Susan Collins Faces 41-Year-Old Graham Platner as Democrats Target Key Maine Senate Pickup
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 18
Susan Collins Faces 41-Year-Old Graham Platner as Democrats Target Key Maine Senate Pickup
11 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 18
Susan Collins, 73, is heading into her toughest Maine re-election fight in years against Graham Platner, a 41-year-old marine veteran and oysterman whose insurgent rise pushed Governor Janet Mills out of the Democratic primary.
Single-digit early polling and Maine’s status as the only Republican-held Senate seat in a state Kamala Harris won in 2024 have made the race a prime Democratic pickup opportunity.
Trump’s return to the White House complicates Collins’s usual moderate brand: she has broken with him on votes including his second impeachment, but Democrats are casting those moves as symbolic while tying her to Kavanaugh, Dobbs and other GOP priorities.
$42 million from the top Senate GOP super PAC gives Collins a major financial edge, and Republicans are expected to intensify attacks on Platner’s past racist, sexist and homophobic posts and a tattoo controversy.
Collins is betting that nearly 30 years of delivering federal funding to Maine — and her seniority as Appropriations chair — will matter more to voters than national fights over Trump.
Will voters favor a candidate's novel tax plans or a long-standing record of securing federal funds for the state?
As AI data centers face local opposition, how might this national tech debate decide Maine's closely watched Senate race?
Maine 2026 Senate Race: Collins, Platner, and the High-Stakes Battle for Senate Majority
Overview
The 2026 U.S. Senate race in Maine is highly competitive, with ongoing polling efforts and strong public interest tracked since early in the year. Regular surveys, such as those by Emerson College, highlight the continuous effort to gauge voter sentiment and reflect the race's dynamic nature. Alongside traditional polls, prediction markets provide another view of momentum, as users wager on real-world outcomes and often consider these markets more reliable. Together, these tools underscore the uncertainty and excitement surrounding the contest, as both polling and market activity reveal a closely watched and evolving political landscape.