{"id":49158,"date":"2026-07-13T11:23:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49158"},"modified":"2026-07-13T11:23:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:23:33","slug":"maine-senate-candidates-claim-theyre-just-like-platner-but-entirely-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/13\/maine-senate-candidates-claim-theyre-just-like-platner-but-entirely-different\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine Senate Candidates Claim They\u2019re Just Like Platner \u2014 But Entirely Different"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Candidates are desperately trying to appeal to Graham Platner\u2019s base. But they\u2019re keeping Platner himself at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Akela Lacy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 10 2026 (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, arrives at a news conference on April 28, 2020, in Augusta, Maine. Photo: Robert F. Bukaty\/AP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates entering the<\/strong> Maine Senate race after Graham Platner suspended his campaign following a rape allegation are walking a fine line between distancing themselves from the disgraced candidate and embracing his base, which they\u2019ll need to beat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Friday, at least six candidates have officially declared that they will enter the race, with others still considering their options. All of them have been wary of aligning themselves too closely with Platner, who had already been plagued by scandal before being accused<\/a> of rape by an ex-girlfriend. But they run the risk of alienating Platner\u2019s energized base if they distance themselves too much from his policy commitments such as fighting military spending, ending the genocide in Gaza, advocating for Medicare for All, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and strengthening protections for unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the running are at least six candidates<\/a>, three of whom who lost in Maine\u2019s Democratic gubernatorial primary in June. Former state Sen. Troy Jackson, whose gubernatorial campaign was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was the first to enter the race. Next came Dr. Nirav Shah, who previously directed the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brewery co-founder\u00a0Dan Kleban<\/a>, who dropped out of the Maine Democratic Senate primary and\u00a0endorsed<\/a>\u00a0Gov. Janet Mills in October, also\u00a0entered<\/a>\u00a0the race this week, as did social worker Paige Loud and former Capital Hill staffer\u00a0Jordan Wood<\/a>, both of whom lost the primary for Maine\u2019s 2nd Congressional District.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Graham Platner\u2019s Exit From Senate Race Leaves Maine Dems \u201cHobbled\u201d in Scramble for New Nominee<\/a><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Of the first three candidates, Shah has faced the most skepticism of his progressive bona fides, despite what he says is his long-standing support for universal healthcare, dating back to his time as a public health official and his career as a doctor, and his stance against the genocide in Gaza, expressed during the gubernatorial campaign. His critics have painted his declarations of support for Medicare for All and focus on criticism of Israel amid his Senate launch as an effort to pivot to the left after taking a more measured approach as a candidate in the gubernatorial primary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told The Intercept that those criticisms are a mischaracterization of his record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCritics who are suggesting that this is a newfound policy position, they are putting politics over the facts,\u201d Shah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if he would echo Platner\u2019s call to abolish ICE outright, Shah said the agency is \u201cout of control\u201d and \u201ccannot continue to exist\u201d in its current form. \u201cWhether we reform ICE, whether we disband it and start from scratch, or whether we transfer their duties to CBP, ICE, as it currently is constituted, cannot continue to exist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Shah, Jackson and Bellows are now doing their best to prove to Platner\u2019s base that they will carry out his policy vision<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Platner was a vocal critic of Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza, Jackson faced criticism for not mentioning Israel or Gaza in his Senate launch on Wednesday. But a day later, he issued a statement denouncing the genocide in Gaza as \u201cunconscionable\u201d and saying he would \u201cnever vote in favor of US taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bellows, who differentiated herself from her Shah on issues from labor to renter protections during the gubernatorial primary, has said<\/a> she\u2019s running on Medicare for All, workers\u2019 rights, and to \u201cprotect our neighbors.\u201d She and Jackson both criticized<\/a> Shah\u2019s gubernatorial campaign for ads backing his campaign run by a group pushing school voucher programs<\/a>. Maine Education Association, a union of educators, endorsed all three candidates for governor but ranked Shah third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After challenging Sen. Susan Collins in 2014 and losing by more than 35 percentage points, Bellows was elected to the state Senate in 2016. Bellows has previously led the ACLU of Maine as well as the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine. She has not made many public comments<\/a> on Israel, but signed a proclamation<\/a> from Mills recognizing Israel\u2019s 75th anniversary and its \u201cfriendship and cooperation\u201d with the U.S. in April 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shah has also faced claims that he\u2019s taken money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, though the group does not spend in state-level races. He is endorsed by 314 Action, a group that backs candidates with a background in science, which took $1 million from the super PAC for AIPAC<\/a> in 2024. On Friday, in response to claims that Shah had taken AIPAC money, 314 Action\u2019s executive director said<\/a> it hadn\u2019t taken money from AIPAC this cycle and would not. He characterized the criticism as \u201cworse than the MAGA scare tactics.