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Platner Holds 7-Point Lead Over Mills in Poll That Found Him Behind Just 3 Months Ago
The survey found Platner with a 33-point lead among independent voters.
Mar 04, 2026
The Pan Atlantic Research poll from December was something of an outlier survey in the Maine Senate race, finding that Democratic Gov. Janet Mills was leading progressive combat veteran Graham Platner by 10 points while a number of other polls at the time had Platner, a political newcomer, in the lead.
But on Wednesday, the research firm released its latest survey results after speaking with a random sampling of 1,120 Mainers again between February 13 and March 2. It found that respondents now more closely matched the findings of other polls, with Platner leading Mills by seven points ahead of the June Democratic primary.
Platner had the support of 46% of respondents, up nine points since December, while the governor polled at 39%, down eight points.
Voters ages 18-34 overwhelmingly support Platner, according to the new poll, with 61% backing him compared to 45% supporting Mills. Independent voters also expressed more support for the progressive candidate, by a 33-point margin.
Platner had more support among voters who earn less than $50,000 per year, with 43% supporting him and 41% backing Mills, and significantly more support among voters who make $100,000 per year or more, while Mills was one point ahead among middle-income voters.
The poll also asked respondents who they would support in the general election in potential matchups between the two Democratic candidates and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Collins and Mills were tied at 44% each, while Platner was ahead of the longtime Republican lawmaker by four points.
The survey also found that Platner—who has been holding packed campaign events across the state, supports Medicare for All and a billionaire minimum tax, and has loudly condemned the Trump administration's attacks on Venezuela and Iran—is the second-most popular politician in the state, after Sen. Angus King (I-Maine).
Pan Atlantic Research released the poll days after a University of New Hampshire survey found Platner ahead of Mills by 38 points in the primary and with an 11-point lead over Collins; Mills was found to be just one point ahead of the Republican.
Platner's support has steadily risen since he announced his candidacy last August. He was endorsed early on by US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and has spoken out frequently against oligarchy, US support for Israel's assault on Gaza, Republican attacks on transgender rights, and President Donald Trump's deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Maine and elsewhere.
Controversies that broke soon after Mills entered the race—at the behest of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)—regarding a tattoo Platner had that resembled a Nazi symbol and posts he had written on Reddit years ago, have done little to dent the candidate's lead in polls.
Earlier this week he won his second endorsement from a US senator when Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) announced his support, and as the latest poll was released Wednesday, Democratic Maine gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson offered his endorsement.
"I'm sick to death of the establishment telling us what we have to do," said Jackson, who has also been endorsed by Sanders. "And until we elect people like Graham Platner up and down this state, up and down this country, we're never going to change it."
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'It's Not What F*cking Happens to Them—It Happens to Us': Graham Platner Emerges as Potent Anti-War Voice
"It is the American people who are asked to make the sacrifice," said the Senate candidate. "It is never those in power. It is never those with wealth. It is always asked of us."
Mar 03, 2026
As the death toll in the US and Israel's assault on Iran rose to nearly 800 on Tuesday and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle pushed for the passage of a war powers resolution to stop President Donald Trump's "horrific war of choice," US Senate candidate Graham Platner, a Democrat from Maine and a combat veteran, is speaking out loudly against another war of choice by the United States.
In a new video posted on social media, Platner noted that his 2026 rival, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), recently said the US should attack Iran only "as a last resort"—something that did not come to pass, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who admitted Monday that the US and Israel waged war due to an "imminent threat" posed by the fact that Israel was planning an attack that Iran was likely to retaliate against.
Platner said Rubio's comments pointed to "quite possibly the most ridiculous excuse for starting a war" and warned that the situation is "spiraling out of control" before emphasizing that Collins "has the power to stop this."
Collins has been named as a potential Republican "yes" vote for the War Powers Resolution that Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has said he'll bring to the Senate floor this week.
"Sen. Collins, I'm just going to ask you straight up," said Platner. "You voted to send me to Iraq. Did you not learn anything from that experience? You need to stand up. The American people do not want this war."
Polling out Sunday showed that just 25% of Americans support the US attack on Iran, and Platner's comments to Collins were just his latest in which he tied Trump's war to the unpopular wars in which Platner himself fought and lost numerous friends.
"They are willing to sacrifice the lives of young American men and women and the lives of Iranian civilians simply to protect their political interests," Platner said at a campaign event in Brewer, Maine on Monday, accusing Trump of waging war partially to distract the public from the Epstein files.
