Sen Collins slams Bernie-backed Graham Platner as too far-left for Maine voters

Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S.Senate, speaks to an overflow crowd outside a campaign event Sunday, June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.(Robert F.Bukaty/AP Photo)

While Collins has mostly kept quiet about Platner’s political baggage, she has weighed in on his agenda.

Among his many progressive policy stances, Platner, on his campaign website, urges “passing a constitutional amendment to ban billionaires buying elections!”

And he highlights that he’s “a strong supporter of a Medicare for All system” and that he “will support a path to citizenship and an end to the mass deportation machine.”

�I believe that will be the conclusion ofMaine voters.But, obviously, I don’t take anything for granted.”

But Platner challenges that it’s Collins who is too “radical.”

“My response is that, trying to bring down costs for working Mainers.Trying to make sure that our communities don’t get emptied out because housing has become unaffordable for young people.Trying to create a system in which we are not seeing our health care system utilized as a way of just screwing working people all for the benefit of a health care insurance CEO,�

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“I don’t think that’s radical at all,” he added, claiming: “I think, in fact, that what most Mainers agree is what we have to be doing.”

Rather, he claimed that “what’s radical is somebody like Susan Collins, who, for decades now, has made sure that we pass policies that are going to help corporations and billionaires to the detriment of working people, supporting over and over and over again, illegal and insane foreign wars.”

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“She voted to send me to Iraq, and now she continues to vote to support the war in Iran,” Platner charged.“I’m sorry that I think is much more radical to the people of Maine than having a health care system that doesn’t collapse before our eyes.”

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PLATNER TO SUPPORTERS: ‘MAINE, YOU HAVE MY BACK’

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Republican Sen.Susan Collins of Maine tours a food bank in Harrison, Maine, on May 5, 2026.The food bank was able to expand thanks to federal funding that the senator helped obtain.

Despite his numerous controversies, Platner has drawn large crowds and built a healthy fundraising war chest.

Democrats see Maine as a crucial pickup opportunity in the 2026 midterms as they aim to win back the Senate majority in the fall.

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But beating Collins, a moderate who is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate and has a history of voting against PresidentDonald Trump’sagenda, won’t be easy.Six years ago, public opinion polls indicated the senator was headed to defeat, but Collins defied expectations and won re-election by topping then-Democratic state House Speaker Sara Gideon by nine points.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire.He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast.”