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shah told The Intercept he has never taken AIPAC money and would not accept it if offered. He also said that he would not support any form of military aid \u2014 offensive or defensive \u2014 to Israel. He also pointed to a digital ad his campaign ran toward the end of his gubernatorial primary that highlighted \u201cstanding against the genocide in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In a campaign kickoff<\/strong> on Thursday, Shah opened the event with remarks from two former Platner volunteers before highlighting what he said was \u201clittle daylight\u201d between their platforms. He ended the event by telling a reporter he would not seek Platner\u2019s endorsement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI spent most of my life watching decisions get made by people who will never have to live with the consequences of them, and my generation is expected to just accept that,\u201d said 18-year-old Liv Drewniak, co-founder of the group Midcoast Youth Activists and a former youth organizer and volunteer for Platner\u2019s campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIt was never about one person. It was about a movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought that my time of feeling powerless had come to an end when I started working with the Platner campaign, but the last few days of news have been heartbreaking, and I saw all the hard-fought and harder-won progress that I was so invested in crumble before me,\u201d Drewniak said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut then I remembered why I was so excited for that change in the first place. It was never about one person. It was about a movement, a movement hand-built by the people of Maine. And that momentum has not stalled, and that energy will never fail. It will now have a new leader.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The People Who Stood By Graham Platner \u2014 Until He Was Accused of Rape<\/a><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A senator from a different state weighed in on the new crop of candidates on Friday. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said Shah should not be the nominee due to his handling of veterans\u2019 health issues in her home state. Duckworth and her Senate colleague Dick Durbin called on Shah to resign in 2018<\/a> over his handling of a Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak at a veterans\u2019 facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shah said the attack was \u201crecycled\u201d after his critics raised it during his gubernatorial primary campaign. He said he had addressed voters\u2019 questions about the outbreak, and his campaign noted that Collins had complimented<\/a> his response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have deep respect for Senator Duckworth and the sacrifices she has made for our country. I\u2019m the outsider in this race, and outsiders get attacked, so I want to speak directly to the people of Maine, because they\u2019ve seen this playbook before,\u201d Shah said in a statement to The Intercept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVoters can judge my record by this: a Democratic Presidential administration reviewed my record and then hired me to help lead the U.S. CDC. \u2026 Mainers made up their own minds and that\u2019s why they gave me more first-choice votes than any other candidate in the gubernatorial primary.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe people of Maine saw with their own eyes who I am during the pandemic, when I stood at that podium every day and told them the truth, even when it was hard,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d invite people to ask when Susan Collins last did the same. Every day Democrats spend attacking Democrats is another day Collins doesn\u2019t have to answer for her record. I won\u2019t take that bait, and I don\u2019t believe Mainers will either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maine Democratic Party will hold a nominating convention to choose one candidate; it must submit its pick by July 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019M BEN MUESSIG,<\/u><\/strong> The Intercept\u2019s editor-in-chief. It\u2019s been a devastating year for journalism \u2014 the worst in modern U.S. history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government\u2019s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump\u2019s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Contact the author:<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Akela Lacy<\/a>akela.lacy@theintercept.com<\/a>@akela_lacy<\/a>on X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Candidates are desperately trying to appeal to Graham Platner\u2019s base. But they\u2019re keeping Platner himself at arm\u2019s length. Akela Lacy July 10 2026 (TheIntercept.com) Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, arrives at a news conference on April 28, 2020, in Augusta, Maine. Photo: Robert… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2088,1879],"tags":[1676],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49159,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49158\/revisions\/49159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}