Graham Platner appeared with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Monday and embraced progressive, Bernie-style themes while criticizing five-term Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and U.S. weapons spending tied to conflicts in Gaza and Iran, Platner said at the rally.
Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee seeking to unseat Collins in November, told a crowd in Portland that progressives must build a “political revolution.” “We are taking back what is ours. We’re going to take it back from the corporations that seek profit, no matter the cost from the billionaires for whom greed is the point, and from corrupt politicians like Susan Collins, corrupt politicians who have sold us out,” he said.
Platner also accused health insurance executives of “lining their pockets with our blood, sweat, and tears” and said American tax dollars were being used to “blow up someone else’s children.” “Our tax dollars can build schools and hospitals in America instead of bombs to drop on them in Gaza and Iran,” he said.
Sanders later cast Platner’s election as a key moment for the progressive movement and tied him to his proposals targeting the ultra-wealthy. “You elect Graham Platner senator, you’re going to transform America,” Sanders said, adding that he had introduced legislation earlier this year proposing a 5% annual wealth tax on 938 U.S. billionaires. Sanders also warned that a “handful of billionaires” could control the future of artificial intelligence and robotics and said Platner would join him in that fight.
The event, called the “Fighting Oligarchy” rally, was one of Sanders’ stops in Maine with Platner and gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson. Organizers described the gathering as aimed at mobilizing progressive activists and expanding grassroots organizing ahead of the midterm elections.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
