It Could Happen Here - How Graham Platner Won the Democratic Primary

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Garrison outlines Graham Platner’s campaign platform, his ties with labor unions and local organizing in Maine, and how those relations paved the way for Platner’s working class campaign to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, despite personal scandals and controversies.  Sources:https://maineaflcio.org/news/maine-afl-cio-endorses-graham-platner-us-senate https://uaw.org/uaw-endorses-graham-platner-for-u-s-senate-in-maine/https://mainepeoplesalliance.org/endorsements/https://www.grahamforsenate.com/platformhttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/6892a4b7c6b1853d62f8fbfd/t/69df7d24dedc9206b2f1e62c/1776254244968/GrahamforMaine_EndBillionaireWelfare.pdfhttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/6892a4b7c6b1853d62f8fbfd/t/69e243347ef4a528f4d10392/1776719977715/GrahamforMaine_DefendDemocracyAgenda.pdfhttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/6892a4b7c6b1853d62f8fbfd/t/69e244c4754da237acf6aa07/1776436420589/GrahamforMaine_HealthcarePolicy.pdfhttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/6892a4b7c6b1853d62f8fbfd/t/69fe0394377d136e142fc5ff/1778254740849/GrahamforMaine_TakeBackAmericanPower.pdfhttps://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/politics/maine-politics/interview-graham-platner-gun-control-transgender-rights-military-record-family-senate/97-da9bf2d5-e35b-4a2f-9cbd-3b1e3be48570 https://frenchmanbay.org/aaresponse/ https://www.bangordailynews.com/2025/08/23/politics/elections/unions-found-susan-collins-challenger-oysterman-graham-platner-joam40zk0w/ https://mainemorningstar.com/2025/08/28/the-oysterman-trying-to-oust-susan-collins-raised-1-million-in-nine-days/ https://mainemorningstar.com/2025/10/06/in-collins-hometown-platner-brings-his-grassroots-pitch-to-the-county/https://wgme.com/news/local/maine-service-employees-association-endorses-democrat-graham-platner-for-us-senatehttps://www.wabi.tv/2025/03/01/demonstrators-gather-outside-ellsworth-city-hall-part-statewide-protests/https://time.com/article/2026/05/20/graham-platner-profile/https://themainemonitor.org/graham-platner-success-explained/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlRswCllI5w https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2MkjC7ymQHchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsMgQVqa-DAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-itNjgCJDxUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkZOj1IzEcwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGwu_X-as8U&t=116shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElNRmty16fghttps://www.patreon.com/naomilachance/posts/graham-platner-160548109See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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They're Republicans. They don't give a shit of money. It's now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of family secrets. He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move.

And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off. and that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All Zone Media. Welcome to It Could Happen here, a show about things falling apart

and putting them back together. I'm Garrison Davis. This episode is on probably the most controversial midterm election happening this year, the U.S. Senate race in Maine, where the new Democratic nominee, Graham Platner, is running to end. end the 30-year reign of Republican Senator Susan Collins,

who brands herself as a moderate, independent-leaning Republican, but has consistently backed Trump's on popular policies while holding on to power. Beating Susan Collins would be a key part of taking the Senate away from the Republicans. Much of the media coverage and discussion of this election has focused on the scandals relating to Graham Platner's personal life, with very little on the real relations of his campaign, the political platform he's running on, the relations between him and organized labor,

unions, and working-class manors. Platter's campaign has attracted overwhelming support from voters in Maine, despite the series of well-reported personal controversies, the Nazi-linked tattoo he got as a Marine, old offense of Reddit posts, marital issues, relationship issues, and an ex-girlfriend who worked at the Heritage Foundation,

accusing him of quote-unquote disturbing behavior after he got out of the military. Mainstream outlets have covered those at length. This episode, I'm going to narrowly focus on the relations of Graham Platner's campaign. I'll start by going over his campaign platform, then his ties to labor unions and community organizing, and finally, how those ties set up his campaign for massive success in the Democratic primary. Platner calls himself a New Deal Democrat, and like Bernie Sanders, believes we need a quote-unquote political revolution in this country. He wants to shake up the Supreme Court, increase the federal minimum wage, and ban billionaires from buying elections. His platform is also designed to address the concerns of working-class manors, like declining manufacturing, decaying infrastructure, closing hospitals, and spiking energy costs.

