'Which Side Are You On?' Platner Releases First Ad in General Election Against Collins

Graham Platner, the upstart candidate who is now the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for a crucial US Senate seat in Maine, put incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on the spot in his first general election campaign ad released Friday.

The video features Platner, who became the presumptive nominee after top rival Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign on Thursday, talking at a campaign rally in which he describes Collins as "the epitome of the establishment politician" who "serves the donors and herself" more than the people who elected her.

Platner goes on to describe Collins as "duplicitous" and "willing to say one thing and do another," while chyrons flash on the screen highlighting Collins' crucial vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who helped end the constitutional right to abortion case healthcare by joining the court's majority to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.

As Platner speaks, voices can be heard in the background singing the union anthem "Which Side Are You On?"

At the end of the ad, a chyron appears on the screen that reads, "Susan Collins: Not on our side."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who was the first US senator to endorse Platner's campaign last year, sent out a letter of support for the Maine Democrat on Friday, arguing that his victory over the establishment-backed Mills in the primary is evidence that "status quo politics is not good enough" in the face of President Donald Trump's authoritarian power grabs.

"We need to elect candidates all over this country who have the guts not only to stand up to Trumpism," Sanders wrote, "but to take on the monied interests of both parties and fight for a working class that has been ignored for far too long. Graham Platner is one of those candidates."

Sanders cautioned that no one should take a Platner victory over Collins for granted, warning that the coming contest "will be one of the closest and most expensive races in the country."

Semafor on Thursday reported that Republicans were planning a massive advertising blitz against Platner, whom polls suggest would defeat Collins if the election were held today.

Semafor noted that the Senate GOP's main super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, has already reserved $42 million in fall ads, while a "sister nonprofit group, One Nation, is running a suite of ads now totaling $18 million."

"I can just tell you that we should have an all-out assault on the concept that somehow, some way, Graham Platner will squeak through," Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told Semafor. "He has to be exposed."