Democrats didn’t find Platner. Platner found them. | Douglas Rooks

[](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/election-2026/) _[Read all of our coverage](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/election-2026/) of Maine's 2026 election or stay up to date with the latest developments through the [Maine Political Report](https://www.pressherald.com/mprnewsletter/) in your inbox or [text messages](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/11/maine-political-news-sent-right-to-your-phone-sign-up-for-text-alerts-from-our-editor/) from politics editor Kirby Wilson._ **Douglas Rooks** _has been a Maine editor, columnist and reporter for 41 years. He welcomes comment at_ [_\[email protected\]_](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#d0b4a2bfbfbba390a4b4a3febeb5a4). The day after an election was once decisive in Maine. Ranked-choice voting changed all that. The U.S. Senate primary, however, [was settled in record time](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/06/09/graham-platner-clinches-democratic-nomination-to-take-on-susan-collins-in-maine-senate-race/), just an hour after the polls closed. The other important races, both parties’ nominations for governor and the Democratic 2nd Congressional District choice, will have to wait for ranked-choice tabulation. There’s no question this was Graham Platner’s night. He not only got more than 70% of the vote against an incumbent two-term governor, but did so after an all-out national media campaign, [led by the New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/politics/platner-maine-senate-girlfriends-relationships.html) of all publications, aimed at getting Democrats to drop him. Voters in the first primary allowing independents to participate had other ideas. Platner the “oyster farmer” came from nowhere to shock both the Democratic and Republican establishments, an outcome not seen in Maine since Ed Muskie overcame a full century of GOP dominance to win the governorship in 1954 — a feat that also landed him on the front page of the New York Times. Perhaps now reporters can stop asking who Graham Platner is — his personal life has been more extensively vetted than anyone could reasonably expect — and focus on what Graham Platner represents. He comes from a state where Republicans dominated for 100 years and Democrats have led for 50, and where both parties have essentially run out of gas, hostile to big ideas and unable to coherently address voters’ major concerns. Platner reaches Mainers who cannot obtain healthcare reliably and affordably, despite the still-contested Affordable Care Act. He speaks to workers who can’t obtain a decent wage that will support their families and struggle from paycheck to paycheck, thanks to the corporate interests that dominate both the economy and the federal government. Advertisement Unlike other candidates, he has credible solutions to both problems — a national healthcare system and fair bargaining rights for employees. To call this “utopian” or “heretical,” as many in both parties still do, is to miss the point. Voters of all stripes want change, and they’re tired of waiting. Platner brought both strands of politics together on election night by saying “If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change.” That puts it squarely: either you believe he has recovered from the shattering experience of war and now has something important to say to us, or you don’t. The primary results suggest Mainers believe him. And the Republican propensity to go to war for any reason under George W. Bush and Donald Trump will also be on the ballot. Just last week, Sen. Susan Collins once again stuck by her vote for Bush’s plan to invade Iraq in 2003, [telling the Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/06/07/iraq-war-shapes-maine-senate-race-between-veteran-graham-platner-susan-collins/) it was a “logical response” to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Platner responded, “The problem is: it was al-Qaida who attacked us, Senator. They were in Afghanistan, not Iraq. But that didn’t stop you from still sending me to both.” We now have a candidate who understands what’s at stake against an incumbent who’s attempting to reinvent the past. Platner is twice battle-hardened, first in wars that took the lives of some of his closest comrades, and now by an all-out political and media campaign against him. With Trump’s misbegotten Iran war continuing indefinitely, it’s doubtful voters will forget. If Platner prevails, Maine will have its first Democratic senator in more than three decades — a big asterisk in a state that’s voted steadily for Democratic presidential candidates during all that time. Members of the Maine Democratic Party didn’t find a candidate. Graham Platner found them. Advertisement Elsewhere, it’s wait-and-see. [Bobby Charles has a wide lead](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/06/09/bobby-charles-surges-to-the-top-of-republican-governor-primary/) in the Republican governor’s race, likely sufficient to deflect any second-place votes. But Nirav Shah, who has a solid first-round lead among Democrats, faces [an ad hoc alliance](https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2026-05-26/jackson-bellows-pingree-will-rank-each-other-while-shah-leads-democratic-gubernatorial-primary) from the next three, Hannah Pingree, Troy Jackson and Shenna Bellows who worked to offset Shah’s support. Here too the Democratic establishment is backing the status quo, with Shah cast as the outsider. The [2nd District race](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/06/09/2nd-district-democratic-primary-going-to-runoff-to-determine-who-faces-paul-lepage-in-november/) is muddier, with Joe Baldacci, Matt Dunlap and Jordan Wood all within a couple of thousand votes. That result really will be a surprise. For Maine, it all comes down to Platner. If he wins, he will be paired with Angus King, a senator literally twice his age. Generational change is finally coming to Maine politics. It’s about time. Copy the Story Link Tagged: [Douglas Rooks](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/douglas-rooks/), [election 2026](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/election-2026/)