Tag Archive for: jared golden

Maine Mamdani: So-Called ‘Grassroots’ Oyster Farmer Has Deep Connections To Far-Left

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Graham Platner, an oyster farmer running as a Democrat in the Maine Senate primary, is being propped up as a “grassroots” candidate who can win over Trump supporters. His record tells a more complicated story.

Platner, a former Marine who served three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, is described as a “political novice” who has centered his pitch against Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins on “making life better for his state’s working class,” according to a New York Times (NYT) report.

“I’m a veteran, oysterman, and working class Mainer who’s seen this state become unlivable for working people,” Graham wrote in a post on X.

Platner stated in an interview with the NYT that he does not consider himself a progressive or a centrist.

“He laughed at the idea that he would have any challenge in connecting with supporters of President Trump. Half of his friends and colleagues at the dock voted for Mr. Trump, he said,” according to the NYT.

The former George Washington University student and State Department employee’s limited social media history, however, shows him repeatedly retweeting Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and mocking President Donald Trump. He has previously given political donations to former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sanders.

Screenshots from Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s X profile. (X/Screenshot/Public — User: @GrahamPlatner)

Platner’s platform reveals more of his progressive bonafides; he wants to force corporations to pay reparations for climate change, supports universal health care, and accuses Israel of carrying out “genocide” in Gaza, according to Zeteo.

His affiliations with notable left-wing consultants raises further questions about his pitch to the politically homeless. Platner’s first campaign ad was produced by “Fight Agency,” a Democratic media firm that has created content for Democratic New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, Democratic Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath, and Sanders.

Morris Katz, a member of the firm and senior advisor to Mamdani, described Platner as the “real fucking deal.” Katz was considered part of Mamdani’s “inner circle,” according to the NYT.

Another senior advisor to Platner’s campaign is Joe Calvello, whose work history includes being a communications advisor for 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a campaign spokesman for Sanders, a communications official for Planned Parenthood, and chief strategy officer for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Calvello was also a communications director for Fetterman but was part of the staff exodus amid progressive backlash against the senator’s pro-Israel views.

Platner, a “competitive pistol shooter” on weekends, said he finds it “fairly amusing” to be called a liberal, according to a Politico report.

“I’m a firearms instructor. I spent multiple years, obviously, in the service utilizing firearms. I also grew up in rural Maine, where guns are a part of our existence,” he stated.

But just hours after his campaign launch, noted gun control supporter and former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg posted a picture with Platner, also calling him the “real deal” who would “make an incredible Senator.”

Platner was also seen at a No Kings rally in Ellsworth, Maine, in June wearing a yellow construction vest with a piece of paper labeled “peacekeeper” taped to it. The No Kings group that organized the mass nationwide protests called the Trump administration “fascist” and “authoritarian.”

The oyster farmer and now senatorial candidate is from Sullivan, Maine and returned home in 2016 after becoming disillusioned with his job as a State Department security contractor in Afghanistan, partially because of the misuse of taxpayer money.

He left the military and contracting behind and began working in aquaculture. Platner bought a boat and began expanding his business with support from friends and family in the hospitality industry.

A large part of Platner’s campaign rests on blaming billionaires for the problems of the working class. His campaign ad is emblazoned with phrases like, “the enemy is the oligarchy” and “the enemy is billionaires.”

But in early 2021 when Platner was seeking additional funding options for his business, he settled on a fund established by a globalist billionaire.

Platner applied for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Small Business Growth & Recovery Grant, which aims to “help U.S. small businesses — especially those owned by people of color, women, and veterans and those in lower-income communities — find their footing in a challenging economy.”

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation was founded by Greek billionaire shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos, the founder of Niarchos Group and Hellenic Shipyards.

Niarchos’ bio states that he “understood what it meant to think and act globally long before the term ‘globalization’ came into wide use.”

Platner secured a $20,000 grant — the full amount available — from the organization.

His growing business earned him a visit from Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden, who toured Platner’s farm off Hancock Point by boat and later joined him “and several other small business owners for lunch in Ellsworth” in 2024. The coincidental meeting between the two former Marines came years after Platner’s $1,000 campaign donation to Golden in March 2018, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data.

Platner’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Democrats are looking to 2026 for a chance to unseat Collins, a moderate Republican and Maine’s longest serving member of Congress. Several other previously unknown candidates have jumped into the Democratic primary, but the party is hoping Democratic Governor Janet Mills, who is term-limited from running for reelection, will jump in the race.

However, Mills has not yet committed to challenging the incumbent. Collins in 2020 breezed by Sara Gideon, the Democratic speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, with a nine-point win, despite trailing in pre-election polling and being outspent 2-1.

AUTHOR

Ashley Brasfield

Reportler

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

It Appears Democrats Have Finally Picked A Hill To Die On

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Democrats are doubling down on left-wing gender ideology despite their viewpoints being increasingly unpopular with the average American.

The vast majority of Americans support reversing the Biden administration’s extreme approach to transgender issues, including barring biological males from participating in women’s sports. But Democratic lawmakers, including those representing congressional districts President Donald Trump won in November, are continuing to push left-wing stances on transgender issues that are seemingly at odds with their own voters.

