Marine Combat Veteran Graham Platner Wants Susan Collins’ Senate Seat

Graham Platner is not shy. He wants Maine Sen. Susan Collins’ long-held seat, and he thinks he’s the right candidate to reverse a decades-long Democratic losing streak.

Platner, 41, is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, ex-Army infantryman and oyster farmer who served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Representing more of a progressive ideology, he kickstarted his U.S. Senate campaign in 2025 and has since been endorsed by individuals including U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (VT), Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Ruben Gallego (AZ), and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).

The campaign quickly gained traction in Maine and across the country, with Platner showing strong fundraising totals and consistently ascending polling numbers. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, also a Democrat, was Platner’s biggest inner-party challenger but suspended her campaign April 30 due to abysmal polling and diminished financial support—effectively making Platner the presumptive Democratic nominee heading into this November’s election.

Platner spoke with Military.com about why he believes he’s the right candidate to accomplish what so many have failed to do, which is defeat Collins. He also talked in-depth about hosting a recent veterans town hall, delving deeper into the relationship between politics and military service and how both present qualities that can intertwine and impact national issues like health care and workers’ benefits.

Challenging Three Decades of a Known Politician

Sen. Susan Collins, 73, is a senior lawmaker who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997. She has name recognition and a strong fundraising base that have helped her become not just Maine’s longest serving member of Congress but also the longest serving woman in the chamber.

Platner said that Collins’ extensive history on Capitol Hill is indicative of why she should not be reelected this fall.

“Susan Collins has been there for 30 years, and in those 30 years, life got harder for working Mainers,” Platner told Military.com. “She always likes to talk about how much money she brings back into the state because of her role on appropriations [Collins currently serves as committee chair].

“That’s your job. Your job as a senator from a small rural state is to appropriate funds, earmark money for your state. You don’t get a gold star for showing up to work, especially when that money that you have brought back hasn’t really improved our lives because if it had, why did things get harder?”

He said education has suffered with fewer statewide schools, while health care has become more expensive. Individuals his age and younger are having difficulty affording a home purchase, he added.

Platner also scrutinized Collins for the money she made while in office, saying that becoming a longtime politician has made her a multimillionaire with a strong stock portfolio—two things the average Maine resident doesn’t have.

Open Secrets shows Collins having a net worth of approximately $4.12 million in 2018, aided by nearly $500,000 in assets in the pharmaceutical and electronics industries. But according to the data platform Quiver Quantitive, Collins’ net worth has grown to its current estimate of $6.92 million.

“That material reality that people are struggling with—that I think is her biggest weak point,” Platner said. “I’m just going to continue to hammer that point home on the campaign trail because it’s the thing that everybody can see and feel.

“It also undercuts her pitch. She’s like, ‘Oh, don’t get rid of me. I’m very powerful. I bring things back to the state.’ Well, if your power was being used effectively, why did stuff get worse down here? I don’t think she has an answer to that. And that’s why we’re going to beat her.”

The Collins campaign views things differently, as one would expect.

“Senator Collins’ campaign will remind Mainers of her strong record of delivering results for our state, including strengthening rural health care, lowering costs, supporting small businesses and job creators, and ensuring that Maine remains central to our nation’s defense and security,” campaign spokesperson Shawn Roderick told Military.com.

Platner Hosts a Veterans Town Hall

As the campaign season forges on, Platner did something new recently: he hosted his first-ever Veterans Town Hall.

The town hall, which occurred on Sunday, May 24, brought Platner together with fellow veterans, military families and Mainers as a means of opposing the so-called “forever wars,” politicians who profit from them, and the political establishment that continues to send working-class Americans to fight them.

“Obviously, my military service looms large in my life,” Platner told Military.com. “My experiences both as a combat Marine and soldier, and then as a veteran returning home and dealing with the struggles of that experience—that’s been a big part of my personal and political journey.

“I know for a lot of vets, we all kind of go through very, very similar things, to talk specifically about those issues and to focus on what we need to do as a society to overcome a lot of the challenges that vets face.”

He said that forever wars “create more disgruntled, cynical, angry veterans because they feel taken advantage of,” in essence creating more trauma for those who sacrifice to serve. It extends to issues like the Department of Veterans Affairs and continually providing veterans with good benefits, especially after they leave active duty.

Also in attendance were representatives from Veterans For Responsible Leadership (VFRL), which recently endorsed Platner’s Senate bid.

Scott Peoples, VFRL’s executive director and former captain in the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division during the global fight against terrorism, told Military.com that Platner received the organization’s endorsement because a new generation is being thrown into endless war while few do anything to put a stop to the status quo.

