How Democrats Can Still Beat Susan Collins
Platner's exit scrambled the race — but Maine is still winnable, if Democrats play it right.
Welcome to this week’s mailbag. It was a pretty messy, dispiriting week in politics. Obviously, Graham Platner’s demise and the ensuing chaotic and crowded campaign to replace him on the ballot have dominated the political discussion and the questions submitted this week. In case you missed it, I wrote about why I was supportive of Platner and what I missed. I also had an extensive conversation with Alex Wagner about it on the most recent episode of Pod Save America. Today I’ll answer more questions about Maine and other stuff.
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Saoirse
What are the highest priorities for a candidate to defeat Susan Collins?
Gail Gibson
As I read about the Platner mess, I can’t help but feel like we got really lucky on this one. We are losing an incredibly problematic candidate at just the right time, and the old, establishment candidate dropped out. So the Collins campaign really has to scramble to figure out how to beat Platner’s replacement. If Maine Democrats go with someone who is progressive and vetted it seems like we have a really solid chance to beat Collins. Am I on the right track?
Answer
Lots of questions this week about whether Democrats can still win Maine or whether Graham Platner ruined our chances. This is a critical question because there is no plausible path to a Senate majority without a win in Maine. Susan Collins is very hard to beat. She is a unicorn, a Republican who regularly wins a Democratic state. In fact, she is the last Republican representing a tried-and-true blue state. Prior to the sexual assault allegation but after the reports of Platner sexting women outside of his marriage, I thought Platner was a slight favorite to beat Collins — if nothing else came out.
Well, something horrifying came out. Platner is out of the race, and Democrats have two weeks to find a new candidate and mount a campaign. It seems daunting, and it is, but I think this race is still very winnable.
Here’s why and how we win it.
