ORONO, Maine — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders energized progressives Sunday in the first of two events with Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson.
The Vermont independent railed against the economic and political systems before a crowd of 1,400 at the University of Maine. The event marked Sanders’ 40th in his nationwide “Fight Oligarchy” tour. Each man gave fiery speeches warning of high stakes in a midterm year pitting a working-class movement against corporate power and a Republican-led Washington.
“The only way we’re going to bring about the changes this country needs is when all of us stand together and fight back,” Sanders said.
Both Platner and Jackson are labor-endorsed candidates who got early support from Sanders. But they need different things ahead of the June 9 primary. Platner drummed Gov. Janet Mills out of the primary and is looking ahead to a difficult campaign with Sen. Susan Collins, while Jackson is slogging his way through a difficult five-way primary.
At both levels, Democrats are aiming to tap into widespread frustration with an ongoing affordability crisis, and divisive actions by President Donald Trump to keep control of the Blaine House and flip a pivotal U.S. Senate seat held for five terms by Collins.
Jackson, who Platner recently endorsed as his first choice for governor, challenged Mainers to give a jolt to Democrats nationwide. He said Republicans had performed better in the “bloodsport” of politics in recent years.
“We’re going to remind the Democratic Party that this is the party of the working class and you better damn well stand up and fight for it,” he said before the crowd stood and applauded.
Platner called for nothing less than a “political revolution.” For decades, he said “corrupt politicians like Susan Collins” have undercut working families “piece by piece, store by store, hospital by hospital, home by home.”
“They don’t know the power we have here,” he said. “We will not just fight the oligarchy. We will defeat the oligarchy.”
As he’s done for decades, Sanders painted a harrowing picture to put the spotlight on the vast gap between the richest 1% and everyday Mainers. Sixty-percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, he said. The U.S. is 35th in the world in child poverty, he said, calling for greater investment in child care, education and Medicare for All.
“What we’re talking about isn’t radical,” he said. “What’s radical is when so few have so much.”
Platner faces a June 9 primary against 2024 U.S. Senate nominee David Costello. But the Sullivan oyster farmer has the nomination all but locked down despite a barrage of criticism from Collins’ allies and billionaire-backed outside groups over old offensive social media posts that were unearthed in October alongside a Nazi-linked tattoo he’s since covered.
“It’s all they’ve got,” Patti Dowse of Cambridge said of Republican attacks on Platner as she waited in the long line around the Collins Center for the Arts.
Catherine Foxson, an Orono retiree, said she believed Platner’s explanation for many of his controversial comments: As a veteran, he spent years in a toxic environment and has now “grown up.” The former Collins voter sees Platner as better suited to tackle an affordability crisis hurting her adult grandchildren.
“They looked forward at one point to having children, but they’re not because of the impossibility of being able to afford it,” she said.
Outside the hall, volunteers for the Platner campaign handed out signs and asked visitors to join the effort. Several speakers during the Memorial Day weekend rally criticized the war in Iran and Israel’s attacks on Gaza, as well as staffing cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Sanders will join Platner and Jackson for a Portland rally on Monday.
The Republican National Committee cast Sanders’ and Platner’s economic and policy visions as radical before the event began.
“Bernie Sanders is so committed to his socialist agenda that he’s propping up a man who has disparaged everyone from Maine lobstermen to American servicemembers,” Kristen Cianci, a party spokesperson, said in a statement. “Mainers can’t afford Bernie Sanders’ and Graham Platner’s radical agenda of higher taxes, more bureaucracy and reckless spending.”