Platner supports universal health care and ultimately wants to pass a medical. care for all type system, while pointing to how the country could build on the VA model, saying, quote, the level of health care I've received with Maine's excellent VA system should be available to all, unquote. We all know that going up against for-profit health care will be a hard battle to win. His platform contains a list of policies that will start to break up health care monopolies and crack down on pharma corruption, like banning insurance companies and private equity from buying medical practices and hospitals and banning prescription drug advertising. Platner says he wants to expand Medicare and Medicaid's power to negotiate drug prices,

allow the import of low-cost prescription drugs from other markets, and ban stock buybacks and impose a cap on executive compensation for pharmaceutical companies that receive public funds. His platform calls to direct federal funds to reopen, recently closed hospitals, birthing units and clinics, establish a national public drug manufacturing sector, make Medicare telehealth coverage permanent, reverse doge cuts to the VA, national legislation mandating a safe level of nurse-to-patient ratios to counter chronic hospital understaffing, and to open a new medical school at University of Maine. A large part of Graham Platner's policy platform is focused on protecting democracy by keeping

money out of elections. Quote, democracy cannot function when wealth buys power. Since Citizens United, unlimited dark money has flooded American politics, giving billionaires and special interests enormous influence, unquote. Plattner wants to overturn Citizens United, either through a constitutional amendment or a different Supreme Court, more on that later. He also campaigns on banning congressional stock trading and advocates that former members of Congress should be banned from congressional lobbying. Quote, public service should never become a pathway to private affluence, unquote. Platner supports mandating congressional term limits, two for the Senate and six for the House, and at a minimum,

returning to the talking filibuster. His platform also includes congressional representation for everyone in the country, quote unquote, including in places like Washington, D.C. As for the Supreme Court, Platner wants to pack the court and end lifetime appointments with staggered time-limited terms. He's also in favor of impeaching justices on the Supreme Court by, quote, holding the court to the same ethics standards we hold all other federal judges, unquote. Plattenor supports passing a constitutional amendment to, quote, prohibit partisan gerrymandering and require independent redistricting commissions to draw fair maps, which he says would keep elected officials more accountable and make voters' voices

stronger. To combat anti-labor legislation like the Taft-Hartley Act, Platner wants to strengthen our, quote, unquote right to organize by passing the protecting the right to organize act, which would crack down on union busting by issuing significant penalties and override right to work laws. Planner also supports creating a union job requirement for all jobs funded by federal dollars. In interviews, Planner is advocated for something akin to FDR's proposed economic bill of rights. In order to democratize our economy, we need to provide, as rights, things like housing, health care, education, and collective bargaining, unquote.

He also wants to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to protect against sex discrimination, while addressing how communities of color, LGBTQ Americans, and immigrants, have had the legal protections that were meant to guarantee them equal rights, quote, turned against them, instead of working in their defense. We need a 21st century constitution that restores the original purpose of these guarantees. Equal rights under the law, protected for every person in this country, unquote. his policy platform includes passing federal LGBTQ anti-discrimination legislation and calls out Democrats for, quote-unquote, peddling soft bigotry to pander to Trump voters. One of Platner's most in-depth policy pages is for his billionaire tax plan, which he says represents, quote,

the bare minimum of what I believe we should expect a Democratic Congress under our next president to pass. Platner believes that income taxes alone, quote, cannot address the massive concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Only a tax on wealth can do so. He promotes a 5 to 6% annual tax on wealth over $1 billion, as well as taxing capital gains the same as wages, quadrupling taxes on stock buybacks, and taxing excessive CEO pay to pressure corporations to reinvest profits back into their workers through higher wages, better benefits, and long-term security. On the campaign trail, he's talked with voters about removing the $167,000 a year income tax cap on social security payments so that the ultra-rich contribute to the same payroll tax rate as the rest

of us. He also wants to restore the enhanced child tax credit. Plattner's tax plan doesn't just include raising taxes on the rich, but closing loopholes make a corporations use. to avoid paying taxes altogether. Quote, by closing corporate loopholes, we ensure that the giants who profit off our shared infrastructure, courts, and educated workforce

finally pay their way and that we can sustain investments into schools, safety, and services every community depends on. One way to stop corporate tax dodging is by ending worker misclassification, that is hiring workers as, quote-unquote, contractors to deprive workers

of labor protections and health care while using this misconduct. classification to dodge payroll taxes. Instead of foreign policy dominated by trade agreements that exploits workers and promotes endless war, Platner's platform calls for a new era of American quote-unquote economic diplomacy that takes on billionaires who, quote, defund the societies that made their fortunes possible simply by shuffling money into an offshore account, unquote. He advocates a global billionaire minimum tax to, quote, ensure that extreme wealth is finally reinvested in the public good, regardless of where it is parked, unquote.

