Graham Platner

Graham Platner (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Maine. He will not appear on the ballot for the general election on November 3, 2026. He advanced from the Democratic primary on June 9, 2026.

Platner was born in Blue Hill, Maine.[1] After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served three tours of duty in Iraq. After retiring from active duty, Platner attended George Washington University. He later enlisted in the Army National Guard and served another tour in Afghanistan.[2] Once his tour ended, Platner returned to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a bartender and later as a defense contractor for the State Department.[3][1][4] He later became an oyster farmer in Maine.[1]

Platner launched his candidacy for U.S. Senate on August 19, 2025. In his launch video, Platner said, "I’m not afraid to name an enemy. And the enemy is the oligarchy. It’s the billionaires who pay for it and the politicians who sell us out."[5] On July 8, 2026, Platner announced that he was withdrawing from the general election on Nov. 3, 2026.[6] Click here to read more.

In October 2025, GQ's Ross Barkan wrote that Platner was "a proud economic populist who bashes the oligarchy, supports single-payer healthcare, and wants to end all military aid to Israel... In a state that barely numbers a million people, many have already heard of Platner, and he’s won an endorsement from Bernie Sanders."[3] The Conversation's Prof. Nicholas Jacobs wrote, "Platner represents Democrats’ anxieties about class and geography – a projection of the authenticity they hope might reconcile their national brand with rural America."[7]

