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u.s. senate
'The Oligarchy Is the Enemy': Maine Oyster Farmer Launches Senate Bid to Oust Susan Collins
"I will be a senator," said Graham Platner, "for all those who can't buy senators."
Aug 19, 2025
Launching a US Senate run to unseat five-term Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, oyster farmer Graham Platner on Tuesday made clear in his inaugural ad that beating the "fake" moderate also means taking on the power-hungry billionaire class that has helped keep her in power all these years.
The enemy that the vast majority of Americans and Mainers have in common, said Platner, "is the oligarchy."
"It's the billionaires who pay for it," he added. "The politicians who sell us out. And yeah, that means politicians like Susan Collins."
Platner, who told The New York Times political organizers recruited him to enter the race, spoke in the ad about how Maine has "become unlivable for working people."
"Nobody I know around here can afford a house," said Platner. "Healthcare is a disaster, hospitals are closing. We have watched all of that get ripped away from us, and everyone's just trying to keep it all together."
My name is Graham Platner and I’m running for US Senate to defeat Susan Collins and topple the oligarchy that’s destroying our country.
I’m a veteran, oysterman, and working class Mainer who’s seen this state become unlivable for working people. And that makes me deeply angry. pic.twitter.com/QZfAm528N1
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) August 19, 2025
Maine has the 11th-highest cost of living in the country, and according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator, the state's minimum wage of $14.65 doesn't qualify as a living wage for single adults, married couples, or parents—even if both parents work full time.
The fact that many Mainers have to "work two or three different jobs" to survive—as nearly 8% of workers do in the state—"makes me deeply angry," said Platner.
The oyster farmer and local planning board chair is a veteran of both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, and his campaign platform includes calls for ending homelessness among veterans and fully funding job training and healthcare for those who have served in the armed forces.
But Platner's tone in his opening campaign video contrasted with that other veterans who have been recruited by Democrats to run for public office, like former Kentucky Senate candidate Amy McGrath and a number of former service members who the party is currently pushing to run in 2026 in the hopes that they'll be seen as "politically moderate."
"There is a very tired playbook that the Democrats have run for a while where DC chooses establishment candidates that they base upon their fundraising capacity, and in 2020... they just got battered, and Susan Collins held the seat," Platner told Zeteo, referring to Democrats' decision to run state House Speaker Sara Gideon, who lost by nearly nine points despite vastly outraising Collins. "So in my opinion, we need to be doing something else. I mean, clearly that is a failed strategy."
Platner explicitly called for far-reaching, progressive policies that would serve all Americans—those that are frequently lambasted as dangerous "socialist" ideas by conservatives and dismissed as "unrealistic" by centrist Democrats.
"Why can't we have universal healthcare like every other first-world country?" asked Platner. "Why are we funding endless wars and bombing children? Why are CEOs more powerful than unions? We've fought three different wars since the last time we raised the minimum wage."
On his campaign website, Platner added that he would "be a strong supporter of a Medicare for All system, moving away from the for-profit insurance system that has brought us nothing but grief," protect Social Security, push for a "billionaire minimum tax," "fight for urgent action on climate change," and strengthen legislation to ensure that "enforcement against massive polluters and repeat offenders does not depend upon the whims of whoever happens to be president."
In an interview with Politico, Platner said that if elected, he would not support Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as the party's leader in the Senate, saying that "the next leader needs to be one of vision and also somebody who is willing to fight."
Along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Schumer has angered progressives and self-described moderate Democrats alike by voting with Republicans to advance the GOP's spending bill—claiming doing so was necessary to stop a government shutdown—and refusing to endorse New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who like Platner has centered affordability in his campaign.
Platner has hired Morris Katz, a top strategist for Mamdani, and his campaign so far carries echoes of the mayoral candidate. In addition to unapologetically calling for policies to further economic justice, Platner told Zeteo that Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, which was a flashpoint in New York City's Democratic primary, is "the ultimate moral test of our time."
Since Mamdani's primary victory in June, Democrats including Jeffries and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have claimed the mayoral candidate has not yet proven that his progressive platform has broad appeal.
"I think a lot of people are focused on the leftism, the ideological leftism, that I think we shouldn't be so surprised that prevailed in a New York Democratic Party primary," Buttigieg told NPR last month. "But I think if my party wants to learn lessons from Mamdani's success that are portable to a place like Michigan, where I live, it's less about the ideology and more about the message discipline of focusing on what people care about and the tactical wisdom of getting out there and talking to everybody."
Platner, who is one of six declared Democratic primary candidates in a race that could also soon include Gov. Janet Mills, appears intent on proving that defeating the oligarchy and the billionaires who have outsized influence on US politics and fighting for policies aimed at improving all Americans' lives are winning ideas even in the largely rural state of Maine.