This is based on a proposal by the EU's internal tax observatory. To accomplish this, Platner says we would need to overhaul global economic institutions, use our leverage as a trading partner, and use international economic diplomacy to target concentrated wealth and coordinate taxes and sanctions on ultra-wealthy individuals, quote, rather than relying on broad trade sanctions that harm ordinary people. He also wants to close an inheritance tax loophole by stopping billionaires from passing down their wealth to their heirs tax-free through buying appreciating assets, borrowing against those assets, and then passing down the assets after they die, while avoiding any taxes

on the increased asset value. Platner says time for those gains to be taxed too. The tax plan also includes ways to lower taxes for working and middle class Americans. If we tax millionaires and billionaires at fair levels, we can provide a quote-unquote cost-of-living exemption from federal income tax up to a reasonable threshold for working and middle-class Americans. If we stop multinational monopolies from dodging their taxes, we can cut taxes on the small businesses and self-employed individuals who are struggling to survive. The federal government could adopt a property tax fairness credit similar to Mainz that ensures low and middle income families do not pay more than 4% of their income in property taxes

by providing a refundable credit, including a fair calculation of rent attributable to property taxes so that renters are treated equitably, unquote. Something we've previously reported on is Platner's opposition to what he calls regressive gas and diesel taxes. Quote, relying on fossil fuels to fund basic infrastructure does not make sense if we want to reduce fossil fuels used in transportation. Instead, public goods should be financed by progressive general revenues, as outlined in my end billionaire welfare tax plan, unquote. Platner notes that an extra $275 billion has supplemented the tax-based highway trust fund since 2008. Platner also supports Rokana's Big Oil Windfall Profits Bill

that would implement a per barrel tax equal to 50% of the difference between the current oil price and the price per barrel last year. And he promotes a national electricity rate freeze by, quote, providing direct low-cost energy infrastructure financing to any state that freezes or lowers electricity rates for four years, funded by the Windfall Profits Tax and repurposed Federal Fossil Fuel Subsidies unquote. His platform states that the most effective national security project would be a huge buildout

of domestic clean energy production. Rather than relying on private equity to invest in new clean energy, Platner supports a national energy infrastructure fund that would issue debt backed by the federal government and, quote, partner with state lending authorities to provide cheap capital directly to utilities, rural electric cooperatives, public energy. authorities and other developers of low-risk clean energy projects, unquote. Platterner believes this fund could cut Wall Street speculators out of the equation, help build at scale with union jobs, lower costs, and pass savings onto ratepayers. He also wants the Department of Energy to use the Defense Production Act to revive domestic

manufacturing to procure and stockpile critical clean energy technologies. His platform also includes creating a strategic fuel reserve. for farmers and fisheries, a national whole home repair program to assist in weatherization, electrification, and heat pumps to lower household bills by partnering with public housing authorities, county programs, and local trade unions, as well as reinvesting the money funneled to big defense contractors back into shipbuilding. On the campaign trail, Platner talks a lot about being a veteran, and the various ways that's informed his politics. He's promised to, quote, never send Americans into a pointless war. And to solve the issue of a president effectively being able to

declare wars, but it's not call them wars, Platner is called on Congress to reclaim its war powers and other authorities over the executive, quote, we must pass a new war powers act. The same must go for ending the executive's intrusion on congressional powers of the purse, taxation, and other legislative prerogatives, unquote. We'll talk more about Graham Platner's campaign platform and ties to organized labor after this ad break. Pride is like love. You feel it in your heart. IR. Radio, Canada's number one streaming app for radio and podcasts, including IHart Pride Canada, your favorite hits and must have party bangers, Plus personalized and curated playlists, like back in the day pride.

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Listen to therapy for Black girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is. Getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is. Getting a new one put up in its place. As long as there's a politics of race in America, there's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War. To get to school, I had to go. go down Robert Lee Boulevard. Get to the grocery store. I had to go down Jefferson Davis Parkway.

