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Politics
Calling Attacks on Platner ‘Politics as Usual’, Mainers Say They Have Back of Working-Class Champion
“We’re going to win on Tuesday, and we’re going to win in November, and we’re going to take power back for the people in this country," said the US Senate candidate from Maine.
Jun 08, 2026
At Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner's final town hall ahead of Tuesday's primary election in Maine, the combat veteran and oyster farmer received a warm welcome from roughly 400 attendees who appeared eager to focus on the candidate's policy platform and issues affecting working Mainers rather than numerous attacks that have been launched against him in recent months.
Platner walked into a meeting room at an Elks Lodge in Portland, Maine's largest city, to a standing ovation and said, as he had at a rally on Friday with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) in Bar Harbor, that Mainers have shown they "have my back."
“We’re going to win on Tuesday, and we’re going to win in November, and we’re going to take power back for the people in this country," he told the crowd.
After speaking for close to an hour about issues including economic inequality, his goal of being "a voice that says no to war" in the US Senate, and his push for Medicare for All, Platner opened the floor for questions that focused on repealing Citizens United, his plan to pass a billionaire wealth tax, and the lawmakers and Senate committees the political newcomer has begun building relationships with as he aims to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
He named Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) as a lawmaker he has little in common with ideologically but with whom he shares a goal of ending "forever wars," and listed Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as some of the other senators he hopes to work with closely.
One woman stood up to note that some in the national corporate media have appeared certain in recent days that they "know" the voters of Maine and that they are likely to turn against Platner following news stories about his past marital struggles, former relationships, comments he made online years ago, and a tattoo he got while in the Marines.
"What do people not understand about Mainers?" the voter asked.
Platner answered that he's had conversations about economic inequality with people across the state—including at more than 80 town halls—and said that those focused on the controversies don't understand "how clear-eyed" and "how frustrated" Maine voters are with the political status quo.
“I think a lot of folks at the national level misunderstand,” he said at one point. “The reason they keep getting everything wrong is they think this is a race about me, but it isn’t. This is a race about us. This is a race about the future of politics in Maine."
One voter, Kurt Fedora of Buxton, told The Associated Press that he views the controversies that the national media has focused on in recent months as a smear campaign.
"They’re really reaching far to try to pin something on him. And it’s politics as usual,” Fedora told the outlet.
As Common Dreams noted Sunday, The New York Times' reporting last week on allegations that Platner was physically aggressive in past relationships—which he denied—has not appeared to make a dent in his campaign's fundraising. As he rallied with Khanna the day after the report came out, the campaign announced it had raised over $200,000 that day—"more money than on any day" since Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign in April.
Similarly, when earlier stories broke about his tattoo and Reddit posts, Platner only widened his lead over Mills in primary polls.
One attendee named Paul told Common Dreams that at the Sunday town hall, Platner had "described a system that needs to be changed," and that the same system "is out to destroy him in any way they can" by publishing stories like one that focused on Platner's text messages with women early in his marriage.
"There was no way I could care less about that," he said. "I always like to say, it's between him and his wife."
Another supporter, Claudia, added that ahead of Tuesday's primary election, she is "looking at the bigger picture."
"This country is in a really dangerous state. I mean, it's terrifying every day," she told Common Dreams. "You want more Susan Collins? I don't think so."
"I really appreciated the fact that he knows that he needs to have people with whom he has a relationship in Washington and with whom he can work," she added, turning her attention to the substance of Platner's remarks. "I feel like he's done a really good job of not only appreciating what so many of the issues are, but how he can engage with people down there [in DC]."
Platner emphasized that the Democratic Party has tried to unseat Collins numerous times since she took office in 1997, most recently with moderate state lawmaker Sara Gideon in 2020. Mills spoke affectionately about Collins last September, a month before she jumped into the race, saying she appreciates "everything she is doing" during President Donald Trump's second term.
Collins has long cast herself as a "moderate" and a defender of women's rights in particular, despite the fact that she has voted to confirm more than a dozen anti-choice judges in Trump's second administration alone.
