Ben Chin with the Maine People’s Alliance will become Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner’s new campaign manager.
Chin is the deputy director of the Maine People’s Alliance, a progressive advocacy group with deep roots in Maine politics.
He joins a campaign that has generated significant interest nationally and in Maine as Platner continues to draw big crowds to his series of town hall events in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Chin is also arriving at a time when Platner’s campaign has been beset by staff upheaval and controversy.
He’ll replace Kevin Brown, a congressional campaign veteran who left after less than a week when he learned that his wife was pregnant. Platner’s finance director and political director have also departed in recent weeks. Genevieve McDonald, a former state legislator, departed as political director after a series of Platner’s deleted social media posts became national news.
In an interview, Chin said the campaign is still filling holes and attributed some of the turnover to an operation that was being built on the fly and unprepared for its early success. He said the campaign continues to amass volunteers, which at point, were numbered 6,000.
Chin is stepping into a brand-new role himself. He has never managed a congressional campaign.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
