Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Saturday endorsed political outsider Graham Platner, the populist oyster farmer running to oust Maine’s Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
While national Democrats have been eyeing Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) for the Senate race, Platner arrived as an unexpected progressive contender, pitching himself to those frustrated with the party’s inefficacy in Congress and growing class inequality.
“We need senators in Washington who are prepared to take on the billionaire class and fight for working people,” Sanders said in a statement. “This is why I am proud to endorse Graham Platner for U.S. Senate.”
He added, “Graham is a Marine and Army National Guard veteran, an oyster farmer, and a proud member of America’s working class. He’s a Mainer through and through, and he is building a movement strong enough to take on the oligarchy that is making Maine unaffordable for all except a privileged few.”
Sanders is hosting a rally with Platner and logger turned Maine gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson in Portland, Maine, on Monday. The Labor Day event location was changed from an auditorium to a much larger arena based on the number of expected attendees.
Platner, 40, announced his bid for office earlier this month. Since that time, he raised $1 million in nine days, with an average contribution of $33, according to his campaign. He calls himself a “friend of the working Mainer, foe of the oligarchy” in his bio on X.
He said on X he was “honored beyond words” to have Sanders’ endorsement. “Together we’re going to defeat Susan Collins and take back our government for the people.”
Collins, who is chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has drawn Mainers’ frustration for voting to advance Donald Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which slashed taxes for the rich and will take away health insurance coverage for millions of Americans.
While Collins has a reputation as a moderate, she voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s unqualified, science-hating Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Trump’s budget director Russell Vought, who famously said of government workers: “We want to put them in trauma.” She also cast a crucial vote to confirm Trump’s controversial Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during the president’s first term, paving the way for conservatives to end the federal right to an abortion.
Earlier this week, about 200 protesters shouted “shame” and “stop funding genocide” at Collins at a ribbon-cutting event in a small coastal town in Maine. She was met with more protesters later in the week during a visit to a food bank.
“Our concern is that she hasn’t had a town hall in 20 years, she’s not talking to her constituents, she’s supporting a fascist government,” Indivisible Sagadahoc Co-leader Jessica Mahnae told WGME.
“I’m not fooled by this fake charade of Collins’ deliberations and moderation,” Platner said in a campaign video. “The difference between Susan Collins and Ted Cruz is at least Ted Cruz is honest about selling us out and not giving a damn.”
Platner, who was voted “most likely to start a revolution” in high school, has not held back in his rhetoric.
“Nothing pisses me off more than getting a fundraising text from Democrats talking about how they’re fighting fascism,” Platner posted on X shortly after he stepped into the race. “Because it’s such bullshit. We’re not idiots. Everyone knows most of them aren’t doing jack shit right now to fight back.”
“People are being kidnapped into unmarked vans by masked police,” he continued. “There is a genocide happening in Palestine. Literal billionaires have taken over our government. And all Democratic leadership can do is send us another fundraising text?”
Mills, the 77-year-old governor, remains a possible contender from establishment Democrats. She said Wednesday that she is “seriously considering” a run for Collins’ seat, the Portland Press Herald reported.
