Condemning 'Corruption' of Susan Collins, End Citizens United Endorses Platner in Maine

Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic candidate to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, continues to rake in endorsements, and on Wednesday won support from End Citizens United, which advocates for reversing the US Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate spending in elections.

The oyster farmer and military combat veteran launched his campaign last August with an advertisement declaring that "billionaires" and "the oligarchy" are "the enemy." He has run on campaign finance reform, taxing the rich, Medicare for All, ending "pointless wars" and President Donald Trump's "deportation machine," tackling the childcare crisis, supporting public schools, boosting unions, raising wages, and defending democracy as well as "our air, our water, our land, and our climate."

"Graham Platner understands that people in Maine are fed up watching the same politicians make promises while life keeps getting more expensive and nothing changes," said End Citizens United president Tiffany Muller in a statement. "He's running a campaign rooted in the belief that Washington will never work for working families as long as billionaires, corporations, and special interests are able to buy access and influence at the highest levels of government."

Platner has joined End Citizens United's "Unrig Washington" program, which advocates for a ban on congressional stock trading, refusing corporate political action committee (PAC) contributions, and cracking down on dark money.

"Unlike Graham, who rejects corporate PAC money and refuses to sell out, Sen. Collins has never met a corporate PAC check she didn't like," Muller said of the five-term senator. "She has spent decades rewarding her biggest donors in exchange for campaign contributions. We’re proud to endorse Graham, and we look forward to helping expose Sen. Collins' corruption."

Platner collected $4.1 million from small donors in the first quarter of 2026, and polling has given him an edge over both Collins and Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her primary campaign late last month, citing a lack of financial resources.

"The race has never really been about me or any one person," Platner said after Mills' exit. "It's about a movement of working Mainers who are fed up with being robbed by billionaires and the politicians who own them. We are now taking back our power."

The Democrat delivered a similar message about building "a movement to get money out of politics" and "a government that represents working people" in a Wednesday statement welcoming support from a group that's long worked to overturn the 2010 decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

"We don't take a dime of corporate PAC money, and we're going to keep it that way, because our politics has been bought and paid for by billionaires for far too long," Platner said. "It's long past time to overturn Citizens United and take on establishment politicians like Susan Collins, who have enriched the ultrawealthy and themselves on the backs of working people in this country. I'm grateful to be endorsed by End Citizens United and to have their support in this fight."

In addition to taxing billionaires and getting money out of politics, Platner has taken aim at the Supreme Court—which has had some turnover since 2010, and since then faced rising public scrutiny for justices' ethics concerns as well as recent decisions from the right-wing supermajority.

Platner said last month that "if we held Supreme Court justices to the same standards that we held federal judges, there is a compelling case for the impeachment and removal of at least two"—likely referring to Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who have come under fire for covertly accepting gifts from billionaires.