Platner Enters 3-Month Limbo After Primary Win as Maine’s 2020 Split-Ticket Women Hold Key
Updated
Updated · The Boston Globe · Jun 9
Platner Enters 3-Month Limbo After Primary Win as Maine’s 2020 Split-Ticket Women Hold Key
3 articles · Updated · The Boston Globe · Jun 9
Summary
Three months after winning Maine’s Democratic Senate primary, Graham Platner heads into a summer holding pattern as scrutiny of his past dominates the race and clouds his bid to unseat Republican Susan Collins.
Labor Day is the next likely inflection point because any new damaging material would probably emerge closer to the election, leaving his campaign stuck under the same electability questions through the summer.
Female voters — generally older women who backed Joe Biden for president and Collins for Senate in 2020 — are seen as the decisive bloc; women made up 60% of Maine’s 2024 electorate.
National Democrats also face a test: Platner must shift attention back to Collins’s record and keep outside money flowing to Maine, a top pickup opportunity as Democrats try to flip 4 Republican-held seats.