"While my platform spans many issues, I view most of my job as a US senator as to do two things," reads Platner's website. "One, to ban billionaires buying elections; two, to dismantle the 'billionaire economy' in favor of an economy that works for the American worker, for small business, for the vast majority of Americans."
"I will be a senator," the platform reads, "for all those who can't buy senators."
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Doctors Are Trained to Save Lives, Not Count the Dead
We are in absolutely no doubt, both from a medical and societal perspective, that a genocide is exactly what is being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.
Aug 16, 2025
As medical doctors, we are bound by an oath to do no harm. That oath compels us to speak out and act against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, now in its 22nd month, a genocide marked by deliberate starvation, medical extermination, and mass civilian casualties. And we are equally compelled to expose the failure of institutions and governments who could stop it but have chosen silence and complicity.
We called the organization we founded in November 2023 Doctors Against Genocide (DAG) because despite the debate around the word’s precise legal definition, we are in absolutely no doubt, both from a medical and societal perspective, that a genocide is exactly what is being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.
We are in touch daily with our medical colleagues in Gaza, like their patients now suffering from starvation themselves and working in almost impossible conditions. Israel routinely cuts or limits access to electricity, putting ICU and other patients at dire risk and forcing surgeons to operate using the flashlights on their phones. Some have fainted during 48-hours shifts. Their patients are lying in corridors or being turned away due to overcrowding. Doctors in Gaza have been deliberately targeted by Israeli forces, abducted, tortured, imprisoned, and even murdered.
Because of the high prevalence of extreme malnutrition, patients who might otherwise recover from wounds and injuries inflicted by Israeli gunfire and bombings fail to survive. Put simply, a starving body cannot heal and a starving mother cannot nurse her child. Yet, Israel has blocked infant formula from entering Gaza, even confiscating it from our international colleagues when they volunteer for medical missions there.
After more than 600 days of atrocities, the prevention of a genocide is no longer possible. But it can still be stopped.
The fuel shortages also drive the water shortages, as pumps that draw up clean water from the depths of the water table are unable to function. This has left the population dependent on lower quality water sources, leading to enterovirus outbreaks.
Now we are seeing outbreaks of meningitis, measles, hepatitis, and polio. These are diseases either eradicated or extremely rare, resurging now due to the intentional denial of food, water, and medicine. Meanwhile, Israel has blocked lifesaving aid, bombed hospitals, and abducted doctors. Our colleague, pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, was abducted in December 2024. He has reportedly lost nearly 90 pounds and remains in Israeli custody, tortured, starved, and held without charge.
We have done everything we can. Members of our organization have made countless trips to Capitol Hill, held press conferences, called their senators and representatives and even the White House, all to no avail. We educated our colleagues and our elected officials. We have even faced arrest for demanding “bread not bombs.”
But with each passing day, the bombs continue, and the medical annihilation worsens. Only 27 U.S. senators voted last month to stop a shipment of 20,000 assault rifles to Israel. Just 24 voted against sending more bombs. Few have even acknowledged this as genocide.
Disgracefully, our major US medical institutions, most notably, the American Medical Association, remain silent, abandoning their ethical obligations and forfeiting moral leadership. We no longer seek change from these bodies.
Because we built strong relationships with trusted local actors, we were able to quickly pivot. In late July, DAG began sending funds directly to aid groups across Gaza to deliver hot meals, fresh produce, clean water, and bread to those in immediate need. Prices are astronomical, but the time for perfect solutions is long gone. People are starving now. We chose to act.
The funds we are sending will help offset the financial strain for local aid groups on the ground who must get food to people now, saving them from having to enter the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s brutal distribution points, which have become killing zones.
Among those we’re helping are more than 1,200 people who became newly blind from direct eye injuries during Israeli attacks, and another 4,000 who have lost partial vision. We are also supporting a broader disabled community that cannot reach distant or militarized aid sites.
Our organization is also raising funds to build an urgently needed field hospital on the grounds of the partially ruined Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, once the largest hospital serving the Palestinian population there. Plans have been drawn up for a 140-bed hospital housed outdoors in sturdy tents, along with two operating theaters, two recovery rooms, and communal space for employees. We know it may be targeted, like all of Gaza’s hospitals. But doing nothing is not an option.
After more than 600 days of atrocities, the prevention of a genocide is no longer possible. But it can still be stopped. One phone call from US President Donald Trump could end it. We urge him to make that call, and we urge our colleagues around the world to act with the urgency this moment demands.
