Organized labor is getting behind Graham Platner’s upstart Maine Senate primary campaign, just a day after the state’s governor, Janet Mills, entered the race as the preferred candidate of the Democratic establishment.
The United Auto Workers endorsed the oyster farmer Wednesday, joining the Maine State Nurses Association and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, in a contest that could help shape the ideological contours of the Democratic Party.
“Inequality is out of control in our country,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement Wednesday. “Today, the top 1% have more wealth than the bottom 95% of humanity combined. Graham understands this, and at a time when too many politicians take their cues from billionaires and corporate lobbyists, he has chosen to stand with the working class.”
The UAW represents nearly 2,000 employees in the Pine Tree State.
Mills launched her campaign Tuesday, capping off a recruiting effort from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who views her as Democrats’ best chance to unseat the state’s longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
But Platner has secured an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in August and has been praised by Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and spoke privately with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
The Maine State Nurses Association has cast Platner as the best candidate to defend Maine residents from health care cuts in Republicans’ signature One Big Beautiful Bill law.
“Amid the recklessness with which the Trump administration and his Republican-controlled Congress treat everyday working people, Graham Platner heard his calling to stand with nurses, our patients, and our communities to build a better country for all of us,” Juliana Hansen, a nurse at Maine Medical Center, said in a statement in September.
Mills’ and Platner’s campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment from POLITICO.
