{"id":190,"date":"2026-06-10T09:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=190"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:38:15","slug":"graham-platner-wins-in-maine-turning-anti-establishment-fight-on-susan-collins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=190","title":{"rendered":"Graham Platner Wins in Maine, Turning Anti-Establishment Fight on Susan Collins"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Political newcomer Graham Platner<\/span> won a bruising primary fight for the state\u2019s Democratic Senate nomination Tuesday night, when voters easily picked him to take on Republican Susan Collins in November despite damage from stories delving into his past.<\/p>\n

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Plainspoken populism won the oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran support among fed-up Mainers, who nominated him in a landslide that The Associated Press called with just 8 percent of the vote in.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last nine months I have seen Mainers come together behind a vision to take back our power from corporations and billionaires,\u201d Platner said in his acceptance speech Tuesday. \u201cI love every single one of you. Everyone who has shown up at a town hall, who has knocked on a door, who cast their vote \u2014 not for me but for a vision of a life in Maine that you can afford; a life of dignity and a government that actually serves its people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platner\u2019s appeal seemed unshaken amid months of <\/p>\n

negative press stemming from his inflammatory comments on Reddit and an ill-advised tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. But a recent series of damaging stories in national media, including revelations in the Wall Street Journal about extramarital sexting and allegations in the New York Times of abusive behavior in past relationships, have given some voters and political observers pause. Others say that in Maine, a fiercely independent state where residents nurse a healthy suspicion of influence \u201cfrom away,\u201d Platner supporters have dismissed those stories as meddling from an establishment fearful of a political maverick.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I can tell, I don\u2019t think the Times piece moved the needle much,\u201d said Shay Stewart-Bouley, a longtime Maine resident who has written both critically and supportively of Platner on her blog, Black Girl in Maine. \u201cI heard some women say it made them uneasy, but I haven\u2019t heard anyone say it changed how they\u2019re going to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other cases, the coverage appears to have cemented Platner\u2019s status as an outsider to an establishment embodied by Collins, who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997. Like many incumbents nationwide, the Republican senator will have to run amid a shrinking job market and rising costs, points that Platner has seized on throughout his campaign. And Collins\u2019s association with the establishment could prove a major liability, even among onetime supporters of President Donald Trump, according to Charles Pray, a former state senator and veteran figure in Maine Democratic politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of Trump\u2019s rise was a total frustration with incumbents and people in power, and a lot of people who were Trump supporters who hoped he was going to address rising grocery prices and stuff now see him saying that affordability is not an issue,\u201d said Pray. \u201cWell, affordability is a big issue in Maine, and I think that hurts Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platner faced a nominal challenge in Tuesday\u2019s primary from Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign in April but remained on the ballot, and from David Costello, a former Democratic nominee in the 2024 Senate race who was little more than an afterthought in the latest contest. <\/p>\n

Just days before the primary, the Times reported disturbing allegations about Platner, including that an ex-girlfriend accused him of drunkenly locking her in a room during a fight and physically restraining her at times. (Platner has acknowledged the relationship with the accuser, a longtime Republican operative in Washington, but denies he engaged in violent behavior.) <\/p>\n

Pray said that among people he\u2019s spoken with, the allegations, while concerning,<\/strong> are undercut by Collins\u2019s support for the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh despite the sexual assault accusations against him, and by her support of Trump despite the many accusations against him and his consistently hostile behavior toward women interviewers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think people aren\u2019t buying the double standard. She confirmed Kavanaugh, she supports Trump despite his behavior,\u201d Pray said, pointing to the president\u2019s recent outburst on NBC News. \u201cI spoke to three women, including Republicans, who were very upset by that and who said \u2018Susan just goes along with that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To Platner\u2019s most ardent supporters, the revelations look like meddling by an establishment that never wanted him to be the candidate, said Andy O\u2019Brien, a former state senator who writes about politics in the state and supports Platner. (O\u2019Brien works for the AFL-CIO of Maine, which has endorsed Platner, but did not speak to The Intercept on behalf of his employer).<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people know Graham, and they listen to what he says, they don\u2019t listen to all the crap coming from Washington and New York and California,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cThey like Graham because he speaks to them, and they believe him and trust him. They know he had a messy personal life. I think that there\u2019s a lot of grace that they\u2019re showing him, partly because of his post-traumatic stress from combat and also because there\u2019s this sense that Trump has already lowered the bar so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mostly, however, Mainers are weary of the national attention the primary brought to their state \u2014 with little hope in sight of a let-up, Stewart-Bouley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe general mood is people are really tired of this primary,\u201d she said before Platner\u2019s Tuesday night victory. \u201cBut if Platner wins, I suspect we\u2019re not going to be out of the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his remarks Tuesday, Platner acknowledged errors in his past and thanked the people of Maine for putting their trust in him despite them.<\/p>\n

\u201cRedemption is not just some simple or easy destination. It\u2019s a journey. I\u2019ve made mistakes in my life. Mistakes that I regret, that I live with and that I continue to learn from. And I\u2019m still far from perfect. But every day I wake up and I try to be a little bit better and a little bit kinder than I was before,\u201d Platner said. \u201cAnd if you give me the chance, I will be a senator for the people who cannot afford to buy a senator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Update: June 9, 2026, 9:39 p.m. ET<\/strong>
This story has been updated with news of Platner\u2019s victory in the Maine primary.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Amid a raft of negative press that emerged in the last days of the primary, Maine voters picked the Marine Corps veteran in a landslide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nGraham Platner Wins in Maine, Turning Anti-Establishment Fight on Susan Collins - New Home America<\/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:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=190\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Graham Platner Wins in Maine, Turning Anti-Establishment Fight on Susan Collins - 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