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The Dems Could Have Shielded DC From Trump By Pushing for Statehood When It Mattered
As in so many arenas of American politics today, the Democrats’ inability or unwillingness to seize more power when the opportunity presents itself has led to disastrous downstream effects.
Aug 12, 2025
On Monday, August 11, U.S. President Donald Trump’s authoritarian gaze landed on Washington, D.C., the city of 700,000 people in the White House’s backyard. In a move of extreme overreach, he announced that he would be invoking Section 740 of the Home Rule Act, which gives the president the ability to command D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department for “federal purposes.” Trump claimed, despite much evidence to the contrary, that D.C. was in the midst of a crippling crime wave that necessitated a federal response. That Trump’s power grab is legally dubious and almost certainly outside the ambit of what the authors of the Home Rule Act had in mind is beside the point. Because of its lack of statehood, D.C. has been a sitting target for the right wing for decades.
D.C. statehood is often framed as a daunting, pie-in-the-sky goal, but making D.C. a state would only be as hard as getting a bill passed through Congress. D.C. could be granted statehood by an act of Congress, signed into law by the president, and immediately be given the rights to self-government which residents of all 50 states currently enjoy.
A bill granting D.C. statehood, HR 51, has already been introduced in this session by D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. ( A companion Senate bill has been introduced by Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen.) In fact, bills granting D.C. statehood have been introduced consistently since 2017. In 2020, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter uprisings in D.C. and Trump’s deployment of the National Guard against protestors, the House of Representatives passed an act admitting D.C. as the 51st state. This bill, however, died in the Republican-controlled Senate.
These efforts have been largely ceremonial. Congressional Democrats should be well aware that these bills stand no chance of passing a Republican-controlled Senate chamber, nor is there any way such legislation would avoid a veto by a Republican president. The reason is simple: If granted the full benefits of statehood, D.C. would immediately become the bluest state in the country. (D.C.’s percentage of registered Democrats, 75%, is more than 20 points ahead of the next-bluest state by registration, Maryland.) That would mean two more reliably Democratic senators, and at least one more Democrat in the House.
If the shoe were on the other foot, it is hard to imagine the current Republican Party feeling any compunction about forcing through the establishment of a 51st state that would guarantee two more Republican seats in the Senate.
Instead of jumping at the opportunity to consolidate this advantage, however, Democrats have been gun shy at the prospect of pushing in earnest for D.C. statehood when the right conditions have arisen. In the first few months of Barack Obama’s first term in office Democrats held a filibuster-proof majority. This era is remembered largely for being the window that Obama and Democrats used to pass the Affordable Care Act. Democrats could have also used this moment to push through a D.C. statehood bill; no such legislation was introduced by the majority party in either chamber of Congress.
More recently, Democrats held control of both the House and Senate during the first half of Joe Biden’s term as president. Rep. Holmes Norton also introduced a statehood bill during that session of Congress, which passed the House along a largely party-line vote. However, the bill was not taken up in the Senate, despite Democrats’ control of that body. This had largely to do with then-Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema’s pivotal positions in determining what legislation had a chance at passage in the Senate. Manchin declared that he did not support the statehood bill while Sinema’s support was unclear. This effectively killed the legislation, which would have also required Democrats to make the politically risky move of scrapping the filibuster to realize D.C. statehood.
With inconstant support from Democrats in Congress, the statehood movement has stalled out again. While Democrats profess support for D.C. statehood, they have done little to prioritize it in practice. Their 2024 platform makes a single mention of the party’s support for statehood, and pins the responsibility entirely on Republicans for blocking statehood votes when, in reality, intransigence within the Democratic ranks shares equal blame in recent history.
If the shoe were on the other foot, it is hard to imagine the current Republican Party feeling any compunction about forcing through the establishment of a 51st state that would guarantee two more Republican seats in the Senate. As in so many arenas of American politics today, the Democrats’ inability or unwillingness to seize more power when the opportunity presents itself has led to disastrous downstream effects.
Now, D.C.’s residents are entirely exposed to Trump’s capricious and volatile brand of politicking. He has vowed to clear encampments of the unhoused, arrest children, and target the undocumented using the full force of the Metropolitan Police Department and the National Guard. He has encouraged police to brutalize citizens if they wish, and raised the specter of calling active duty military into the city. These actions are clearly designed to create a spectacle and shore up his strongman image, at the expense of 700,000 people who are American citizens without political recourse or representation.
Whatever happens in the coming days and weeks, it is important to remember that D.C. residents don’t have to live like this. The Democratic Party should put D.C. statehood at the front of its political platform, in 2028 and beyond, and ensure that no wannabe despot can ever use the city as his punching bag again.
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