"I cannot think of a more reprehensible act," he said. "I cannot think of a more unpatriotic act, of a more un-American act, than to send our sons and daughters off to die, to kill, to bring immense violence to innocent civilians abroad simply because you're afraid you might lose the midterms. It is disgusting."
Thank you to all who joined us in Brewer yesterday to fight to stop this senseless war.
Full remarks and video below.
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First, I want to say thank you to Food and Medicine for having me. The work of Food and Medicine, the Eastern Maine Labor Council, quite frankly,… pic.twitter.com/mi3BqmyuGl
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) March 2, 2026
He continued:
It is the American people who are asked to make the sacrifice. It is American families who have to bury their dead sons and daughters. It is American friends who have to watch their best friends come home from a war and struggle for years with physical and mental trauma.
That is who bears the brunt of all of this. It is never those in power. It is never those with wealth. It is always asked of us. And that is why we need to only wage war when the American people know it is actually in their best interest. And if it isn't, we do not do it. This war needs to end. And it needs to end now.
[...]
Watching people who do not know the realities of war, watching people who know nothing of the horror that comes with this kind of violence, people who could not even imagine what it feels like in the pit of your stomach when you hear that one of your friends has been killed; or watching one of your best friends be ripped apart by explosives; watching people who have no idea what any of this looks like or feels like celebrate this, disgusts me. And then watching them turn around and tell us that these sacrifices are just "what happens." We just need to be prepared for more casualties, because that's "what happens." It's not what fucking "happens" to them. It's what "happens" to us.
Platner emphasized that the ongoing assault on Iran "is only possible because we have had a Congress that for decades has abdicated its responsibility, its constitutional responsibility, in making war," and demanded that the 2001 Authorization of Use of Military Force be repealed and that Congress go further than the War Powers Resolutions that have been proposed to to rein in Trump's attacks in the Middle East as well as Latin America.
"We need a truly reformed War Powers Act, where we really pull the power back," said Platner. "We need to know why military force is used right off the bat. And it needs to be approved by Congress right off the bat. The Constitution is clear about who is supposed to have the power of waging war in this country. It is the body that is most representative of the American people because it is the American people who have to bear the brunt of combat."
He closed his remarks with a moment of silence for the American service members and hundreds of Iranians who have been killed in Iran in recent days.
"Working people in this country, working people in Iran, working people around the world have everything in common with each other," said Platner. "All of our needs are exactly the same. And we are used as pawns in the games of the powerful and the wealthy."
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Platner Wins Second Senate Endorsement as Gallego Praises Him as 'Fighter' for Working Families
"This is the candidate that can win," the Arizona senator said.
Mar 02, 2026
Senate hopeful Graham Platner has picked up a critical endorsement in Maine's Democratic primary as he seeks to take down five-term Republican incumbent Susan Collins in November.
In a move challenging the party establishment, freshman Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has endorsed the 41-year-old Marine veteran over the state's Democratic governor, Janet Mills, who has the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other leading centrists.
Platner, a proponent of progressive economic policies like Medicare for All and an extreme wealth tax, and an outspoken critic of US military interventionism, already has the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Now, as a recent poll shows him comfortably in the lead for the nomination and more likely than Mills to win in the general, Gallego said he thinks Platner's approach is the best chance Democrats have to nab Maine in November, which will be essential in their bid to flip the Senate blue.
“I think right now what people need and want is authenticity and a certain level of populism that they’re not going to get from Gov. Mills and they’re certainly not going to get from Collins,” Gallego told the Washington Post. “This is the candidate that can win.”
In a post to social media, he elaborated that Platner, "is the kind of fighter Maine hasn’t seen in a long time, someone who tells you exactly what he thinks, doesn’t owe anything to the special interests, and wakes up every day thinking about working families."
Gallego, who is also a Marine veteran, noted Platner's similar background, saying he "reflects the grit and independence that defines Maine, and that’s exactly why I’m proud to endorse him."
Platner's unexpected ascendancy in Maine has been described as a challenge to the conventional wisdom held by some Democratic strategists that moderation is the key to mass appeal, especially in a purple state. Platner described Gallego's endorsement as a sign that this narrative is starting to fray.
“I’ve never heard the powers that be in Washington refer to Sen. Gallego as some kind of radical, and I think that he understands my actual politics and what we’re doing," Platner told the Post.
The Post noted that Gallego has endorsed other candidates favored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in competitive primaries, including Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Haley Stevens (D-Mich.).
Thanking Gallego in a post to social media, Platner said, "Together in the Senate we will break the power of the billionaire class and end forever wars."
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