If you're an historian and you leave out half of what the history is, you're not doing your job. I'm Akila Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 goes deep on both of those things. The fights, the politics, the people who won, and my personal campaign to add something to the Kentucky Statehouse that's actually worth the wall space. We are more than our bodies. We contain essence. We contain spirit. How do you represent that? They are just, fueling a fire that is really catching. You'll see what I mean. Listen to Rebel Spirit season two on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to It Could Happen here. Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Graham Platner, was interviewed by the

New York Times and said that since the end of the Second World War, American foreign policy, our wars and interventions haven't been good for workers or American families. they often are very good for corporate interests, defense contractors, and people in places of political power who want to use war as a mechanism of protecting their political power, unquote. Platter told the times that he has a complicated relationship with the military, where he's still proud of being a Marine, but is ashamed of what's happened in the Middle East, and says that the policies and systems orchestrating those wars

are quote unquote flawed from the top down and that he considers himself anti-war. But it doesn't matter if you try your best inside of a flawed policy and a flawed system. It's flawed from the top down. It's bound to fail. It's bound to bring an immense amount of violence upon people who in no way, shape, or form

are deserving of it. Because, I mean, we destroyed Iraq and we destroyed Afghanistan. And all the suffering, all the killing, all the dying, all the displacement, all of it was, was that we brought that. We, the United States, did that. And that I'm ashamed of. The anger that I feel is for the people that sent me, who are, frankly, still the same people who are sending people off right now to go, but be in harm's way so we can start and have the stupid war with Iran. Platner has been clear that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza and that the U.S. has aided in the genocide of Palestinians.

Quote, it is the moral question of our time and we failed as a nation. Platner believes that Israel should not receive any U.S. tax dollars and has proudly opposed APEC, though he has voiced support for sending aid to Ukraine. Platner calls abolishing ICE the quote-unquote moderate position. and that he supports a path to citizenship, strong border security, and a, quote-unquote, end to the mass deportation machine.

His policy platform says that, quote, unquote, many multinational corporations have no interest in immigration reform because, quote, they want illegal workers with no rights who they can pay slave wages and abuse at will, unquote. In response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which Susan Collins,

assisted in by voting for Brett Kavanaugh, Plattner wants to codify abortion rights and protect privacy rights. His platform states, quote, the Constitution should make clear that Americans have a fundamental right to privacy, including personal medical decisions, control over one's own body, and freedom from unjust surveillance. In an age of mass data collection and artificial intelligence, this protection is more important than ever, unquote. Platterner certainly leans pro-gun, he's taught leftist-armed self-defense classes, and owns AR-15s. He doesn't support an assault weapons ban, but did back a referendum to create a red flag law in the state of Maine. Other miscellaneous campaign planks include more funding for the

Post Office, passing the Postal Banking Act, developing a federal child care policy for kids under six, defending Medicare access for people with disabilities, strengthening the Clean Air and Clean Water Act, opposing any federal support for private school vouchers, reviving federal support for housing, something like the VA Home Loan Program for more Americans, banning hedge funds from buying homes through legislation like the end hedge fund control of American Homes Act, and legalizing cannabis and clemency for people caught up in the war on drugs. That is a long list of policy, goals, and prospective legislation. that would be no easy task to enact.

Some would mean a fundamental transformation in American politics and the world economy. Platter knows that not everything in his platform can be passed overnight, but says that Democrats need a strategic vision to fight for. Telling the Maine monitor, quote, I'll be the first one to say that me being in the Senate

as the junior senator from Maine is not going to get us Medicare for all. There is this sort of establishment push where people are often like, well, you're not going to be able to do that immediately. Like, well, no shit. That's what power building is. That's what a long-term plan is, unquote. In interviews, Plattner often talks about his quote-unquote theory of power

and how the Democratic Party has, quote, never been able to articulate what it's trying to do. Like, what's the end goal? It never really articulates a clear set of policies to get us there and then never seems to want to wield power to make those policies a reality, unquote. Platner told the New York Times that Democratic Party leadership has failed the moment, that the party needs new leadership, and that Chuck Schumer should be replaced. Of course, candidates can say anything to get elected. We've all seen politicians run on populist platforms, only to then serve lobbyists,

corporate interests, and themselves, once in office. Trump himself first ran as a populist outsider, despite being a billionaire. Senator John Fetterman also comes to mind. Though the only thing that really made Harvard graduate John Fetterman and quote-unquote outsider was that he wore a hoodie and had stupid facial hair. Prior to his Senate campaign, he served as mayor of Braddock for 13 years and lieutenant governor for four. Fetterman also claims that suffering a stroke, quote unquote, liberated him from quote-unquote

progressivism. All is to say, John Fetterman and Graham Platner's respective backgrounds are quite different. But obviously, words and promises aren't enough. To measure a candidate's worth, one must look deeper at the ties to local communities and organizations that might inform a candidate's political platform and facilitate their ability to run for office. To quote Graham Platner, we need to build political power through getting people like me into the U.S. Senate, into Congress. And we also need to do it while building organizational power outside of the system. There's never been a moment in American history where we've gotten good things just because the institutions or people in power decided to do it. They need to be

