Graham Platner, oysterman and harbormaster from rural Maine, enters race to challenge Sen. Susan Collins
Graham Platner, a military veteran and oysterman from a small town near Maine's Acadia National Park, will run for U.S. Senate as a Democrat, he announced on Tuesday, in an effort to oust Republican Susan Collins, the five-term senator who is expected to run for reelection next year.
A campaign launch video shows Platner, bearded and broad-shouldered with a gruff voice, harvesting oysters and chopping wood as he describes how Maine has become "essentially unlivable for working-class people."
In an interview Monday with ABC News, Platner said he was driven to run by the growing wealth gap in the U.S., which he said has crippled working-class people in his home state.
"We are moving in a position where regular, working-class people can't even afford to live in the towns that they were born in," said Platner, who after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army and Marine Corps, moved to the coastal community of Sullivan where he grew up.
Platner might draw comparisons to Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman or Dan Osborn, the union leader running as an independent for the Senate in Nebraska after a failed attempt last year. Both men campaigned for the Senate as champions, and representatives, of the white working class, a demographic with whom Democrats have lost ground in recent cycles.
Platner has hired Fight Agency, a Democratic consulting firm whose members have worked for Fetterman and Osborn's campaigns, as well as that of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York mayor.
"I drink coffee every morning with the guys that I work next to, who are friends of mine, who all voted for Donald Trump. And they voted for Donald Trump because they wanted something new, they wanted change," Platner told ABC News, arguing that his understanding of these voters could help steer the Democratic Party, which he described as "quite confused," back to a winning track.
"The Democratic Party needs to return to an age where it is the party of labor unions, it is the party of community organizers, it is the party of fighting for big structural change to benefit working class people," he said.
Asked who he believes is the face of the Democratic Party, Platner said there isn't one, but he indicated an affinity for some of the most progressive members of the Senate.
He said he admires the former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and respects Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
Platner described "Medicare for All" as an urgent priority and called the war in Gaza a "genocide," saying he follows the lead of "Israeli scholars on genocide."
On the hot-button cultural issue of transgender women's participation in sports, he said the topic is a "distraction from the things that impact Americans materially every single day."
"I am dedicated to equality and justice for all in this country," Platner said. "And I think that this specific topic has become such a touchstone of the media discussion because it pulls us away from the conversation that needs to be happening, which is getting every American affordable health care."
Maine briefly became the center of the debate over transgender youth in sports in February, after a public spat between President Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the Trump's administration's threat to withhold funding over a Maine anti-discrimination law that lets transgender women participate in girls' and women's sports.
Shortly afterward, at a demonstration protesting the Trump administration, Platner, who leads a Democratic grassroots group in Hancock County, said Mills "displayed great courage when she defended Maine's laws to Donald Trump's face," according to a transcript of the remarks posted online by a local Democratic group.
Mills, a Democrat, has not ruled out entering the race and has reportedly been urged to run by national Democrats who believe she would offer the best chance at flipping Collins' seat.
Asked about a potential primary challenge from Mills, Platner told ABC News that Democrats "really need to stop running the same kind of playbook over and over and over again.
"I think we really need to start thinking outside of the box on the type of candidates that we're sending into these races," he said.
Asked if he has spoken with national Democrats about backing his campaign, Platner said no.
"Nobody has called me, and I'm not really in a position to call anybody because I'm the harbormaster of Sullivan, Maine," he said.
