Robert Davis
July 12, 2026
U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) walks, on the day of Senate votes, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 4, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
CNN's Harry Enten was floored on Sunday as he discussed new polling that shows Democrats have gained momentum in a key Senate race, even after the candidate who won the party's primary dropped out.
Last week, oyster farmer Graham Platner suspended his campaign for the Maine Senate seat against incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and rape were lodged against him. Platner has described the allegations as "serious," while also claiming that they are false.
Since Platner dropped out, Enten noted that Democrats have a better chance of winning the seat than they did while he was in the race. That appears to buck conventional wisdom that suggested the Democrats would take a big hit from Platner dropping out.
As of July 2, prediction markets such as Kalshi predicted that the race was a toss-up. As of July 12, those same markets showed Democrats having a 63% chance of winning.
Enten noted that the poll shows Platner was "significantly underperforming the fundamentals in Maine." He added that a generic Democratic candidate has a 12-point advantage over Collins in the upcoming midterm election.
"Susan Collins has been winning Senate elections in Maine since — I did the math — before my 10th birthday. My goodness gracious!" Enten said. "But with Susan Collins's luck, her popularity with the Maine electorate is actually more on the downward trend than a lot of Republicans would like."
Enten noted that Collins has a tall task ahead of her now that Platner is out of the race.
"Susan Collins is going to have to break history to win in Maine in 2026. And with Platner out of the race, it makes it much less likely," he said.
Progressives Strategic Failure: A Warning
Sunday 12 July 2026, by Dan La Botz
Democratic Party candidates are perceived by many voters as part of the system, part of the establishment, which indeed most are. The most common profession of Democratic congressional representatives and senators is law. Most don’t seem to share the common experiences of working class and lower middle-class people, because in fact they don’t. Lawyers’ average incomes range between $150,000 and $250,000, while the median income for American workers is $45,000 to $64,000,
So progressive Democratic Party operatives decided they needed to find candidates with a populist message speaking to voters concerns about the cost of living who also resembled the working-class voters to whom they wished to appeal. A couple of young political scouts went to Maine where the Democrats would challenge Republican senator Susan Collins who has served five terms in a Democratic majority state. Talking to local activists these two scouts identified Graham Platner as the candidate who could and would defeat Collins. Defeating Collins, would be key to the Democrats taking control of the Senate.
Platner had served eight years in the U.S. Marines, two tours of duty in Iraq and one with the Maryland National Guard in Afghanistan where he stayed on as a military contractor. Then he returned to his home state of Maine and became an oyster farmer. He married Amy Gertner, a school teacher who became the business manager of his oyster farm.
Platner had progressive politics. He opposed the corporations and supported Medicare for all, he talked about genocide in Gaza and opposed AIPAC, the Israeli lobby. Moreover, he looked the part; he was a brawny guy with of a mustache and beard, tattoos, and a charismatic speaking style. With support from progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders, Platner quickly gained an enthusiastic following and won the Democratic Party primary.
But Platner was not what he appeared to be. He wasn’t from the working class; his father was a lawyer and his mother a business woman. And Platner the oyster farmer was himself a small businessman.
Then the revelations began. Platner had a Nazi tattoo, a Totenkopf (a death’s head), though he denied knowing what it was when he got it. Platner, who suffered from PTSD, also had a lot of emotional problems. Investigations by the media revealed that he sent sexually explicit emails to several women, some of them married. Former girlfriends described him as volatile and one said physically threatening. Then in July a former girlfriend accused him of rape, his prominent supporters such as Sanders abandoned him, and Platner was forced to withdraw from the campaign. Now Democrats will have to find a replacement for him at a special convention with only a few months left until the November election.
Critics have blamed the Democrats’ mistaken choice of Graham Platner on insufficient vetting. There are, however, bigger issues. Unlike candidates of the Democratic Socialists of America who have won in New York and Colorado, Platner was not a member of a left organization and so had no experience of common study, planning, and work as a socialist. He was active in Acadia Action, a local aquaculture and fishing advocacy group in Sullivan, Maine, and—more civic involvement than actual activism—he served as the town harbormaster and chair of the planning board. He did not have the kind of experience that comes from being a labor union activist or being involved in militant confrontations with authorities.
Chosen by young, self-proclaimed political scouts, Platner did not have a proven record of activism, which would have given people a better understanding of who he really was. A friend in Maine wrote, “It was a great ride while it lasted,” But without an experienced activist candidate, it couldn’t last long.
12 July 2024
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