In America: Maine Senate Race Heating Up

Despite Maine’s Senate election still being months away, the competition between incumbent Senator Susan Collins and upstart challenger Graham Platner is heating up. With Maine Governor Janet Mills dropping out of the race, Platner appears to be the uncontested Democratic nominee for the Senate race. Platner, an oyster farmer, veteran, and now the Democratic hopeful in Maine’s Senate race, is a divisive and controversial candidate challenging five-term Republican Senator Collins. Senator Collins and Platner set the stage for a fiercely contested midterm race as Democrats vie to flip a longstanding Republican Senate seat in Maine. 

For Senator Collins, her campaign strategy largely rests on her experience and knowledge of Congress's inner workings, using this system to benefit people from Maine. This strategy has succeeded for Senator Collins in the past, and she is betting that it will work once again. As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Collins has directed nearly $1.5 billion in federal funding to Maine. She recently celebrated the opening of a hospital in northern Maine that Senator Collins secured $13 million for. 

On the other hand, Platner’s campaign strategy relies on a more grassroots approach, seeking to empathize with Maine's working class and serve as a foil to Senator Collins. While Senator Collins seeks to work with the system to benefit Maine, Platner wants to tear it down and rebuild one that actually benefits working-class people. For Platner, Senator Collins’ work on Capitol Hill is more symbolic of a complicit background actor rather than serving the best interests of working-class people in Maine. 

The campaign ads released by Senator Collins and Platner exemplify their ideological and strategic differences for this Senate race. Whereas Senator Collins showcases her achievements and experience in the Senate that have benefitted Maine, Platner is on the attack and accuses Collins of not doing enough to truly benefit Maine’s working class. 

In his campaign ad, Platner accuses Senator Collins of performative politics that redistributes wealth from the working class to the elite. Additionally, Platner attacks Collins for her support of the war on Iran and her weak condemnation of the 2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

In contrast, Senator Collins’ campaign ad highlights her work in securing $6 million in funding for the Eastport Breakwater, a pier in Maine that collapsed in 2014. This reflects her broader campaign strategy of highlighting her long-standing experience in the Senate and the economic benefits she has brought to Maine during her tenure. 

Platner is not without fault, however. Senator Collins has lambasted Platner’s offensive social media comments made in the past, as well as a tattoo that may have links to the Nazi SS. Platner recently covered up this tattoo and apologized for his harmful comments online. 

Despite these controversies, the latest polling shows Platner leading by seven points. Intriguingly, a gender breakdown of the polling results shows that more women support Platner over Collins (53 percent to 34 percent) while more men support Collins over Platner (47 percent to 44 percent). Clearly, Platner’s campaign messaging gets at the heart of what voters in Maine are concerned about: healthcare, affordable living, and Maine’s legacy industries in lumber and fishing. 

What is striking about some of the comments from Mainers interviewed in that video is how a wide array of people who normally align with the Democrats, Republicans, or even as Independents find common ground with Platner’s messaging. Many Mainers want to feel heard by their elected representatives and to have someone who will go to bat for them when it matters most. 

Further reflecting these sentiments are comments from Kristi Johnston, the spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party:

“Poll after poll is sending the same message: Mainers do not trust Susan Collins anymore. For years, she has said one thing and done another while siding with Donald Trump and putting her own bottom line ahead of the people she was elected to represent. As costs keep rising and Collins keeps getting richer, it is clear that voters are ready for change.”

Upon closer inspection, Platner’s campaign messaging is not just isolated to the difference he seeks to make as the potential Senator from Maine. Rather, Platner wants to build a movement that redirects power to organized people, not organized money. In a candidate forum held in Fryeburg, Maine, Platner articulated his vision for this movement: 

“We are the richest society in the history of humanity. We can have universal health care. We can have universal child care. We can have universal education, going from kindergarten all the way through higher education. We can have a tax code that pulls back all the wealth that was stolen from the working class of this country for the past 50 years. What we need to do is, from the ground up, build power the old-fashioned way. This comes from organizing.” 

Regardless of the outcome of the Maine Senate race, Platner’s campaign has clearly struck a chord with the voters of Maine. A potential good omen could be gleaned from New York City’s Mayor Mamdani, who successfully campaigned on similar promises to return power to the working class and espoused anti-establishment ideals. Only time will tell if this is enough to dethrone the five-term Senator Collins as Maine’s elected Senator.