Image: watson/keystone
analysis
With Graham Platner, a new star shines in the Democratic sky.
May 4, 2026, 5:20 p.mMay 4, 2026, 5:20 p.m
As the “Atlantic” recently reported, Donald Trump has recently been comparing himself more with the two great US presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. He wants to go even higher and sees himself in the league of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte. The philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich once called these three the three historical individuals.
The US President is only marginally interested in daily politics. He focuses on something much more important: his ballroom, the Arc de Triomphe and sticking his name on as many buildings as possible.
This is pure poison for his party. Former political strategist Sarah Longwell warns: “Most people don’t care one bit about the ballroom. They want Trump to focus on the economy.”
Normal and good: Graham Platner.Image: keystone
In the person of Graham Platner, the perfect antidote to the megalomaniacal president exists in the small state of Maine – with 1.3 million inhabitants – on the east coast. The former Marine soldier now earns his living as an oyster farmer, a profession that is widespread on the American East Coast.
What Jürgen Klopp once said in a legendary quote is also perfectly described by Platner: “I am the normal one.” Or as local journalist Alex Seitz-Wald describes it in an interview with the news portal Vox: “He (Platner) looks like a lot of people here. If we were to walk down the street together in the town a few miles away, we would meet at least half a dozen guys who looked just like him. These are guys who work with their hands and who shower not before but after work.”
Platner was initially too normal even for the party establishment. When he announced his candidacy for the Senate, the two senators from New York, Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand – both members of the Democratic campaign committee – rushed to nominate an opponent, namely Janet Mills, the governor of Maine.
Thrown in the towel: Janet Mills.Image: keystone
Although Mills is capable and popular, he is no longer very young. If elected, she would have taken office as a senator at the tender age of 79. Above all, she was the establishment candidate. That was her downfall. “People here really don’t like Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in Washington,” said Seitz-Wald. “They reject the fact that Janet Mills was forced on them.”
Mills now realized that she had no chance in the primaries against Platner and threw in the towel.
Platner’s rise is astonishing, as his career seemed to have ended before it really got going. Last October, posts appeared on Reddit that made him seem like a dull populist. Comments about blacks tipping less—Platner briefly worked as a bartender—and a Nazi-reminiscent tattoo of a skull didn’t really help matters.
According to Nietzsche’s aphorism “What doesn’t kill me makes me strong,” Platner not only survived the shitstorm, he emerged stronger from it. Although he’s the type of guy who won’t avoid a fight, he’s not a mindless populist. “He’s a thinking loudmouth,” as Mike Hurley, a former mayor of Belfast, Maine, describes him.
The man is right, and if you don’t believe it, the conversation between Planter and Jon Stewart is recommended. (See link)
Politically, Platner belongs to the progressive camp. He is based on Bernie Sanders and Franklin Roosevelt. With his New Deal in the 1930s, he freed the USA from a deep depression. “Things are going to get worse,” Platner told New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg. “Republican policies will not improve people’s lives. And because things are getting worse, we need structures to involve people, to help them, to connect them with their neighbors, and to give them an answer as to who is really to blame.”
The trend is Platner’s friend. Progressive politics is currently popular in the USA. “A Democratic version of the Tea Party is emerging that wants to overthrow the system that they believe has failed them,” Goldberg states.
In fact, progressives have had recent successes in several states. The most spectacular was certainly the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York.
However, a tough test awaits Platner: He must defeat the incumbent, Republican Susan Collins. Although she likes to be critical of Trump, she regularly pulls back when it comes to the sausage. That’s why Platner’s chances are good. In the current polls he is well ahead of Collins.
She must defeat Platner: Susan Collins.Image: keystone
However, this was also the case six years ago. At that time, Collins also seemed to be hopelessly behind in the polls, but won re-election surprisingly clearly. “Anyone who underestimates Collins does so at their own risk,” explains Seitz-Wald. “She has proven again and again that she can assert herself even in a tough political environment.”
Should Platner clear the Collins hurdle, he would definitely be a “working class hero”. John Lennon has already sung from his own painful experience that this can be a dubious honor. “To be a hero of the working class is something,” said the ex-Beatle. “But they hate you when you’re smart and despise the stupid until you’re so completely crazy that you can’t follow their rules anymore.”