I mean, this is honestly why the country has killed the labor movement. We did it on purpose. We did it because the labor movement is the foundation of power that can actually like push back against the system, unquote. Grand Platner is only running for Senate because last summer, the AFL-CIO, along with other local labor unions, were looking to put up a candidate to run against Susan Collins on a working class platform. In July 2025, Canada, candidate scouts showed up outside Plattenor's door asking him to run for Senate. Platter says he and his wife told him to quote unquote fuck off. The scouts, including progressive strategist Daniel Moroff, had learned about Plattener from a video he was in a few years ago

about community organizing against a corporate Norwegian salmon farm that was trying to move into their bay. My daily grind is coming out in the morning, cleaning equipment and tying knots and fixing rope and fixing line and fixing boats and cleaning oysters and listening to podcasts. My name is Graham Platner, and I live in Sullivan, Maine, the owner of Frenchman Bay Oyster Company, born and raised here in Sullivan. I grew up three houses down from the house I currently live in.

Bangor Daily News reported that in July, Platner spoke with Jason Shedlock, the president of the Maine State Building and Construction Trades Council via Zoom to quote, talk about the potential run while working on his oyster boat. About a week after first knocking on his door, the campaign scouts showed up again,

but this time with a detailed plan and the connections to get a campaign up and running, union support helped provide resources to shoot a launch video, facilitate small dollar fundraising, and get Plattenor's name in local papers. He had never run for office before, but did serve as the,

harbor master and chair of the planning board for the town of Sullivan. In terms of Plattner's own working class or middle class background, Platter's father was a lawyer in rural Maine, and his mom was a small business owner who currently owns a local restaurant. As a kid, his family got a financial aid package for a fancy private school in Connecticut, but Platerner got himself kicked out after three months and then went back to Maine. After exiting the military, he, he was a He worked as a bartender while going to university in D.C., dropped out, then worked as a private military contractor for six months at the embassy in Afghanistan. While there, Plattner says he got deeply disillusioned with government corruption and the military

industrial complex, quit, moved back to Maine, started working at a friend's oyster farm, and got into local organizing. In a less reported on a Reddit post made by Graham Platner, he credited late political commentator Michael Brooks with moving him towards left-wing working class politics around 2019 to 2020. Platner also made Reddit posts about being an anti-fascist. The Senate campaign launched in mid-August,

and in just nine days it raised $1 million. With an average donation of $33, $98% of the donations were under $100. During its first week, the campaign was attracting 300 volunteers per day. Pretty soon, the campaign attracted the attention of Bernie Sanders, who come September invited Plattenor to speak on his upcoming fight oligarchy tour and has continued to campaign with and back Platner. Meanwhile, Governor Janet Mills was recruited by Chuck Schumer to beat Platner in the Democratic

primary. From early on in the race, Plattenor had received backing from local labor unions. Beyond the main AFL-CIO, Platner has received endorsements from Ironworkers, Local 7, National Nurses United, Maine State Nurses Association, American Postal Workers, Local 458, the National Postal Mail Handlers, Local 301, the electrical workers union, local 2327, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Maine State Council of Building and Construction Trades, North Atlantic States, Regional Council of Carpenters, Carpenters local 349 and 352, Painters and Allied Trades, DC-35, Massachusetts and Northern New England