“Rather than changing course and abandoning the destructive transgender agenda, Democrats are ignoring what the majority of Americans know to be true just to appease the radical wing of their party,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “I hope Democrats keep running campaigns that focus on the transgender agenda; it will make Republican candidates’ cycles much easier.”

Schilling’s firm spent more than $18 million on transgender issues-focused ads nationally during the 2024 election cycle — and to great effect.

Highlighting former Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party as being too far left on transgender issues was one of the most effective advertising campaigns in rallying support for Trump and GOP candidates down the ballot during the 2024 election cycle, according to multiple reports.

The Trump campaign spent roughly one-third of its advertising budget on Harris’ left-wing views on transgender issues, according to an ABC News report.

Despite surveys suggesting that transgender issues rank low on the totem pole of motivating issues to voters, seeing ads that excoriated Democrats for caving to transgender activists at the expense of women and girls appeared to resonate with voters.

Harris’ leading super PAC estimated that voters shifted 2.7 percentage points in Trump’s favor after watching a popular ad featuring radio host Charlamagne Tha God bashing the Democratic nominee for being too left-wing on transgender issues.

“Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners,” Charlamagne asserted with proof. “Hell no I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that.

“Kamala is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you,” that ad continued.

Harris’ campaign reportedly produced a series of ads to refute the Trump campaign’s talking points that exposed the Democratic nominee as being radical on cultural issues, but found that none of them swayed voters.

Most Americans recognize clear biological differences between men and women. They are also concerned that allowing biological males to compete in girls and women’s sports will negatively impact the safety of female athletes and fair play, according to recent polling.

Approximately 79% of Americans oppose biological males competing in women’s sports, according to a New York Times-Survey conducted between Jan. 2 and Jan. 10.

Nearly 70% of Democrats or participants who “lean Democrat” told the Times they opposed transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

That may come as a surprise to congressional Democrats who continue to vote “no” on legislation that would keep men out of women’s sports.

A staggering 206 House Democrats voted against legislation offered by Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube to bar transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports on Jan. 14.

Just two Democratic lawmakers, Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, who represent socially conservative districts that Trump won, backed the bill.

However, eleven other House Democrats who are in Trump districts, voted “no” or “present” on the bill despite many of their constituents supporting legislation to bar men from women’s sports.

Only Democratic Nevada Rep. Susie Lee put out a statement explaining her opposition, calling the women’s sports protection bill “extreme” and “government overreach at its finest.” The president narrowly defeated Harris in her district.

Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Don Davis of North Carolina also withheld their support for the bill despite Trump winning more than 50% of the vote in districts they represent.

“Every Democrat who voted against keeping biological males out of girls’ sports is showing the American people that they care more about bowing to the radical left than protecting young women,” Congressional Leadership Fund press secretary Maureen O’Toole told the DCNF.

The bill has yet to be taken up by the Senate where it faces uncertain prospects due the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold.

Three other Democratic lawmakers who represent Trump districts and voted against the women’s sports bill, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and California Reps. Josh Harder and Adam Gray, have also been silent on their home states defying the president’s executive order on women’s sports.

The executive order interprets federal IX rules to prohibit transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports and directs agencies to withhold federal funding from schools that refuse to comply.

Both Maine and California’s governing bodies for high school sports have pledged to continue allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports in defiance of Trump’s executive order, which he signed on Feb. 5.

A biological male athlete won a girls’ high school pole vaulting competition in Maine on Feb. 7.

Trump tore into Democratic Maine Governor Janet Mills for not complying with his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order during a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors on Friday. “You better comply, you better comply, because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,” the president told Mills.

The Department of Education subsequently announced the agency was opening a Title IX investigation into the state’s education department and one school district for violating the executive order following Trump and Mills’ heated exchange.

Spokespersons for Golden, Gray and Harder did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s multiple requests for comment about whether their states should adhere to Trump’s executive order.

Other Democratic lawmakers, such as Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, appeared to moderate their views on transgender issues following the election, only to close ranks and join with their Democratic colleagues in opposing legislation to protect women’s sports and their access to women-only spaces.

“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton told the Times on Nov. 7. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

Moulton’s decision to recognize an obvious biological difference between men and women drew consternation from left-wing activists that protested his district office, his campaign manager who promptly resigned and Democratic Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey.

He voted against House Republicans’ women’s sports bill less than two months later, claiming the legislation went “too far” and is “extreme.”

Despite Democrats’ reticence to articulate their views on transgender issues, a majority of voters appear to support legislation and the president’s executive actions to protect women’s sports and end federal support for child sex changes.

“Anyone who has been paying attention to this election cycle shouldn’t be surprised that President Trump’s executive orders asserting there are only two sexes and protecting women’s sports are, by even legacy media’s standards, extremely popular,” Schilling told the DCNF.

Democratic Party leaders are still looking for an effective retort to GOP messaging accusing them of being radical on transgender issues.

At the Democratic National Committee’s candidate forum to lead the party on Jan. 31, MSNBC host Symone Sanders asked the candidates how the party should have responded to the Trump campaign’s transgender-focused ads.

Former Democratic Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley gave a brief statement about the importance of universal dignity before calling the issue a “distraction” and quickly pivoted to attacking Trump for being friends with Elon Musk.

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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