A time for change as Maine’s working class feels increasingly left behind, or a moment to back a powerful lawmaker who consistently brings federal dollars home?
These are the starkly different messages delivered by the first general election campaign ads of oyster farmer Graham Platner and longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins entering their likely general election matchup in November.
The two new ads released Tuesday mark a preview of messaging Mainers can expect in the high-profile race, with ad buys already approaching $100 million between May 1 and Election Day. Platner’s ad takes on what he calls Collins’ “performative politics,” while the senator presents herself as a consistent supporter of communities from her perch as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The spots come after Democratic Gov. Janet Mills suspended her Senate bid a week ago. Platner still faces a June primary against 2024 U.S. Senate nominee David Costello. Mills’ move catapulted Platner as the presumptive nominee for a party that’s failed to oust Collins for decades. Democrats and political experts believe they can flip the House and perhaps the Senate in a tough environment for Republicans linked to high prices and an unpopular Iran war under President Donald Trump.
The progressive Platner goes on the offensive in his ad, casting Collins as a politician who’s “concerned” as she “[sells] us out to the president and the [Jeffrey] Epstein class who are engineering the greatest redistribution of wealth from the working class to the ruling class in this nation’s history.”
“Symbolic opposition doesn’t reopen hospitals,” he says in a spot blending audio and video from remarks at Maine Democrats’ convention last weekend. “Weak condemnations don’t bring back Roe v. Wade. And selling out the same working class voters who’ve delivered mandate for change after mandate for change is not forgivable.”
The five-term Collins paints a very different picture of her service. In a positive ad that doesn’t mention Platner, her team touts what Republicans and even some Democrats say is one of her strengths that she’ll spotlight repeatedly through November: bringing Maine crucial investments from Washington.
The 60-second spot highlights Collins’ work to rally the federal delegation to bring $6 million to replace the Eastport breakwater after a devastating 2014 collapse that injured a fisherman and rattled the region’s fishing fleet.
Chris Gardner, the executive director of the Eastport Port Authority who narrated the ad, said he received a supportive phone call from Collins before sunrise following the collapse.
“Just having that assurance meant so much to this community,” he said. “The new breakwater wasn’t simply replaced, it was upgraded. And it continues to be a central focal point of what makes Eastport great.”
Plenty more political ads are coming. Outside Republican groups that have pledged tens of millions of dollars to help Collins hold her seat are already running attack ads against Platner, while Democratic groups are scaling up their purchases as well. In all, nearly $138 million in advertising time has been booked, more than Collins’ record-smashing 2020 race.
Collins’ campaign had at least $10 million in cash on hand after the end of March. That’s nearly double what she had at the same point in the last cycle, when she fended off a challenge from former state House Speaker Sara Gideon, who led in almost every public poll that year.
Democrats in Maine and nationwide have increasingly rallied around Platner after Mills bowed out. He has raised $12 million since beginning his insurgent bid last summer, including $4 million in the first quarter this year. The military veteran led Collins 51% to 45% in a general election survey by a Republican pollster last month.