PORTLAND, Maine — Democrats projected optimism at the party’s convention in Portland Saturday as they looked to ride energy behind progressives including Graham Platner and anger at President Donald Trump and Republicans in Washington.
Just days after Gov. Janet Mills suspended a flagging U.S. Senate bid and Platner became the presumptive nominee in the race to oust five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins, hundreds of delegates and Democratic officials expressed optimism they could flip Collins’ seat while boosting majorities in Augusta.
“This is my sixth convention, and I think this is the most exciting one,” delegate Sandra Basgall, the West Bath Democratic Party chair said at the convention on Thompson’s Point.
Between speeches by local, state and national figures, hand-shaking at candidates’ booths and cocktails including an Aperol spritz dubbed “Republican Tears,” delegates shrugged off concerns about Platner. His electability has been questioned by Mills, Republicans and national pundits pointing to a series of controversies that his campaign weathered last fall.
Basgall was one of them. She said while Collins has kept her seat through tough races, she faces a more daunting environment this year with Mainers unhappy with the “insanity” of the Trump administration and Collins’ voting record.
“He’s talking about who has the power and who doesn’t and why,” she said. “I think there’s a very good chance he will absolutely blow [Collins] away. He’s the right candidate in the right place at the right time. We need to get young blood.”
The 41-year-old political newcomer still faces 2024 U.S. Senate nominee David Costello in the June primary. But he has essentially become the presumptive nominee behind huge grassroots energy. It was seen as unthinkable when he launched his campaign and unlikely when his campaign was jarred by old, offensive Reddit posts and a tattoo of a Nazi-linked image.
“The antidote is to do what he’s been doing — being radically accessible, meet people and answer the questions,” Anthony Feldpausch, a 38-year-old delegate and union organizer from Rome, said.
Feldpausch added that he believed Mills had done “a lot of good things for the state,” but that “Graham is the candidate for the moment.”
Sebastian Meade, a delegate from Freeport, noted Costello was still in the Senate primary and said there’s no such thing as a “perfect candidate.”
Whoever the nominees are up and down the ballot, Democrats would unite behind them, he predicted. But Collins’ electoral track record, including winning in 2020 despite consistently trailing in polls, makes some Democrats “a little nervous, even with strong headwinds now.”
“People are starting to see Collins doing her dance,” he said. “If Republicans are going to win, she can vote against it. If it’s tight, she votes with them.”
The morning kicked off with a speech from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who headlined a banquet attended by both Platner and Mills in downtown Portland on Friday. Platner, who was holding a Saturday town hall in Appleton, will return to Portland to speak Saturday evening.
Walz repeatedly blasted Trump and linked Collins to the president’s remade party. He said any Republican senator could have blunted Trump immigration roundups in Maine and his home state, rising gas prices and the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which he called “illegal and unjustified.”
“If you weren’t here today, you’d be doomscrolling on your phone saying, ‘What did that stupid bastard say today?’” he said of the president.
Trump and other Republicans have mocked Walz for his handling of a fraud scandal that involves billions of dollars in pandemic relief claims and the abuse of Medicaid and programs for children. Similar claims have been made in Maine, where the state suspended payments in December to a health care provider facing fraud allegations.
Walz credited Mills for standing up to Trump on immigration and other issues. He called on Democrats to help “create the infrastructure necessary so candidates and families will” join the fight against Trump and a Republican Party that controls both chambers of Congress.
“If you weren’t here today, you’d be doomscrolling on your phone saying, ‘What did that stupid bastard say today?’” he said of the president.
Platner, who is holding a town hall in Appleton Saturday afternoon, is poised to return to Portland to speak to delegates Saturday evening.
