VoteVets Endorses Graham Platner in Maine Senate Race After Spending $50 Million in 2024
Updated
Updated · The Boston Globe · May 20
VoteVets Endorses Graham Platner in Maine Senate Race After Spending $50 Million in 2024
8 articles · Updated · The Boston Globe · May 20
VoteVets backed Graham Platner for Maine’s US Senate race, giving Democrats’ presumptive nominee a high-profile national endorsement as he works to unseat Republican Susan Collins.
Four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and Platner’s anti-"forever war" message drove the endorsement, with the group and Platner both attacking Collins over Trump’s Iran strikes and broader military policy.
The support could bring substantial outside money: VoteVets says it spent $50 million in the 2024 cycle, including nearly $3 million for Ruben Gallego and $1.5 million for Derek Tran.
For Platner, a populist progressive who pushed aside the party establishment’s preferred candidate in the primary, the endorsement signals appeal beyond his ideological base.
Founded in 2006 during backlash to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, VoteVets has become a major Democratic force recruiting and funding veterans and national-security candidates.
What does the political rise of combat veterans with anti-war platforms signal for future US foreign policy?
How did a candidate's public struggles with trauma redefine voter ideas of authenticity in a political campaign?