“We are going to beat someone that the establishment of the Democratic Party has failed to unseat for 30 years,” Platner said. “We are going to beat someone who, for years, has tried to trick us all into thinking that she’s a moderate.”
While focusing their attention on Platner's policy platform, some in the crowd at the town hall suggested they were eager to rally for the candidate partially because of the recent attacks on his character. One attendee, Laurie Hudson, passed around a card she had made that read, "We are your Graham-ily and we've got your back," asking others in the audience to sign. She presented it to Platner after his opening remarks.
Platner urged attendees to get involved not only in his campaign's get-out-the-vote efforts in the final days of the primary campaign—by "going out into our communities and having hard conversations"—but in a larger movement powered by the working class, aimed at beating back Trump's agenda and the corporations and dark money groups that helped pave his way to the White House by pouring billions of dollars into elections.
"Throughout history, the only thing that's ever beaten fascism is a broad-based working-class coalition," said Platner. "This is a race about building power the old-fashioned way, from the ground up... Join a labor union, go help out at the local food pantry, go help out at a food bank, but you've got to do something. Because the moment we're in right now, it's going to require all of us.
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Trump Renews Call for Firing Senate Parliamentarian to Pass GOP Attack on Voting Rights
Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated that he would not fire the parliamentarian after the president's angry tirade.
Jun 08, 2026
President Donald Trump on Monday renewed calls to fire US Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who in recent months has thwarted Republicans' efforts to include funding for his luxury ballroom and voter suppression legislation into a budget reconciliation package.
In a social media post, the president demanded Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) dismiss MacDonough, whom he described as "a nasty holdover" from former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) who "treats Republicans, and everything that they stand for, horribly!"
"She is known as a Radical Left Lunatic that caters to Democrats," Trump continued, "and has no respect for Republicans, or Republican Ideology... We have every right to change her, and should do so, IMMEDIATELY. As long as she’s there, we will never get our desperately needed, SAVE AMERICA ACT, approved, and put into full force and effect!"
Despite Trump's demands, there is little indication that Thune has any desire to fire the parliamentarian. As reported by Punchbowl News' Andrew Desiderio, the GOP Senate leader expressed appreciation for the work MacDonough has done since she took on the job in 2012.
"Parliamentarian rulings break both ways," Thune said. "You lose a few, you win a few. That's been true when the Democrats have been in the majority too. That’s a hard job. It’s a very specific skill set. And you need somebody that is going to be a fair referee."
Commenting on the president's post, Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman noted that the president has much larger problems in the Senate than MacDonough, as Republicans themselves "disagree with parts of his agenda."
Sherman also hinted that Trump has caused further problems for himself in recent weeks, as his nomination of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte to be his acting director of national intelligence has completely blown up a bipartisan plan to extend warrantless spying powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Trump has created headaches for Republicans by not only asking them to fund security for his ballroom, but also creating and defending a $1.8 billion slush fund aimed at paying off political allies who were supposedly victims of a "weaponized" Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration last week agreed to at least temporarily shut down the fund, which drew widespread political pushback after administration officials acknowledged it could be used to pay off rioters who stormed the US Capitol on the president's behalf on January 6, 2021.
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'Schumer Is Far Out of Touch': 80% of New York Democrats Oppose US Weapons Transfers to Israel
“If current party leadership is unwilling to represent their own voters and the majority of Americans, then it is time for new leadership."
Jun 08, 2026
A poll released Monday shows that around 80% of Democratic voters in New York oppose US weapons transfers to Israel, putting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer—a stalwart supporter of Israel—way out of step with his voter base.
The survey, conducted by Data for Progress and published by the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project, found that 82% of New York Democrats—and 60% of the state's voters overall—believe the US "should restrict taxpayer-funded weapons to Israel until it stops attacking civilians in Gaza." The poll also found that 76% of Democratic voters in the state would favor the US Senate voting to halt the transfer of US bombs to Israel, which has repeatedly used American weaponry to commit grave war crimes.
The poll was conducted roughly a month after Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) broke with the overwhelming majority of their Democratic colleagues in voting against two resolutions aimed at blocking Trump administration sales of 1,000-pound bombs and bulldozers to the Israeli government.
