Crowded field to replace Platner in Maine struggle to standout in first Senate debate: 4 takeaways

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A slew of Maine Democrats vying to replace Graham Platner as the party’s Senate nominee struggled to stand out on the debate stage Thursday night, with just days before the deadline to pick a new candidate.

The crowded field is jockeying to replace Platner to take on long-time Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R) after the progressive’s exit from the race earlier this month amid sexual assault and misconduct allegations, which he has denied.

Nine of the 12 declared candidates qualified to participate in Thursday’s debate hosted by News Center Maine, where they slammed Collins, voiced outrage over President Trump’s immigration crackdown and courted the progressive movement that fueled Platner’s candidacy.

But the Senate hopefuls struggled on the debate stage to make an impact in the crowded Democratic field with less than two weeks until Maine Democrats hold a convention to choose their new nominee.

Four candidates considered top contenders squared off in the first hour of the debate: Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D), former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Nirav Shah, former Maine Senate president Troy Jackson (D) and former House staffer Jordan Wood. The remaining candidates, including Maine Beer Co. Co-founder Dan Kleban, participated in a second session.

CNN and Bangor Daily News will host another debate next week ahead of Saturday’s nominating convention. Democrats must select a new candidate by 5 p.m. on July 27 to appear on the November ballot against Collins.

Here are the four takeaways from the first Maine Democratic Senate debate:

Contenders struggle for standout moment

Candidates in both sessions of the debate struggled to break through on the Thursday night  stage as they look to secure the state party’s nomination next week in Bangor.

The lack of fireworks marked a notable juxtaposition from Platner’s insurgent Senate campaign, which quickly captured Mainers’ attention last year and had observers hailing his political charisma.

With just days to campaign, the Senate hopefuls — several of whom are fresh off losses in last month’s primaries for governor and House seats — are scrambling to capture the energy that had coalesced behind the populist oyster farmer.

They did seek to define themselves to voters. For example, Shah spotlit his experience helming the state’s CDC, hammering Collins for supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary and laying out plans to join the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panel.

But the debate lacked any major standout moments as the candidates steered clear of clashing with one another — or even hitting Platner over his controversies.

It remains to be seen whether the debate could move the needle as Maine delegates ready to pick from the declared candidates at a convention next weekend.

At the same time, the debate could help Democrats narrow down their field to a few leaders.

Moderators at several points had to prod Bellows to clarify her responses to questions. And in the second session, activist Ashley Webb gave several answers that were quickly picked up and blasted by Republicans online.

Candidates avoid blasting Platner as they court his base

The Democrats jostling to replace scandal-plagued Platner largely avoided blasting him — or even mentioning him without the moderators’ prompting — as they court the voters who backed his bid in last month’s primary.

When moderators asked the candidates what idea of Platner’s they’d carry forward in their own campaigns, they pointed to his progressive ideals without discussing his controversial exit from the race.

“What Graham talked about is something that I’ve been fighting for since I get into politics: health care, Medicare for all,” Jackson said.

Shah said there are “a lot of areas” where his and Platner’s policies overlap but said the most prominent was his call to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Wood, who dropped his bid for Senate to instead run unsuccessfully for House before Platner’s exit, said the progressive’s campaign ultimately shifted his view on Israel’s war in Gaza.

“When I got into this race, I was very hesitant to use the word genocide… Graham got into this race saying this is genocide,’ Wood said. “I embrace that position now, but I learned it from him.”

At another point in the debate, Wood argued that he was “the only candidate” on the debate stage that could separate himself from Platner, saying it “cost me politically” when he called for Platner to end his bid last October amid controversy over now-deleted Reddit posts and a now-covered tattoo resembling Nazi insignia.

Bellows said Platner “energized a movement that’s always been there,” pointing to her support for Medicare and her opposition to ICE presence in Maine.

Democrats home in on ICE after fatal shooting

Days after a federal immigration officer shot and killed a man in Biddeford, Maine, most Democrats on the debate stage called to abolish ICE as they blasted Collins for voting to fund the agency.

“How many more people must die at the hands of Donald Trump’s masked marauders before we finally agree that now is the time to abolish ICE? Now, rather than abolishing it, what Susan Collins has decided to do in recent years is increase the budget,” said Shah.

Earlier this week, an ICE officer shot and killed a 26-year-old Colombian national in Biddeford marking the second deadly ICE shooting in recent days after a separate incident in Houston.

Collins, along with fellow Maine Sen. Angus King (I), called for an independent investigation into the shooting, but the Democratic contenders have ripped her for not doing enough.

Collins, who chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriations, recently supported a Republican budget procedure that included billions in funding for the immigration agency, though she’s touted efforts to scale back ICE presence in Maine earlier this year.

“Susan Collins does bring back appropriations funding for projects that are important in all communities across the state, but this is a different moment for our country, and we need her to step up and meet that moment,” Wood said, “To have the courage to stand up and defund ICE, abolish it, prosecute the agents who have committed a murder in our state on Monday.”

Attacks focus on Collins

Candidates largely kept their focus on Collins, pitching themselves as the best candidate to take on the long-serving incumbent and underscoring the importance of the race in the fight for control of Congress this fall.

“Senator [Collins]: What do you hope to expect in the next six years that you have not been able to accomplish in the last three decades?” Shah said.

He argued the election is about “electability” as each candidate pitched themselves to be the best Collins foe this fall.

Shah led the first round of ranked-choice voting to succeed Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) but fell to second place behind state Rep. Hannnah Pingree.

Wood, 36, made a generational change argument, pointing out that he was in the second grade when the 73-year-old Republican was first elected.

Jackson called Collins “a rubber stamp for the wealthy elite in this country” and argued that she’s done enough for Maine in her 30-year tenure.

Bellows touted her 2014 Senate run against Collins, which she lost by a landslide, but stressed her efforts to push back against the Trump administration as she argued the landscape has changed in her favor.

In addition to blasting Collins over her handling of ICE in the state, they also hammered her over her 2018 vote to confirm conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

The incumbent said last month that she does “not regret” her vote but that she’s “disappointed” that he ruled with the high court’s conservative majority in 2022 to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.

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