Graham Platner did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

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Campaign websitePlatner's campaign website stated the following:Ban billionaires buying electionsAccording to Citizens United, it is every billionaire’s constitutional right to buy an election. As a result, we have individuals spending tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars on political campaigns, a scheme of legalized bribery and vote-buying that drowns out the voices of regular people, effectively replacing what we used to call democracy. Under this system, the prospects for any meaningful reform are grim.We must throw out of Washington any politician who will not commit to passing a constitutional amendment to ban billionaires buying elections!Rebuild our failing healthcare systemOur system of for-profit health insurance is a disaster. We pay more than any other country in the developed world, with little to show for it: low life expectancy, long wait times, and spiraling costs.Healthcare is a basic human right — not a privilege, not a perk, a right. As a veteran, I’m fortunate to receive quality care through the VA. But Americans should not have to put on a uniform or fight in misguided foreign wars just to get decent healthcare. Every single person in this country deserves good healthcare, no matter who you are.We have rural hospitals closing because of policy choices made by Republicans like Susan Collins. In the Senate, I will fight to fund our rural hospitals so that folks across Maine have access to the care they need.I will be a strong supporter of a Medicare for All system, moving away from the for-profit insurance system that has brought us nothing but grief.Americans pay more for prescription drugs than almost any other country on earth. That makes me deeply angry. When I’m in the Senate, I’ll stand up to corporate greed and fight to lower drug prices by empowering the government to negotiate drug costs, like almost every other developed nation. We have politicians of both parties taking Big Pharma checks and doing their bidding. I’ll put Mainers first, not the drug companies.I will end the shameful practice of subsidizing drug companies to the tune of billions of dollars of public money, while allowing those companies to then turn around and gouge Americans for drugs funded with public resources.Read Graham’s comprehensive plan here.Support Small Business – Break Up the MonopoliesSmall business, in Maine and beyond, has entered a new period of crisis. While COVID accelerated the process of mass small business closures, this trend has been going on for decades.Solving this is no easy matter, but many solutions are straightforward. In particular: why should small businesses pay a higher tax rate than multi-national corporations like Amazon? Righting this wrong will be among my top priorities in the Senate.Stop the mass deportation machine; pass real immigration reformOur government is kidnapping people off the streets and imprisoning them in hellish conditions. This is unconscionable.It is long past time for serious immigration reform. Unfortunately, many multi-national corporations have no interest in this. They want illegal workers with no rights who they can pay slave wages and abuse at will. I will support a path to citizenship and an end to the mass deportation machine.We need strong border security and a path to citizenship. We cannot do one without the other.Defend our air, our water, our land and our climateMaine is a special place, and our way of life, our economy, and our future depends on preserving it.In the Senate, I will fight for urgent action on climate change. We see it; we know it’s happening; and we know that without sustained action, everything is at risk.I will stand up against efforts to dismantle the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Moreover, as we’re seeing now, we need to significantly strengthen these pieces of legislation, so that enforcement against massive polluters and repeat offenders does not depend upon the whims of whoever happens to be President.Decisive action on the housing crisisThe housing crisis is existential. The American dream of owning a home is wilting, as private equity firms and hedge funds buy up housing stock to enrich wealthy investors. We used to provide serious federal support for housing creation, and no longer do. We need to bring back serious federal support for building housing.The VA home loan program has provided a critical lifeline to many Americans. These home loans should be available to far more Americans, providing a critical lifeline.Ban hedge funds buying homes. I bought my house in 2017. If I hadn't, my wife and I would now be priced out of the town I grew up in, like the millions of Americans being exiled from their towns and cities. There is good legislation languishing to move our homes out of Wall Street's clutches, back into the hands of the American people.Defend Medicare and MedicaidThese programs, while not enough, are lifelines for millions of Americans, allowing them to live with a degree of dignity. And yet there are many in Washington, too many, who dream of dismantling them for private gain for a very few.I will oppose ANY cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and work to pass improved Medicare for ALL.Protect Social Security – before it goes bankruptSocial Security has been under steady assault by politicians for decades, and we are nearing a breaking point.Lifting the payroll tax cap would make Social Security solvent for decades to come, while allowing for COLA increases. It’s long past time to protect Social Security for future generations.End billionaire tax dodgingWe have an absurd system where you and I pay a higher tax rate than the richest people in human history.We must pass a billionaire minimum tax, establishing a baseline tax rate that the super-rich cannot go under.This policy is extremely popular – but too often, we have elections between multiple candidates who refuse to support it. I will make this election a referendum over whether the richest people in human history should be allowed to dodge their taxes while you and I pay through the nose.Uphold tribal sovereignty and self-determinationThe Wabanaki of Maine are entitled to true sovereignty and self-determination. Too often, the state and federal governments have run roughshod over tribal sovereignty.As the campaign progresses, I look forward to developing a detailed platform on tribal issues, in collaboration with the Wabanaki who have been poorly represented in Washington for far too long.Strengthen our working waterfrontI would be the first commercial fisherman in the U.S. Senate, and a friend to Maine’s working waterfront. The waterfront is central to our nation’s food sovereignty, a critical component of our national security.I will support expanded cold storage capacity for cooperative processing, grant programs to expand the maritime workforce, and provide significant resources to contain invasive species.I will support swift passage of the Working Waterfronts Act, a necessary though insufficient step to protect our waterfront.Support unions, and bring good union jobs to MaineUnions mean higher wages, better conditions, and greater dignity on the job. No wonder that some of the wealthiest Americans have made it their mission in life to destroy unions.I will support the PRO Act, to protect the right to organize and provide significant penalties for illegal union-bustingI