BREWER, Maine — When word leaked last week of Gov. Janet Mills’ plans to join the 2026 race against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the Democrat who came from nowhere to become the governor’s most formidable opponent was signing up more volunteers.
Sullivan oyster farmer Graham Platner’s campaign said it has signed up nearly 11,000 volunteers from all 16 counties. They have exceeded 51,000 phone calls and door-knocking attempts at a typically slow time for candidates. The progressive political newcomer is poised to add to his ranks as he continues to draw overflow crowds at town hall meetings.
It is most likely the largest volunteer operation this early ever in a Maine campaign. Organizing the flood of volunteers will prove to be another challenge for Platner, but his team said it is taking lessons from a model popularized in politics by former President Barack Obama.
“It’s the most amount of volunteers I’ve ever experienced from beginning to end, and we’re just starting,” Spencer Toth, the Platner campaign’s field director and a veteran of nine other local, state and federal campaigns around the country. “It’s really inspiring.”
The effort sets him up to compete with Mills, the 77-year-old who officially joined the Senate race Tuesday. She raised $1 million in her campaign’s first 24 hours with the help of the party’s national campaign arm. Platner’s campaign raised $500,000 and signed up more than 1,000 new volunteers since the governor’s launch, it said on Wednesday afternoon.
After being told of the Platner campaign’s volunteer and voter contact figures since he joined the race in August, a Maine Democrat who has run statewide campaigns said he could think of no comparable effort over such a short period of time so far from the primary and general elections.
Bristol resident Jordan Wood, a 36-year-old who worked for Capitol Hill political groups and was chief of staff to then-U.S. Rep. Katie Porter of California, has “thousands of volunteers” and has raised more than $3 million since launching his bid in April and holding town halls across the state, campaign spokesperson Kristi Johnston said.
Platner’s volunteer operation is built on a “neighborhood team model” that comes from Obama’s 2008 and 2012 races. The Platner campaign invites new volunteers to an orientation and then to an in-person organizing meeting in their area, Toth said. After that, they can get leadership roles on a regional team, with each one being asked to host town halls with Platner.
The candidate has done those in 12 cities and towns throughout Maine. Platner’s operation will soon get a test run. It is mobilizing against the Question 1 referendum on this November’s ballot that would add voter ID requirements in Maine and place new limits on absentee voting. Other Democratic 2026 candidates have given their time to that campaign.
In December, Platner’s volunteer leaders will attend a “Graham Camp” featuring preparations for the start of January, when they hope to collect the 5,000 petition signatures to qualify Platner for the ballot as fast as possible.
One of the biggest questions facing Platner is whether he can keep his viral momentum going. When Mills entered the race, she did a series of interviews pointing to Democrats failing to beat Collins while running candidates who were untested in statewide elections. Platner retorted that the party will need a different approach.
Last Thursday’s town hall at Food and Medicine in Brewer saw a few first-time volunteers fill out forms to “Join the Grahampaign” at the table that often features other Platner campaign volunteers and staffers.
Robert Finch, a 22-year-old college student from Bangor, said he wanted to help Platner because he likes his pro-labor views and desire to “make everything just more livable.”
“I want to take a chance on someone who I think has a higher chance of doing something they say they’ll do,” Finch said.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.