PORTLAND, Maine \u2014 At a packed rally Saturday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called on voters to support political newcomer Graham Platner in a closely watched Democratic primary to challenge longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m here because Washington needs fighters, and Graham Platner is the fighter we need,\u201d Warren told the crowd. \u201cGraham is a combat veteran. He\u2019s an oyster farmer, he is an organizer, and he is the person who is going to beat Susan Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The primary has divided the party: Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are backing Platner, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is supporting two-term Gov. Janet Mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The winner will take on Collins in November in a must-win race for Democrats in their battle for Senate control this fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Platner leads Mills by 33 points in a recent poll of likely voters taken by Maine People\u2019s Resource Center. He leads by 27 points in a recent Emerson College poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told they crowd that voters \u201cmust dream big\u201d and organize to upend modern politics, arguing that the existing system has exacerbated economic inequality and harmed the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe continue to do the hard work that we and those before us have been so proud of for generations, but it ceased being enough. And all of it happened when we watched the largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the ruling class in the history of this nation,\u201d Platner said. \u201cThe money went somewhere, and it wasn\u2019t down here. It was stolen from us, stolen from us in a system that was built by establishment politicians like Susan Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to be willing to understand that we\u2019re all being exploited by the exact same people,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not immigrants, it is not trans kids, it\u2019s billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some Democrats worry about Platner\u2019s history of controversial and offensive remarks, including a series of Reddit posts years ago downplaying sexual assault. He has apologized for those comments and said he\u2019s changed his outlook. His skeptics also cite one of his tattoos, which Platner recently had covered after saying he just learned that it had Nazi associations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Platner, a combat veteran, took aim at President Donald Trump and his recent military actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe war in Iran and Venezuela \u2014 these things were uniquely stupid,” he said. “Somehow, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth might be the dumbest people to ever run a war \u2014 which is saying something, because throughout history, many wars have been done have been run by monumentally dumb people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warren, a former presidential candidate, has defended Platner and said he has learned from his mistakes. She told the crowd here that he won\u2019t \u201cbend a knee to the big corporate donors, to the billionaires who don\u2019t want to have to pay\u201c higher taxes to fund Social Security and build a safety net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe path to the majority for Democrats in the United States Senate runs right through Maine,\u201d Warren said. \u201cThis is it. This is the all-hands-on-deck moment from now until November.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Platner\u2019s wife, Amy Gertner, introduced Warren and Platner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you had told me one year ago that I would be on stage where Elizabeth Warren is about to speak and say that she wants to serve in the United States Senate with my husband, I would have laughed you out of the room,\u201d Gertner, a teacher, told the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Platner, for his part, said it\u2019s not enough just to flip the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe all want to get rid of Susan Collins. We all want to turn Maine blue,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it very much matters what kind of Democrats we turn the Senate blue with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n