meanwhile, drew their own comparisons between the two candidates, suggesting Collins\u2019 record wasn\u2019t as moderate as her reputation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGraham Platner is running to tackle the challenges Mainers are actually dealing with \u2014 rising costs, health care they can\u2019t afford, and local businesses getting crushed by tariffs their senator voted to enable,\u201d Lauren French, a spokesperson for Senate Majority PAC said in a statement. \u201cPlatner\u2019s agenda supports working people and families, while Collins upholds Washington\u2019s status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal Election Commission reports through May 20 show that Platner had outraised Collins, bringing in $16 million to her $15 million, although Collins had $10 million on hand to his $2 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would support Collins, calling her a \u201csane woman\u201d and referring to Platner as a \u201cthug.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not my best friend, at all,\u201d he said of Collins, while crediting her for never having missed a Senate vote, even though \u201csometimes she voted against me.\u201d<\/p>\n

National map<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Unseating Collins is considered critical to Democrats\u2019 chances of winning the Senate, where Republicans currently hold 53 seats. Democrats must flip four seats to win the chamber this fall, while defending battleground seats in states such as Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Party leaders have seen Maine as a logical starting point, given Trump\u2019s unpopularity in the state and its Democratic lean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The race is expected to be expensive and hard-fought. Super PACs for both parties have already made initial reservations for the fall. Senate Leadership Fund, the GOP super PAC, reserved $42 million, while Senate Majority PAC, its Democratic counterpart, made a $24 million reservation in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a joint statement Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the caucus\u2019s campaign arm, said Collins \u201chas never been more vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority,\u201d they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democratic leaders have also touted their Senate recruits in North Carolina, Ohio and Alaska and are newly optimistic about their chances in Iowa and Texas. Still, Trump won all those states two years ago and, with the exception of North Carolina, Democrats have in recent years struggled to win statewide contests in those states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That leaves Maine as vital to Democratic hopes of winning the Senate, something Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an early Platner backer who has campaigned alongside him, alluded to on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Democrats want to win the Senate, as I\u2019m sure they do, I think they\u2019re going to rally around the Democratic nominee in Maine, who just won a landslide victory in the primary,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Platner clinches Democratic nod to take on Collins in Maine<\/a><\/p>\n

Savannah Behrmann contributed to this report<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Graham Platner sailed to the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine on Tuesday, Democrats on Capitol Hill appeared to settle around his campaign as his progressive allies urged the rest of the party to keep their eye on winning the Senate.  Platner\u2019s victory hadn\u2019t been in doubt, but there were questions about what his margin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campaigns"],"yoast_head":"\nDemocrats stick by Platner with Senate control on the line - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=260\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Democrats stick by Platner with Senate control on the line - 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