The resolutions were spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who polled more favorably than Schumer among New York voters overall—as did New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has been floated as a possible primary challenger to Schumer in 2028.
"New York State voters, especially Democrats, aren’t being represented by their senators," the IMEU Policy Project wrote on social media, adding that "Schumer is far out of touch with New York voters on funding Israel."
A majority of New York voters (51%), and 70% of Democrats, believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, according to the new poll, a position that Schumer has rejected—putting him in conflict with both his own constituents and leading Holocaust scholars and human rights organizations.
“When Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand voted against blocking the bombs and bulldozers Israel is using to destroy Palestinian and Lebanese homes, they were not just voting against the vast majority of their own Senate caucus and Democratic voters, but they were voting against the majority of New Yorkers they’re elected to represent,” Margaret DeReus, the IMEU Policy Project's executive director, said in a statement. “If current party leadership is unwilling to represent their own voters and the majority of Americans, then it is time for new leadership."
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Texas Lawyer Who Defended Paxton Against Impeachment Endorses Talarico for US Senate
“Republicans have had control of Texas for 30 years,” said lawyer Dan Cogdell. "We are last in the country in healthcare, bottom for education, first in school shootings, first in most uninsured.”
Jun 08, 2026
James Talarico, the Democratic Texas state representative hoping to flip Sen. John Cornyn's seat blue this November, just received the endorsement of a rather unlikely figure: his opponent’s longtime defense lawyer.
Dan Cogdell, the Houston attorney who represented Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for nearly a decade, said on Monday that his former client was too focused on serving President Donald Trump and had "lost sight" of the goal to serve Texans.
Cogdell defended Paxton in 2023 when he was impeached by the GOP-controlled Texas House of Representatives for allegedly accepting bribes from a campaign donor, and in a separate securities fraud case that began in 2015 and lasted nearly a decade.
“I defended Ken Paxton for years in the impeachment trial and in state criminal cases. But in my view, respectfully, I think Ken has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas,” Cogdell said on his podcast, where he hosted Talarico, the 37-year-old state representative, who won the Democratic primary in March.
“Unlike Ken, I believe to my core that James Talarico believes in unity over division and that he knows how to assemble not only Democrats, but Independents and Republicans, and we need that right now,” Cogdell continued.
According to NOTUS, which first reported on Cogdell's endorsement, the attorney had donated $6,500 to Paxton's Senate campaign last year, but turned around to give Talarico a $1,000 donation in March.
Paxton won the Republican Senate primary last month after Trump intervened to support him over Cornyn.
Cogdell has, in recent years, broken with Trump, referring to him last year as “the greatest threat to democracy our country’s ever seen," comments that were used in anti-Paxton attack ads.
But as he's pursued a Senate run, Paxton—who attempted to help the president overturn his loss in the 2020 election—has only doubled down on his Trump loyalty. In the president's second term, the attorney general has directed Texas law enforcement to help with his national mass deportation campaign, backed his efforts to carry out ruthless partisan redistricting, and pursued legal action against the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue.
Talarico is hoping to become the first Democrat to win a statewide election in Texas in over 30 years. Cogdell said he would represent a much-needed change.
“Republicans have had control of Texas for 30 years. Enough is enough. We are last in the country in healthcare, bottom for education, first in school shootings, first in most uninsured,” he said. “We are in a war we shouldn’t be in. Gas is so expensive, I literally can’t fill up my truck because most pumps shut off at $125.00, and at over $5.00 a gallon, that’s not even a full tank.”
Talarico, who is tied or slightly leading Paxton in recent polls, seized on Cogdell’s endorsement to welcome disgruntled Cornyn supporters into the Democratic tent after a bitter primary.
“If you voted for John Cornyn, you have a place in this campaign,” Talarico said. “If you’re a Republican tired of the corruption you’re seeing in government, you have a place in this campaign. Even if you’re Ken Paxton’s impeachment lawyer, you have a place in this campaign. We are building a people-powered movement that welcomes Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike.”
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