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Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Maine oyster farmer wants to upend Democratic politics with Senate bid
A little-known oyster farmer is looking to upend top Democrats' plans in Maine. Democrat Graham Platner, the 40-year-old owner of Waukeag Neck Oyster Co. and an Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran, announced Tuesday he is mounting a challenge to Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Platner has never run for office, and his campaign threatens to disrupt national Democrats' efforts to recruit and unite around Gov. Janet Mills. 'I'm not fooled by this fake charade of Collins' deliberations and moderation,' he said in a campaign kickoff video. 'The difference between Susan Collins and Ted Cruz is at least Ted Cruz is honest about selling us out and not giving a damn.' Platner is running on several progressive tenets — though he rejects the label 'liberal' — and his announcement sets up the possibility of a clash between Democratic Party factions over generational change, Israel and other issues. In an interview with POLITICO, Platner said he would not support Chuck Schumer as Senate Majority Leader if Democrats managed to take back control in the 2026 midterm elections. 'The next leader needs to be one of vision and also somebody who is willing to fight,' he said. 'And I am not seeing either of those things coming out of the current Democratic leadership in the Senate.' He echoed the calls for change that have roiled the party for months, saying it is time to 'really start moving towards building a much stronger, more robust group of young leaders across this country.' Though he's a political newcomer, Platner said he has brought onboard two progressive strategists who have experience successfully running against establishment-favored Democrats: Morris Katz, a top admaker for New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, and Joe Calvello, a former senior aide to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.). Platner embraced a number of progressive causes in his announcement video, calling for universal health care, saying 'the enemy is the oligarchy,' and asking, 'Why are we funding endless wars and bombing children?' He also zeroed in on high prices, a top concern of voters and one that helped fuel Mamdani's rise in New York City. Platner told POLITICO he would have supported Sen. Bernie Sanders' recent resolution to block arms sales to Israel. Though he backed several liberal ideas, Platner shrugged off the label. Maine is a reliably blue state in presidential contests, but Collins has held onto her seat since 1997, and whoever the Senate Democratic nominee is will need to appeal to voters across the aisle. 'To call me a liberal, I think is fairly amusing. I mean, I'm a competitive pistol shooter. That's what I do on the weekends,' he said. 'I'm a firearms instructor. I spent multiple years, obviously, in the service utilizing firearms. I also grew up in rural Maine, where guns are a part of our existence.' He said he also differed with 'the Democratic establishment' on 'expending American resources on foreign wars.' Though much of the liberal base has recently called for fresh faces, national Democrats have turned to well-known, battle-tested — and older — candidates in their longshot effort to flip the upper chamber in 2026. Schumer recruited former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, 72, and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, 68, to launch Senate bids, and Democrats are hoping Mills, 77, joins them. But it appears that Mills will not immediately clear the primary field. Platner vowed to stay in the race even if Mills jumped in, as did Jordan Wood, a former vice president of the liberal group End Citizens United who has raised $1.6 million for his Senate bid. 'Mainers deserve more from our senator than concern without action,' Wood said, 'and I'm not waiting on anyone else's decision to fight for our state." Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Maine oysterman Graham Platner enters race to challenge Sen. Susan Collins
Graham Platner, a military veteran and oysterman from a small town near Maine's Acadia National Park, will run for U.S. Senate as a Democrat, he announced on Tuesday, in an effort to oust Republican Susan Collins, the five-term senator who is expected to run for reelection next year. A campaign launch video shows Platner, bearded and broad-shouldered with a gruff voice, harvesting oysters and chopping wood as he describes how Maine has become "essentially unlivable for working-class people." In an interview Monday with ABC News, Platner said he was driven to run by the growing wealth gap in the U.S., which he said has crippled working-class people in his home state. MORE: What Trump and the White House are planning for the midterms "We are moving in a position where regular, working-class people can't even afford to live in the towns that they were born in," said Platner, who after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army and Marine Corps, moved to the coastal community of Sullivan where he grew up. Platner might draw comparisons to Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman or Dan Osborn, the union leader running as an independent for the Senate in Nebraska after a failed attempt last year. Both men campaigned for the Senate as champions, and representatives, of the white working class, a demographic with whom Democrats have lost ground in recent cycles. Platner has hired Fight Agency, a Democratic consulting firm whose members have worked for Fetterman and Osborn's campaigns, as well as that of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York mayor. "I drink coffee every morning with the guys that I work next to, who are friends of mine, who all voted for Donald Trump. And they voted for Donald Trump because they wanted something new, they wanted change," Platner told ABC News, arguing that his understanding of these voters could help steer the Democratic Party, which he described as "quite confused," back to a winning track. "The Democratic Party needs to return to an age where it is the party of labor unions, it is the party of community organizers, it is the party of fighting for big structural change to benefit working class people," he said. MORE: Trump says he will lead 'movement' to end mail-in voting Asked who he believes is the face of the Democratic Party, Platner said there isn't one, but he indicated an affinity for some of the most progressive members of the Senate. He said he admires the former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and respects Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. Platner described "Medicare for All" as an urgent priority and called the war in Gaza a "genocide," saying he follows the lead of "Israeli scholars on genocide." On the hot-button cultural issue of transgender women's participation in sports, he said the topic is a "distraction from the things that impact Americans materially every single day." "I am dedicated to equality and justice for all in this country," Platner said. "And I think that this specific topic has become such a touchstone of the media discussion because it pulls us away from the conversation that needs to be happening, which is getting every American affordable health care." Maine briefly became the center of the debate over transgender youth in sports in February, after a public spat between President Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the Trump's administration's threat to withhold funding over a Maine anti-discrimination law that lets transgender women participate in girls' and women's sports. Shortly afterward, at a demonstration protesting the Trump administration, Platner, who leads a Democratic grassroots group in Hancock County, said Mills "displayed great courage when she defended Maine's laws to Donald Trump's face," according to a transcript of the remarks posted online by a local Democratic group. Mills, a Democrat, has not ruled out entering the race and has reportedly been urged to run by national Democrats who believe she would offer the best chance at flipping Collins' seat. Asked about a potential primary challenge from Mills, Platner told ABC News that Democrats "really need to stop running the same kind of playbook over and over and over again. "I think we really need to start thinking outside of the box on the type of candidates that we're sending into these races," he said. Asked if he has spoken with national Democrats about backing his campaign, Platner said no. "Nobody has called me, and I'm not really in a position to call anybody because I'm the harbormaster of Sullivan, Maine," he said.
