An oysterman and Marine veteran from eastern Maine is joining the small field of Democratic challengers seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in 2026.
Graham Platner, 40, from the Hancock County town of Sullivan, announced Tuesday he is running as a Democrat for the chance to take on the Republican senator next year. Platner, who is also Sullivan’s harbor master and planning board chair, served three tours in Iraq as a Marine and one for the Army in Afghanistan before returning to Maine.
He joins a field that is light on well-organized candidates seeking to beat Collins, who was first elected to the Senate in 1996. Gov. Janet Mills has yet to decide whether she will run for the seat, leaving Jordan Wood, a Bristol resident who previously worked in politics on Capitol Hill, as the best-funded and most active Democrat running so far.
Platner said in an interview he had been approached over the years to run for the Maine Legislature and felt he was too busy to seek office. When people affiliated with “Maine labor and community groups” approached him recently about running for the Senate, he said he decided to jump in while feeling “a sense of responsibility to this place.”
Problems with healthcare, housing and a system that benefits “a very small amount of rich people” drove him to run as well. Platner said he and his wife have benefited greatly from his status as a veteran and the care offered through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. But others he knows have not been so fortunate, with Platner describing an “utterly insane” amount of friends and neighbors who have not been able to find affordable housing in Maine.
“It’s gotten to a point where the bar to [receiving] healthcare in this country is going off to stupid foreign wars and watching friends die,” Platner said. “It’s just bad for America.”
Collins, who has irked President Donald Trump at times by voting against some of his policies, still has the support of national Republicans eager to protect her seat in a blue state amid the GOP currently holding a 53-47 advantage in the Senate.
Platner said life “has gotten worse for working-class Mainers” during Collins’ 30 years in office saying she is “just a part of this establishment system that does not represent the needs of working people, and I think a lot of people know that.”
Platner said he would work to support policies that expand health care to all Americans, create more affordable housing and increase access to “good home loans.” He also said he does not “have to read another New York Times piece on how to talk to Trump voters, because they’re my friends.”
“We all agree on like 90 percent of stuff,” Platner said. “You need to tell them what you’re trying to change, and you also need to tell them how you’re going to change it.”
