HOULTON, Maine – U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner made his first northern Maine stop in Houlton Saturday, tapping into growing economic frustrations as a way to garner Aroostook County support for his campaign
“Down here we live in a world of material reality. Down here Medicare and Medicaid cuts are not numbers on a spreadsheet, they are closing hospitals,” Platner said at the American Legion Chester L. Briggs Post 47. “Down here the inability to access things like in-home care means our neighbors die alone. That is what we see down here in the real world.”
Platner is among a growing pool of primary candidates vying to run against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. His opponents include Maine Beer Co. co-owner Dan Kleban, Jordan Wood, former chief of staff to Katie Porter, D-Calif., David Costello, a former official with the U.S. Agency for International Development and potentially Gov. Janet Mills, who has not yet announced a primary run.
On Saturday, Platner’s campaign stops also included Caribou, Collins’ hometown. Collins easily won The County in 2020, pulling 67.5% of the votes compared with Democratic challenger Sara Gideon’s 27.4%.
During the Houlton stop, local resident Bev Chapman and others thanked him for coming to the state’s most northern reaches.
“As a blue dot in this red area it is so overwhelming, It’s a struggle to go to work everyday and listen to the cats and dogs rhetoric that goes on,” Chapman said. “It’s critical that you guys come up here.”
Healthcare is a focus of his campaign, Platner told the Bangor Daily News.
“I think the collapsing healthcare system, the cost of healthcare, is one of the biggest stressors on small rural communities on rural families. If we can fix that on the federal level then I think we give a lot of people in northern Maine a helluva a lot of extra time, money and security to actually live lives that they want to live,” he said.
Although he admits he does not see himself as a politician, Platner said he is doing this because he is an angry man who spent years bitter and disillusioned watching his community fall apart.
“I refuse to wait any longer for somebody else to come and fix it,” Platner said.
Platner pointed to how hard it is to get by.
He shared stories of guys who put their kids through college as clammers, digging two tides a day and plowing driveways in the winter. At the time that was enough. They owned their own home, they had decent healthcare, they even saved for retirement and put money back to put their kid through college, he said.
“That doesn’t exist today, that’s gone. I‘m talking about bringing the Democratic party back to a time when it was the party of working people, the party of unions, ” Platner said.
During Saturday’s presentation a woman asked, “What’s your plan for the illegals that are in this state that get free benefits?”
The crowd roared at her but Platner urged them to listen to her and realize that people are angry.
“People are being robbed, they are being robbed of their critical thinking, they are being robbed of empathy, the answer to that is not shame,” he said. “The answer to that is not anger, the answer is empathy and compassion.”