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Kathleen Roy, seeking reelection, says School Committee is 'my only job'
This is the first of three profiles of the candidates for the District E seat on the Worcester School Committee. The Sept. 2 preliminary will narrow the field to two. WORCESTER — Kathleen Roy, who is running for her second term on the Worcester School Committee representing District E, said that serving on the School Committee is her only job. "This is my only job. I don't have any job but School Committee," Roy said. "In September I start and make appointments with every principal in all 11 of my schools and I try and go in at least one a month, sometimes twice a month, and go into the classrooms. I am very big on helping out on reading days. I volunteer at Quinsigamond Elementary Schools a lot of Fridays reading to the kids there." Roy, who was first elected in 2023, said before becoming a School Committee member, she worked in education, working in fundraising for the Diocese of Worcester Catholic Schools. She also is known in the community for her volunteer work through Ty Cobb Little League, serving previously as league president and currently serving on the league board of directors. "Working with the little league, you got to see a lot of the diverse children that make up the student body in Worcester and I wanted to do something that helped out that community," Roy said, when discussing her original intentions to run. District E covers the south portion of Worcester, mainly near the borders of Auburn and Millbury, and encompasses Canterbury Street Magnet School, Columbus Park Preparatory Academy, Gates Lane School, Heard Street Discovery Academy, Quinsigamond School, South High Community School, Sullivan Middle School and Vernon Hill Elementary. Roy joked that over her first term the major thing she learned was the acronyms which describe the countless programs run through Worcester Public Schools to serve students, with Roy specifically mentioning the SAIL (Specialized Approaches to Individual Learning) program that assists students with autism. "Those teachers are unbelievable. I went to a classroom to observe and the students were making telescopes and one little boy was pulling on my sleeve and asked if I could help him, so of course I sat down in one of the little chairs and helped him," Roy said. "The children and the teachers and seeing the way they interacted, we are making a really big difference in those children's lives." In terms of platform, Roy said she opposes student access to cell phones in schools, noting that she voted against a policy the district adopted last year to allow for limited access, and supports a state-wide ban that is currently being discussed on Beacon Hill. "The pushback is some parents like that their kids have their phones in school and if a teacher is in the middle of a lesson and they get a text message, that changes a student's entire thought process," Roy said. Roy said she is also a proponent of returning school resource officers to Worcester Public Schools, a decision that was approved by the City Council in 2021. More: In initial vote, Worcester councilors narrowly back removal of school officers "Some of these children have had very bad interactions with police, sometimes through their parents or with friends," Roy said. "The best way for them to have positive interactions is to have a relationship with their school resource officer. I know some of the officers that were let go from the schools and they were devastated that they were no longer going to be able to have that kind of positive impact with those kids." Roy said she also is a proponent of trade schools and technical education, and wants schools to focus on some practical life skills, citing things like students needing to understand how to balance a checkbook as something schools should try to focus on. In the election, Roy will be facing two challengers in District E in Noelia Chafoya and Nelly Medina. In the 2023 election, Roy narrowly defeated Medina, garnering 1,565 votes to Medina's 1,462. With three candidates, they will appear on the ballot in the municipal preliminary election Sept. 2, where voters will choose their preferred candidate, with the two highest vote getters moving on to the general election Nov. 4. Roy said she believes she is the best candidate because she has been able to accomplish things during her time in office, citing one example of getting after-school buses to help students at Sullivan Middle School get home after extra-curricular activities. "I think I'm the best candidate because I am a doer. I've gotten a lot of things done like the buses at Sullivan Middle School. The students were asking about after-school buses and through their civics class I taught them how to get that on to an agenda and we were able to get that done and that meant a lot to me," Roy said. While the School Committee is a non-partisan board, Roy is a registered Republican and has in the past supported President Donald Trump. Roy said she has not been paying too close attention to moves Trump has made federally regarding education. "I really haven't been paying attention to what is going on federally. I think there are some things we need to look at. I know he wants to get rid of the Department of Education, but I also see there are some good things about that and some bad things about that — it is good to have someone overseeing things," Roy said. This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Roy, seeking reelection, says School Committee is 'my only job' Solve the daily Crossword