Labor's District Council Milwright's Local 1121, Laborer's International Union of North America, local 327-66, 668 and 976, Teamsters, Local 340, and the United Auto Workers, who represents nearly 2,000 workers in Maine, including Marine Draftsmen at the Bath Iron Works, non-profit employees, workers at the Portland Museum of Art, and graduate employees across the University of Maine system. In their endorsement, UAW Region 9A director Brandon Mancilla, said, quote, Graham Platner has emerged as a voice for the people of Maine fed up with the corrupting influence of the oligarchy and money in our politics. More importantly, he's building a mass movement that will not only power his campaign, but will be ready to take on the challenges facing working families

in Maine and across the country once in office. Our members are ready to hit the ground running with Graham's campaign and take back the power for Maine's working class, unquote. Plattner has said he wanted this campaign to be an extension of the local community organizing that he and his wife were already engaged in, telling the main monitor the campaign is a quote, organizing strategy first and an electoral strategy second. For the past few years, Platiners organized with a mutual aid and community activist group called Arcadia Action and was named in local news coverage for organizing a protest after Trump was re-elected. The protest focused on, quote, the preservation of constitutional rights, support for Ukraine, and protecting transgender manors,

unquote. Platter was also an active member of the Panopskitt County chapter of the Maine's People's Alliance, the largest, quote-unquote, progressive community action organization in the state, which claims to have more than 32,000 members. As a member of the Maine People's Alliance, Plattenor traveled to Washington, D.C. a couple years ago for a march to protest access to health care, and since then has been doing grassroots community organizing in Hanuk County, according to the organization. The member-led board of directors of Maine People's Alliance voted unanimously. to endorse Graham Platner.

To quote the announcement, Maine People's Alliance board co-chair Gina Morin, they them, said, quote, listening to Platner during interviews in town halls, it is clear that he addresses the critical issues affecting our country and specifically Maine. He speaks directly to the reality

that the top 1% are hoarding wealth while the middle class and the poor are left to go without. He's also addressed the need to fix these same issues that we have been working on for years, such as health care affordability, the housing crisis, and immigrant rights. His activism drove him to seek this office out of frustration. His values and dedication are what align him with the Maine People's Alliance, unquote. The organization said back in February

that Platner has been, quote, active and vocal in resisting ICE's presence here in Maine, and has been calling on our members of Congress to do more to protect everyone in Maine and across the country from ICE's violent racist tactics, unquote. Main People's Alliance board member Sean Donnelly said, quote, Graham names the oligarchy and corporate greed as the true enemies of progress in Washington, and he understands that the only way to defeat them is through grassroots organizing. His personal story of finding purpose through his community and activism has the power to inspire many who may feel angry, disconnected, or hopeless about politics.

Graham is a talented leader whose values, vision, and strategy are aligned with the mission of the main people's alliance, unquote. Following the primary, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Plattner over Susan Collins, who was one of the deciding votes in sending Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and last week, the Maine Service Employees Association, which represents more than 13,000 active and retired public service workers in the state, formerly endorsed Graham Platner. So why are these endorsements and community ties important? These relations are what a working class campaign's political platform emerges from. And this community voting block is a mechanism to hold working class candidates accountable to their constituents.

Platner has told the New York Times that he's a, quote, firm believer that organized people is the only actual place of power to conflict with organized money. and in our society, money is very organized, unquote. He echoed this sentiment at a campaign rally covered by more perfect union. Politics is about power. And in this society, power is either organized money or it's organized people. And the money is organized. It always has been.

And it always will be until we organize enough people to pull it back. In May, Plattner told John Stewart that getting someone like him elected, Quote, needs to be in tandem with a fully organized, broad-based coalition here in the state of Maine that can put pressure on members of our delegation if need be, because it's not going to be enough to just rely on the systems, unquote. Two days before the primary election, Plattner spoke at a town hall about building a Senate office that prioritizes a relationship with labor unions rather than the owners of the industries that labor works in.

a Senate office where a worker, labor organizer, or civil rights representative should get more face-to-face time with a senator than any lobbyist. I very much believe that we need to connect that kind of local organizing work directly to a Senate office in D.C. So it's something like I used to have been an organizer with Maine People's Alliance before. And I firmly believe that we need closer coordination between. community organizations, environmental organizations, frankly, all of the organizing groups around Maine with institutional power. Because I do think that that's, history tends to show that you're most successful when outside organizing is working in tandem with institutional power.

That tends to be when we get the most significant wins. I'll come back to discuss how the Platner campaign was actually run after this ad, Pride Month, Toronto. Pride is an opportunity for you to create your own space, to celebrate your existence. Iheart Radio is proud to be an official sponsor of Pride Toronto Festival, and we won't stop. Celebrate Pride. Turn up the love and listen to IHeart Pride Canada, your 24-7 radio stream and the only playlist you need for your Toronto Pride celebrations. Pride is so great because it gives a whole bunch of people this visibility that they've never had before.