will support good union jobs in Maine in every sector.I will support expanded apprenticeship programs to give young Mainers access to some of the most secure, well-paying jobs out there.I will support a union job requirement for all jobs funded by federal dollars. Omitting this was a major failure of the IRA, one I look forward to remedying in the Senate.Defend and support public schoolsAt the tip of the assault on all things public: the endless attacks on public schools and teachers.The federal government has a critical role to play in ensuring every district has adequate support and resources to provide a quality education to every child in America.I will oppose any federal support for private school vouchers.Keep government out of our private lives; defend the right to chooseGovernment intrusion and surveillance into every aspect of our lives should concern every American. The surveillance state has gone too far, and I will work to restore safeguards and due process.This extends to the government’s regulation of some of the most private and personal decisions a person can make: whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. I support a strong federal guarantee of the right to choose.In addition, I’ll support legislation to restrict corporations’ use of AI to surveil, track, and subject Americans to predatory pricing practices.Protect Maine’s economy: raise the federal minimum wageIt’s time to raise the federal minimum wage – and index it to inflation, so we never again see the buying power of the American worker eroded as we have over the 20 years since we last raised the wage.Raising the federal wage is a matter of basic economic self-preservation. With New Hampshire continuing to hold its wage almost $7/hr less than ours, it is unconscionable that any politician in Maine would not go to the mat for what’s fair for workers and for our state: an across-the-board minimum wage increase at the federal level.Equality for ALLI am tired of seeing politicians using small groups of people as a punching bag – be it race, or gender identity, or sexual orientation.Sadly, we have even Democrats trying to pander to what they think Trump voters want by peddling soft bigotry. (Doesn’t work, never has.)I will support passing, at last, federal LGBTQ anti-discrimination legislation.The War in GazaI have not minced words on this issue. We are sending American taxpayer dollars to underwrite the starvation of Gaza, in what can only be accurately described as a genocide.I stand with all people seeking peace, democracy, and self-determination. In this moment, that means a clear-eyed condemnation of the Gaza genocide, and the use of every means available to America to bring it to an end.End the failed War on DrugsSpending our precious resources on imprisoning people at a higher rate than any other nation, including for benign substances like cannabis, is one of the more misguided government policies in human history.I support legalization of cannabis, along with clemency for those caught up in the dragnet of the war on drugs.With the newfound revenues from legal cannabis, we need to seriously invest in addiction treatment and prevention.Cannabis legalization should benefit locally owned small business, not multi-national conglomerates.Take on waste and corruption at the Pentagon; rebuild American shipbuildingMassive, massive waste in procurement. A revolving door between the Pentagon and massive “defense” contractors. Widespread consolidation, encouraged by deliberate government policy, to the point where competition has virtually disappeared in many vital areas. This is the legacy of several decades of disastrous mismanagement and profiteering at the highest level of the American military. We need to take the funds currently paying for mansions in Virginia and Maryland for defense contractors, and reinvest them into closing the massive shipbuilding gap.I’ve seen under the hood. I know exactly how much money is wasted, and where. Send me to Washington and I will work tirelessly to rebuild the American military.No more pointless warsI will never, ever vote to send Americans into a pointless war. Everything we went through in Iraq can be laid at the feet of those in Washington, like Senator Collins, who knew better but voted “Yes” on a disastrous, deadly war.Address the childcare crisisWe have parents being driven into poverty and out of the workforce by insane childcare costs. Children under 6 need the same level of public investment and support as those over 6. I will work closely with frontline childcare providers to develop serious federal policy on childcare, on which we badly lag behind the rest of the world.Support Americans with disabilitiesAmericans with disabilities deserve access to the same services afforded to me by the VA as a disabled veteran.Too often, Americans with disabilities are an afterthought. In Congress, I’ll fight to ensure they have access to good, affordable healthcare, access to jobs that pay a liveable wage, the right to vote, and services that allow them to live independently. We know that the Trump administration’s assault on Medicaid disproportionally affects Americans with disabilities. I will always fight to defend Medicaid so that people with disabilities can continue accessing the care and services they’ve had their entire lives.Pay servicemen a fair wage; no more servicemen on food stampsMen and women in our armed forces often make far less than they would as a civilian. We have people serving in our armed forces, people who may one day be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice, making poverty wages.If we are serious about addressing the recruitment crisis, we will take some money out of these ungodly contractor and bureaucrat salaries, and pay the rank and file a fair wage.Defend the VA and support our veteransSusan Collins stood shoulder to shoulder with Elon Musk while he slashed the Department of Veterans Affairs. Those cuts aren’t numbers on a spreadsheet — they’re attacks on veterans who rely on the VA. for their health, their care, and their dignity.I served for ten years overseas. I know what sacrifice looks like. And I also know this country is failing far too many of its veterans. I will NEVER turn my back on the men and women who served. If you put on that uniform, then this country owes you a lifetime of respect and support. That means real job training, real career opportunities, and real pathways to stability when you come home.How can we call ourselves the greatest nation on Earth when tens of thousands of veterans are sleeping on the streets tonight? That’s not just wrong — that’s a national disgrace. In the Senate, I will fight to ensure all of our veterans have a roof over their head when they come home.Defend the Post Office and establish postal bankingThe Post Office is a vital lifeline for towns across America. I will protect it from all those who want to gut it for private profit, and reverse the shameful delays in processing time brought on by decades of underfunding.I will work to pass the Postal Banking Act, which would give Americans a vital financial lifeline.Pass term limits – and hold politicians to their term limits pledgesSusan Collins pledged to serve two terms in the U.S. Senate and retire. This was five terms ago.I will support strong term limits for all Congressional representatives – two terms in the Senate, six terms in the House.— Graham Platner's campaign website (April 10, 2026)Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.