Nazi-Tatted Socialist May Win Maine Senate Seat
By Joe Guzzardi
Maine, a summertime vacationer’s paradise with its 3,500 miles of tidal shoreline that attracts sailors, sea kayakers, and windjammers, will hold important 2026 elections that will determine whether the state drifts further left or maintains its shaky status quo. Also at stake is the Senate majority.
An extreme-left state that embraces sanctuary status immigration policies, Maine doesn’t receive as much publicity for its radicalism as its Northeast neighbor Massachusetts, under Governor Maura Healy, or Boston under Mayor Michelle Wu. In 2026, the results of Maine’s elections for U.S. Senator and governor could help bring the state back from the political abyss. Looking at the candidates, however, a recovery seems unlikely. The best hope is to stem further decline toward progressivism.
Many gubernatorial candidates shed their Democratic affiliation to run on the Independent ticket as they vie to replace termed-out Governor Janet Mills, age 77. Instead of fading into the sunset, Mills will run for U.S. Senator against five-term Republican Susan Collins.
Less well known for her extremism than California’s Gavin Newsom or Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker, Mills was tyrannical during COVID-19, ordering and maintaining shelter-in-place orders. Mills declared a civil emergency a mere three days after the first COVID-19 case was discovered, following that through the end of March with stricter gathering limits, closing businesses deemed nonessential, and issuing a stay-at-home order with exceptions for work and essential shopping. Overkill, to say the least. Mills’ COVID-19 advisory board consisted almost exclusively of her siblings: Dora, M.D., who served as MaineHealth’s chief improvement officer, as well as her brothers Peter and Paul.
In eight years, a bad governor can do major harm, and Mills did. Mills led the state deep into debt — nearly $1 billion — which will require severe cuts in services and state jobs. Maine’s projected 2024–25 shortfall was around $408 million, but it has more than doubled to $949 million. Mills’ costly red-carpet welcome of illegal aliens is a major contributor to the budget shortfall. Mills, in office since 2019, proposed to add 75,000 more illegal aliens by 2029 — a population larger than Maine’s biggest city, Portland — and in the process throw citizens further under the bus.
The vehicle that Mills will rely on to provide for the unlawfully present aliens is her newly developed Office of New Americans (ONA), created through the governor’s executive order. Mills’ plan would work toward “making Maine a home of opportunity for all, by welcoming and supporting immigrants to strengthen Maine’s workforce, enhance the vibrancy of Maine’s communities, and build a strong and inclusive economy.” To Mills, the illegal aliens are “New Mainers,” whose total will reach 300,000 once a spouse and an average of two children for each recruit arrives.
Mills has been a fixture in Maine politics since 1980, when she was the District Attorney of Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford Counties. After 45 years, Mainers should be ready for a new face. Indeed, Mills may not survive her primary against her extremist challenger, Iraq veteran and oysterman Graham Platner. In various social media posts and random comments, Platner called himself a “communist,” called “all” police “bastards,” said rural white Americans “actually are” racist and stupid, minimized issues those in the military have in reporting sexual assault, and said those who are raped should “not get so f — -ed up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.”
In his most aggressive rant yet, Platner called to abolish ICE and force agents to testify before Congress. His complete statement at a recent town hall:
“People need to go to prison. We need to have public hearings, public, frankly, probably trials down the road, because the American people deserve to know what the hell is going on right now, and how the people doing it can justify it to themselves. If I have my way, even if we can’t get anything to happen in the Justice Department immediately, I want to drag every single ICE agent that’s been wearing a mask in front of a Senate subcommittee, make them take their mask off, and explain to the American people what the hell they’ve been up to.”
As for Mainers who oppose Medicare-for-All, Platner recommends following them around in public, yelling at them with every step they take. “That’s real power,” Platner said.
In an earlier era, Platner’s blustering would automatically disqualify him from serious consideration, especially for the U.S. Senate. But politics are dramatically different today. Platner, Nazi tattoo and all, is campaigning as an everyday working man, a simple oysterman working on the people’s behalf to conquer the affordability crisis.
Early surveying shows that Platner’s message is resonating. Two newly released polls on Maine’s hotly contested 2026 U.S. Senate race returned very different outcomes: one shows Platner beating Mills in the Democratic primary and then besting Collins in a general election matchup. The second poll found that Platner would lose to Collins in a head-to-head race. No surprise, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) endorsed Platner as Maine’s future.
The Republican National Committee never imagined that it would get behind Collins, whom it generously refers to as a moderate. Collins’ Senate voting record is mixed and includes nay on Amy Coney Barrett but yea on Ketanji Brown Jackson, and yes to convict Trump on his second impeachment trial.
Mills? Platner? Collins? The votes cast in the Maine senators’ offices affect Americans in the other 49 states. In Maine, polling means nothing. In 2020, when Collins trailed her Democratic opponent Sara Gideon in every poll for the entire summer, when the votes were counted, Collins won going away. Democrats shouldn’t discount Collins, Maine’s comeback kid.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
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