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Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to What Could Happen here. This past April, One of Platner's former high school classmates turned journalist named Josh Keefe wrote an article for the Maine monitor about why Platner's campaign has been so successful in Maine. The Platner told his former classmate that the campaign is being run like a community organizing project. Quote, this kind of campaign and kind of politics with an organizing focus, this doesn't work if you just run TV ads. My background is in organizing, and I want to take that on the road as a candidate. And the only way it ever works is by going out and engaging with people directly.

You got to like not sleep, unquote. Direct person-to-person engagement has been the hallmark of Plattenor's campaign strategy. Here, age is certainly playing a factor in the race. Plattenor is 41. Janet Mills is 78. and Susan Collins is 73. Platner's younger age is not just compelling to voters who want a younger generation of candidates,

but it also impacts how he can campaign. Platner is effectively campaigning full-time, making three to six campaign appearances a day while his business partner handles the oyster farm. From late September to the early June primary, his campaign held 83 town hall events across the state, pulling in hundreds of people per event and filling out community venues. In comparison, Susan Collins has not held a single public town hall meeting in over 25 years.

Janet Mills didn't even release a policy platform until April. Platner told a more perfect union, quote, people want to hear about the future, people want to hear about your policies, and people also want access to you so they can figure out if you're full of your future. shit or not, unquote. Considering the smaller size of Maine, come the November election, there's a good chance Plattenor will have spoken face to face with nearly every voter in the state. At these town halls, he often talks about power, how working class power won the new deal, and how since the 70s, corporate interests have been undermining that power, using money to influence policy. At an event

in Freiburg, Maine, Platner said, quote, we are the richest society in the history of humanity. We can have universal health care. We can have universal childcare. We can have universal education going from kindergarten all the way through higher education. We can have a tax code that pulls back the wealth that was stolen from the working class of this country

for the past 50 years. What we need to do is from the ground up, build power the old-fashioned way. This comes from organizing, unquote. Platner's campaign has helped with other local electoral and legislative efforts, and the main monitor reported that Plattenor's events often serve as locations for, quote, food donation drop-offs. He is frequently introduced by a local activist who gets to talk about their work, unquote.

Platner told the main monitor, quote, we really have to fundamentally understand that no one is coming to save us. And the only way to build that power on your own is here, in the real world. Face to face with your neighbors, building trust in relationships again, unquote. Plattner's also said that building that kind of outside power is also how to find more people to run for office

and gather the resources needed to get them elected to take power. In an interview with John Stewart, Plattner said that because the U.S. Senate is in many ways a uniquely undemocratic institution, quote, set up to be a specific bulwark against working-class people to protect the elites, that actually makes it a quote-unquote unique place of power if candidates with strong ties to working-class communities

can occupy those seats. Following their historic loss in 2024, the Democratic Party establishment has been in a uniquely weak position, opening up the opportunity to address the issues that have led the party into national irrelevancy. Graham Platner lays blame on the Democrats abandoning the working class. And that doesn't just mean white construction workers, but the actual multicultural, multiracial working class,

wage workers and those who cannot live off their investments. For the past 40 years, the party has abandoned organized labor and begun catering to upper middle class professionals and has become a party of the elites and Ivy leagues. In the United States, there are a lot of people who don't vote, based on an ideology they hold, but in response to what's happening in their communities. Hospitals closing, jobs disappearing,

groceries and utility is getting more expensive. Why would they vote for a party that says everything is fine? The economy is technically doing great. The Democratic establishment has wagered that voters would rather protect the system rather than change it. And in 2024, that wager was proven wrong.

People want change, even if that change is being promised by a billionaire charlatan whose real interest is in serving the upper class and tech companies. But for as many people who decided to vote for Trump, there were many others who saw through the charade, but were so disillusioned by party politics that they chose not to vote at all. Plattner's campaign has made itself not just about taking on Trump or even Susan Collins, but a part of the party. part of a larger seismic shift, the working class reasserting its power and taking back the Democratic Party. To quote, the main monitor, quote, unlike Janet Mills, he's not trying to convince voters he will stand up to Trump. He's trying to start a movement to build a world without the despair and resentment that he