“We need to start by electing leaders with the courage, character and moral clarity to say no to another forever war this November,” Peoples said. “Graham Platner is one of those leaders. Our nation is fractured, and healing those fractures requires leaders willing to reckon honestly with the past—both their own and ours as a country.

“We’ve seen too many politicians wrap themselves in the flag without ever earning it. Graham Platner is different and that’s why the Veterans For Responsible Leadership is proud to endorse him.”

Platner’s “struggles with disillusionment of our system, loneliness, and struggling to find himself again reflect the path so many veterans have been forced to walk,” added Peoples, saying that gives the candidate a unique vantage point to understand hardship, resilience and authenticity “that so many veterans and working Americans know all too well––and that many career politicians have long since forgotten.”

The town hall also included veterans going back to the Vietnam and Gulf wars. Platner said that even as decades separate these military service members, they all had similar conversations and concerns no matter their era.

“That experience for a lot of us, despite fighting in different wars, despite having different experiences in our services—we still kind of wind up in many ways having the same kind of struggles afterwards,” Platner said.

Mainers’ Most Important Issues

Platner, when asked what issues he hears most from Mainers—whether they are civilians or veterans—comes back to the kitchen-table issues like economics and health care.

He said Mainers are concerned about Medicare and Medicaid cuts, rural hospitals being shut down, and treating veterans in a state with a higher per-capita vet population.

“When you see rural hospitals closing, that begins to shut off those services,” he said. “And now you’ve got to travel further to get care. That, I think, for a lot of veterans is top of mind because we rely on the VA.”

After finding the VA “incredibly helpful” for years post-service, Platner said he’s noticed services and the level of care deteriorate over the past year or so. He attributed it to funding and workforce cuts.

“You get what you pay for in this society, and this Republican administration wants to pay less for veterans services,” he said.

He also hears “a deep frustration” on the campaign trail with current American foreign policy.

“I’ve heard from everyone that there’s just a deep frustration that we continue to invest money and, frankly, blood into these misguided adventures overseas that everybody can tell they’re not doing anything for the American people,” Platner said. “The average American’s life is not made any better by having gas go up to $4.60 here in the state of Maine because the Strait of Hormuz have been closed.

“They’re closed because the Trump administration started this stupid, pointless war, and everybody knows that. I hear about that a lot.”

A poll published May 20 and conducted by Pan Atlantic Research surveyed 827 likely Maine voters between May 8-18, finding Platner ahead of the incumbent Collins, 48% to 41%, with 11% undecided.

While each garnered roughly 80% of support from their respective parties, Platner led Collins among independent voters, 48% to 35%. The biggest issues expressed by voters were cost of living and inflation (75%), followed by health care access and affordability, housing, taxes and education.

Roughly 51% of respondents said they are financially worse off now than they were a year ago, while only 12% said they are better off today.

‘Connect the Dots’

But Shawn Roderick believes that Collins, as she’s done for years and years, will garner victory come November. That belief is based on Collins’ “proven record of effective leadership and respect for those who serve.”

“She has long fought for Maine’s service members, veterans and defense workforce, while supporting critical employers and institutions such as Bath Iron Works, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, and Pratt & Whitney that help strengthen our national security and support thousands of Maine families and communities,” Roderick said.

Roderick claimed that Platner has advocated for cutting the Pentagon budget by 50% and putting national security in jeopardy. While Platner has stated he would like to see a decreased defense budget, the campaign has rejected claims of cuts equating to half the budget.

The Collins campaign also scrutinized Platner for past online comments about service members. Reporting dating back to last fall found that Platner was vocal online on platforms like Reddit, attributing depression and PTSD to statements he made about political violence, minimizing rape in the military, being a “communist,” and insulting law enforcement.

The Platner campaign released a video in October expressing regret over the remarks and their explanation for them.

“Maine voters have repeatedly shown that they respect seriousness, experience and leaders who focus on delivering results and representing our state with dignity,” Broderick said. “Senator Collins looks forward to continuing to make that case across Maine.”

Still, Platner remains focused on his path and main message: Americans are worse off than they used to be, and it’s getting worse.

“We have invested trillions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “We have invested billion dollars per year in supporting the Israeli military to conduct a genocide in Gaza. We are watching this happen while we also witness things get harder here at home.

“I think the average person can easily connect the dots. It is not surprising that we have seen a diminishment in services and a deterioration in lifestyle for Americans.”

Asked how he plans to continue his momentum, Platner said he will continue to talk about the “material realities” that Americans know quite well. It’s a message that he believes will endure, from now until November.

“They are realities tied directly to the state of politics in this country,” he added. “We’re just going to keep hammering home those material realities for folks, and why our kind of politics is the only answer for it.”