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After 15 years in Colorado, my wife — a fifth-generation Mainer from Penobscot — and I recently moved here to raise our two young children. As an immigrant grateful for the opportunities this nation has given me, I believe deeply in the American experiment that began here in New England nearly 250 years ago: a republic built not on purity, but on perseverance.
I want my daughter to grow up in a society that values integrity and empathy more than outrage; and my son to grow up in a country that sees mistakes not as disqualifications, but as opportunities for growth and redemption. The political culture we have today — on both sides of the aisle — has lost sight of that. Too many leaders prize partisanship over principle, power over service.
New England has a long tradition of producing independent thinkers who balance conviction with humility. That’s the kind of leadership we need in Washington. It’s also the kind of new leadership desperately needed as we look toward a future that will be shaped not by those in their seventies and eighties, but by the generations who will inherit their decisions.
That’s why I want to see Graham Platner in the U.S. Senate. Not because he’s perfect, but because he seems ready to fight the right battles — with grit, honesty, and a vision rooted in service. My purity test isn’t in his past; it’s in my children’s future.
Mario Molina
Hope