believes allows Trump's brand of politics to flourish, unquote. Later at that event in the town of Freiburg, Platner, told the crowd, quote, people, when their lives begin to deteriorate, are going to look for folks to blame. And if we don't have an actual answer, then hatred and xenophobia and racism and homophobia and transphobia, all of them will fill the vacuum. This means we have to go out in our community and we have to wear our hearts on our sleeves, unquote. Maine has semi-open primaries, meaning that unenrolled voters can vote in a party primary. In the lead up to the primary, Plattner's campaign did a series of videos where he gets coffee with Republican-leaning voters,

and they talk about how their interests are more aligned compared to the interests of Trump, the billionaire class, and Susan Collins. Plattner himself has said that his rise in Maine says more about the appetite for a new kind of politics, rather than him specifically as a candidate. But from the perspective of some voters, the slow drip of scandals and controversies might actually bolster Platner's image as an anti-establishment candidate. For example, these people interviewed by CNN and MS Now. Are you considering holding your breath and voting for him? I got until Tuesday to decide, but I'm pretty sure I'll vote for him. I don't take a lot of this crap as anybody else's business.

For some Democrats, they're willing to. look past the interpersonal stories. I'm not really interested in the guy's foibles. You know, I'm interested in his vision and what he has to say. And I love what he has to say. So, yeah, it's been definitely difficult because everybody is piling on this guy. Does he have a problematic past? Yes, but I would rather have a redemption story than somebody telling you how wonderful they are,

how much research they do. And yet they still make the wrong decision for the people of me. On Election Day, June 9th, Platner won 71.9% of the vote, with 154,000 and 58 votes. Governor Janet Mills, who stopped campaigning a month or a half prior but remained on the ballot, won 41,000 votes, or 19.3%. Grand Platner won more primary votes than any other Democratic Senate. candidate in the history of Maine. As he walked onto the stage for his victory speech,

Dropkick Murphy's cover of Which Side Are You On? Blared in the background. Platterner promised, quote, I will be a senator for the people who cannot afford to buy a senator. Now, the national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in the, my life that they can define the campaign by. But in trying so hard to understand me, they failed to

understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us, about the far too many working far too hard and struggling far too much at the hands of the ruling class. At a town hall, just a few days before the primary, Plattner spoke about the need to rebuild our old alliances with labor unions, community organizations, and civil rights groups. Quote, the only thing that's ever beat fascism is a broad-based working-class coalition. Fascism is what we are up against. I think a lot of the folks at the national level misunderstand the reason they keep getting everything wrong.

They think this is a race about me, but it isn't. This is a race about us. This is a race about the future of politics in Maine. This is a race about building power, the old-fashioned way, from the great. round up, going out into our communities, and having hard conversations, putting in time and energy that many of us do not have. We've got to do it anyway. So what I'm asking to do, if you don't want to volunteer on this campaign, that's fine. Join a labor union. Go help out at the local food pantry. Go help out at a food bank. It doesn't matter what you do,

but you got to do something. Because the moment we're in right now, it's going to require all of us, unquote. There were 215,000 votes in the Democratic primary. Platner's campaign had 15,000 volunteers. These volunteers went up against and beat the Democratic establishment, and now they face the GOP establishment. This shift in the politics of the Democratic Party is not isolated to Maine. Democratic socialists just won in Washington, D.C., and following the election of

Zora Mamdani, nine more D.S.A. Canada, just won the Democratic primary in New York, including three seats in the U.S. House Representatives. But Maine occupies a unique place in American politics, the stereotypical purple state. Unseeding Susan Collins would prove that real working class politics don't just win liberal cities, but can take down what Bernie Sanders would call the oligarchy. There's an old saying. as Maine goes, so goes the nation.

If you want to stop war with Iran and end the forever wars, if you want to give workers the raise they deserve, seniors, the security they worked for, you want to bring back Roe v. Wade, as Maine goes, so goes the nation. If you want to stop a Trump family slush fund, their ballroom, their deals with salary, Proustes and tech oligarchs, if you want to stop the corruption, as Maine goes, so goes the nation.

If we want to dismantle ICE, win back the Senate, check Donald Trump's power, and take back ours, as Maine goes, so goes the nation. Together, we will defeat Susan Collins. Grand Platner is slightly ahead in the polls above Susan Collins, but the race is still quite close. In 2020, when Collins was facing a challenger, she too was behind in the polls, but still pulled off a victory. That doesn't for me at It Could Happen Here. See you on the other side.

It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Coolzone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Joy is essential and it's also elusive.

But now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Open your free IHeart radio app. Search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotfi is presented by CVS.

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