Graham Platner | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1984or1985(age 40–41) Blue Hill, Maine, US |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Amy Gertner (m. 2024) |
| Occupation | |
| Website | grahamforsenate |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | |
| Battles/wars | |
Graham Platner (born 1984or1985) is an American oyster farmer, harbormaster, and military veteran who is running in the Democratic primary in the 2026 United States Senate election in Maine, seeking to unseat Republican Susan Collins. His platform emphasizes progressive and populist policies focused on the working class, including support for affordable housing, universal healthcare through Medicare for All, expanded veterans' benefits, and higher taxes on billionaires and large corporations. His campaign has received significant national attention, and has drawn comparisons to that of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Platner was born in Blue Hill in 1984or1985. He is the elder of two sons born to restaurant owner Leslie Harlow and lawyer Bronson Platner. [1] [2] [3] He was raised in Sullivan, a coastal town in rural Maine near Acadia National Park, and Ellsworth. [2] [4] [1]
Platner attended John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor. He earned the "most likely to start a revolution" yearbook superlative in 2003, appearing in the photo with a sign declaring "Free Kosova, Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, Kurdistan, Tibet". When he was 18, he was quoted in the Bangor Daily News after protesting President George W. Bush and the Iraq War at an appearance by Bush at Bangor International Airport. [5]
Platner enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly after graduating from high school in 2003. [6] He attended the Marine Corps School of Infantry, then deployed to Iraq in 2005. [3] He served a total of eight years in the military, including three combat tours in Iraq, in areas including Ramadi and Fallujah. [7] Asked why he served in the Iraq War after protesting it, Platner said, "I thought I could do some good. And I wanted to play soldier. I might have read too much Hemingway." [8]
After four years in the military, Platner enrolled at George Washington University on a GI Bill scholarship. [6] Shortly after beginning school, he enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard and served an additional tour of duty in the war in Afghanistan. [9] [10] He returned to Washington, D.C. in 2011, resuming classes at GWU and working as a bartender at the Tune Inn on Capitol Hill. [11] [12] From 2011 to 2016 he alternated between living in D.C. and military deployments, before withdrawing from GWU and returning to Maine in 2016 for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and other military-related injuries. [10] [6] [8] [13] In 2018, Platner returned to Kabul, Afghanistan for about six months as a State Department security contractor with Constellis, the private military company formerly known as Blackwater. [14] [7] [15] He returned to Maine the same year, saying he quickly grew more disillusioned with the military and what he called fraudulent funneling of taxpayer money to private defense companies. [9] [6]
While on leave from Afghanistan in 2018, Platner spent two weeks farming oysters with Jock Crothers, founder of Waukeag Neck Oyster Co., a small Frenchman Bay operation established in 2010 that supplies restaurants in Downeast Maine. [9] [16] After resigning as a security contractor and returning to Maine later that year, he began working at the farm full-time. [15] He took over the company in 2020, and now owns and operates it with his wife, Amy, and another business partner. [8] [17] [13] He says the business does not make much money, but he is able to supplement his income with benefits he earns as a 100% disabled veteran. [8] [11] Platner is also Sullivan's harbormaster, and runs a mooring and dive service. [4] [18] He is the chair of Sullivan's planning board. [19]
Platner launched his Senate campaign on August 19, 2025, in a video produced by Morris Katz, a senior advisor to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. [20] [17] In the video, Platner highlights his military and working-class credentials, while criticizing his prospective opponent in harsh terms: [21]
I did four infantry tours in the Marine Corps and the Army. 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. And yeah, that means politicians like Susan Collins.
This video received 2.5 million views in its first 24 hours, sparking national media attention. [22] [23] The campaign raised $1 million in its first nine days, and reported amassing over 2,700 volunteers. [24] Similarities in style and viral following have led to comparisons between Platner and Mamdani, with some commentators calling Platner "Maine's Mamdani". [25] [26]
Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Platner on August 30, ahead of a Fighting Oligarchy Tour appearance in Portland with Platner and Maine gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson. [27] [28] The event had originally been scheduled to be held in an auditorium but had to be moved to a much larger arena due to high public interest. [29] [30] Other endorsements include Ken Casey, frontman for the Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys, who endorsed Platner after inviting him onstage at a music festival in Boston. [31] Platner was also endorsed by the Maine State Nurses Association, the trade union for registered nurses in the state. [32]
Platner's campaign reported that more than 800 people attended his first town hall meeting in Ellsworth, Maine, and that bySeptember 2025 [update] over 6,000 volunteers had joined since his August candidacy announcement. [33] [34] Platner has said the volunteer network will also canvass against Maine's Question 1, a ballot measure to restrict absentee voting and require photo identification. [34]
Platner has been characterized as a populist and a progressive. [9] [17] [21] He has received attention for focusing on economic issues facing working-class Americans, and for being willing to criticize the Democratic Party establishment, [35] citing Senator Bernie Sanders as his political influence. [12] His platform includes focusing on housing affordability, universal healthcare through Medicare for All, and ending US involvement in overseas wars. [12] [27] [4] He has called the "genocide happening in Palestine" "the ultimate moral test of our time", and has strongly criticized the Democratic Party establishment for not doing enough to counter Trump administration policies such as mass deportation and support for Israel's war in Gaza. [9] [6] [25] [36] Platner has criticized the "oligarchy": an economic and political system controlled by and benefitting the ultra-wealthy at the expense of everyone else. He advocates for higher taxes on billionaires and large corporations, and more support for the working class. [9] [37] Asked about his stance on LGBTQ rights, Platner has said, "I stand right in the fucking way of anyone who's going to try to come after the freedoms of the LGBTQIA+ community." [38] Platner has explicitly declined to be identified as progressive or liberal, saying, "I think it's silly that thinking people deserve health care, that makes you some kind of lefty. But I do think those working-class policies are necessary." [12] [20] He has highlighted his support for gun rights as a point where he differs from mainstream liberals, [17] and said that many of his friends and colleagues voted for Donald Trump. [20]
In The American Prospect , August Ahlman called Platner part of "a growing wave of populist Senate candidates who are challenging modern understandings of political labels by forefronting anti-establishment, anti-corporate, and distinctly localist politics and policies." [23]
At a Labor Day rally headlined by Sanders, Platner said, "We do not live in a system that is broken. We live in a system that is functioning exactly as it's intended. We live in a system that has been built by the political class to enrich and support billionaires on the backs of working people." [37]
Platner credits his military experience with forming his populist politics. [9] He has called US "military adventurism" "a mechanism of moving taxpayer dollars into the private bank accounts of defense companies, all on the backs of frankly working-class men and women, and on the backs of the people living in societies that we took the wars to." [9] Platner has also credited his veterans' healthcare and disability benefits with enabling him to run his small business, and argues that all Americans should have access to increased social welfare regardless of military service. [28]
Platner lives in Sullivan, Maine. [18] He married his wife, Amy Gertner, in the autumn of 2024. [3] Gertner was an elementary and middle school art teacher until 2024, when she became the business manager for Waukeag Neck Oyster Co. [3] [13] Platner is a competitive pistol shooter and firearms instructor. [17]
