Men's Lifestyle June 9, 2026 0 Comments

Why Maine’s Democratic Primary Feels Like the Ultimate Endurance Test—and Why I’m Rooting for a Winner Who Can Outlast the Rest

So picture this: It’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m finally breathing a sigh of relief, knowing that in about eight hours, I won’t have to wade through the never-ending drama of the Maine Democratic Senate primary—yes, the infamous Graham Platner Extravaganza. Seriously, why do Democrats treat the media like their personal therapist, spilling all their internal debates for the world to dissect? Spoiler alert: It hasn’t done them any favors. The press? Not your buddy. Not even close. This whole spectacle feels like déjà vu from the miserable 2016 primaries, where the party’s own Hamlet-like agonizing left voters puzzled and divided. And let me tell you, Platner’s run is a cautionary tale of skipping the self-check before jumping in—turns out, your past isn’t some forgotten chapter; it’s ammo waiting for your rivals. Meanwhile, Janet Mills just glides on, half-alive on the ballot, which some might call a bit of an insult to Maine’s voters. In a high-stakes game like this, sitting it out and hoping the frontrunner gets tangled in the mud just doesn’t cut it anymore. And hey—remember how we ended up with Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court? Yeah, that fiasco owes a lot to Susan Collins’s hesitation when it mattered most. Bottom line? The country can’t survive another two years of a Republican-controlled Senate, and everything else? Just window dressing. LEARN MORE

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It was the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday when I first felt the relief of knowing that, in about eight hours, I would not have to read about, or deal with, the Democratic U.S. Senate campaign in Maine—aka the Graham Platner Extravaganza. The endless public soul-searching by Democrats in the media will come to an end, one way or another. I’m not sure why Democrats are so promiscuous in sharing their internal monologues with the press, but I know it’s done them no favors through the years. The press is not your friend, nor should it be.

The current Hamlet-ized musing has polarized the Democratic primary electorate in ways similar to the prevailing dynamic in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, the most dismal experience I’ve ever had covering politics in my life. Now, I am sympathetic to the arguments that the flurry attacks on Platner have some roots in his populist assaults on the Money Power. But he certainly shows no signs of having done an internal vetting of himself before deciding to run. It’s one thing to find yourself grist for paid consultants, but it’s quite another not to realize that your past could provide that grist to your opponents. Platner seems to be blind to the drawbacks he brought to his own campaign.

At the same time, I find Janet Mills’s zombie presence on the ballot an insult to the voters of the state. If you’re going to run, run—no matter how far you’re behind in the polls or trailing in fundraising. Don’t sit it out at home and hope the most popular candidate takes enough shots below the waterline to sink. And ultimately we owe Brett Kavanaugh’s presence on the Supreme Court to Republican incumbent Susan Collins’s dithering over credible accusations of sexual assault. History has shown that to be a deal-breaker as regards the rule of law and separation of powers. The country can’t afford another two years of a Republican Senate. Everything else is scenery.