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Oysterman Graham Platner overcame a series of scandals to secure the Democratic nomination to take on five-term incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
The political newcomer clinched the win with 74.6%, after the Associated Press called the race with 11% of unofficial results counted about 90 minutes after polls closed Tuesday night.
“The political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment to define the campaign by,” Platner told supporters gathered at an election night watch party in Blue Hill. “But in trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all.”
Platner said votes in this primary were “not for me but a vision of a life in Maine that you can afford, a life of dignity and a government that actually serves its people.”
In his victory speech, Platner thanked his mom and dad, and also Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign in April but still appeared on the ballot, for a lifetime of service to Maine.
Mills had received 18.9% of votes at the time AP called the race. David Costello received 6.9% and declared write-in candidate Andrea LaFlamme received 0.6%.
Platner’s win comes after a week of fresh revelations, including accusations of extramarital sexting and “unsettling” behavior from his exes, as well as earlier revelations (a litany of offensive online comments and his now-covered tattoo that had resembled a Nazi symbol) that have tested his candidacy.
Speaking to a crowd of Platner’s supporters just after polls closed at the watch party in Blue Hill, state Rep. Valli Geiger of Rockland predicted the results would show Maine’s refusal to allow the national press and oligarchs to decide who best to represent the state, calling Platner “the match that strikes the movement.”
“I’ve been waiting all my life for somebody to speak the truth the way Graham has,” Geiger said.
It had appeared that many Mainers were sticking by him despite the controversies but the primary election outcome proves it.
When asked whether Platner’s controversial personal history led him to reconsider his vote, Newport resident Jim Miller said at the polls Tuesday, “It made me like him more.”
“You expect that,” Miller said. “They’re going to try to find everything in his personal life that they can dig up and make it sound terrible, his tattoos and all that. But when you listen to him, he’s a guy that did tours in the military. When you come back from that, you can be pretty messed up, and he acknowledges all that. … Everybody makes mistakes.”
Miller is also drawn to Platner’s plain-spoken style.
“You usually get a bunch of platitudes from these politicians,” Miller said. “Well he doesn’t say stuff like that. He knows what the real problems are and how to talk about them.”
Similarly, John Crimmins of Bangor said his support for Platner hasn’t wavered. Crimmins is focused on Platner’s policy stances, he said.
“Anybody that’s going to run against Susan Collins is going to be torn apart no matter who they are,” said Crimmins, who didn’t rank any other candidates in the race.
Will the tide turn on Collins?
Sights were set on Collins before results were known. As returns trickled in, Platner’s campaign urged attendees at the watch party to sign up for volunteer shifts to continue canvassing efforts for the general election.
Earlier in the day, Collins supporters showed up at the polls even though the senator ran unopposed for the Republican nomination on Tuesday. Pittsfield resident Laurie Logiodice said it was still a priority for her to show her support for Maine’s senior senator on Election Day.
That was also the case for Mark Yarbrough, another Pittsfield resident, who said of Collins, “she doesn’t have any skeletons.”
Yarbrough also said he sees Collins as a bipartisan lawmaker — an image Platner’s campaign has tried to chip away at in ads and speeches — but one that still held with several voters Maine Morning Star spoke with across the state on Tuesday.
Platner focused much of his election night speech on that very point, trying to pick apart Collins’ claim that she’s an independent voice, including calling out her vote for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was consequential in overturning Roe v. Wade.
“Susan Collins is only bipartisan when it doesn’t matter,” Platner said.
Newport resident Danika Stock, an independent who voted for Collins, had initially considered Platner. While Stock said she doesn’t agree with everything Collins does, she is overall satisfied with how she’s represented Maine.
“Susan knows what she’s doing,” Stock said of her decision to go with the incumbent. “Platner has no experience.”
But some Mainers who previously backed Collins are now hesitant.
Jim Burkhart, a Republican from Bangor, said he likely won’t vote for Collins in the general election, even though he has in the past.
“I mean, the whole premise of the Senate being six years is about continuity,” Burkhart said. “There’s a level of continuity and then there’s, OK, you’ve done your time. I think she’s done fairly well for Maine, but on the same token, I think it’s time to go.”
Meanwhile his wife, Jane Burkhart, a Democrat, cast her vote for Platner on Tuesday and didn’t rank anyone else. “Even amidst all the smear that’s going on — we’ve all done bad crap — I think he’s the change that we need. And we definitely need a change.”
They both said they’re sick of other people telling them how to vote. “We can pick for ourselves,” Jim Burkhart said.
“I’ll just be happy for the ads to be done,” he added. Jane Burkhart chimed in, “and for the phone to stop ringing from all over the state.”
Theodore Hicks, an independent from Holden, chose to vote in the Republican primary on Tuesday but left his vote for the U.S. Senate race blank.
A previous Collins supporter, Hicks criticized the senator for the passive investment income she’s accumulated while in office.
When asked if he knows who he’ll vote for in the general election, Hicks said, “I have no clue.”
by Emma Davis, Maine Morning Star
Maine Morning Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maine Morning Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lauren McCauley for questions: [email protected].
