Immigrant owners are preserving Maine’s variety stores and markets |
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NY Times - Dan Kleban, a co-founder of the Maine Beer Company, announced on Wednesday that he was running for Senate in Maine, joining an expanding Democratic primary field that may not be settled for months.
National party leaders are anxiously waiting to hear whether Gov. Janet Mills, a two-term Democrat, will join the list of those vying to unseat Senator Susan Collins, the lone remaining Senate Republican in New England.
Ms. Mills, 77, said recently that while she was “seriously considering” a run against Ms. Collins, she was unlikely to make any announcement until mid-November. “I’m not in any rush to make a decision,” she told reporters.
But Mr. Kleban, 48, is not waiting for Ms. Mills to decide, hoping his personal story — a college dropout from a middle-class family who went on to found a successful brewery — will appeal to voters. He’s drawing on his company’s motto, “Do what’s right,” to ground his campaign.
“I just don’t think Susan Collins is up to the job anymore,” Mr. Kleban said in an interview.
But before taking on Ms. Collins, 72, Mr. Kleban must navigate a primary contest that already includes Graham Platner, a 40-year-old oyster farmer and former Marine, and Jordan Wood, a former congressional aide.
MSNBC - Speaking to a crowd of over 6,500 in Portland, Maine, on Labor Day, Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner offered his assessment of the American political system.“We do not live in a system that is broken,” said Platner, a 40-year-old oyster farmer and combat veteran who aims to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins in 2026. “We live in a system that is functioning exactly as it is intended.”
A fight is what the Democratic faithful want, and it’s clear they’re not seeing it.
Platner was appearing alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as part of the latter’s “Fight Oligarchy” tour. And Platner’s impassioned denunciation of the status quo — fighting the powers that be and appealing to working Americans — was right out of the Sanders playbook. But beyond that influence, Platner represents a new pugilistic approach to Democratic politics that is being driven by the base’s anger over President Donald Trump’s policies and the party establishment’s response.
A fight is what the Democratic faithful want, and it’s clear they’re not seeing it. The party’s popularity is at historic lows, even as only 0.4% of Democrats, according to a new Gallup poll, are satisfied with the direction of the country (76% of Republicans say they are). Some more established Democrats, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have embraced the opportunity to offer voters a fighter, both trolling the president on social media and resisting his deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles. A July poll found the governor’s approval rating among Californians jumped 18 percentage points from a month earlier — from 38% to 56% — after the clash with Trump over the deployments.
Solely fighting isn’t enough. That Newsom’s approval was below 40% in a very blue state should concern Democrats who believe the governor offers a strong path forward for the party. Democrats are divided and facing a reckoning on a number of issues foreign and domestic. It’s no coincidence that Platner got one of the biggest ovations of the night when he said, “Our taxpayer dollars can build schools and hospitals in America, not bombs to destroy them in Gaza.” Tying resistance to Trump to a winning message with appeal and progressive politics will go further than simply presenting voters with a rerun of “Orange Man bad” messaging (even though, to be clear, Orange Man is, indeed, bad).
Tuttle Road bridge replacement begins in Cumberland
28 Cases of Tuberculosis Reported in Maine in 2025
Press Herald - Dentists across Maine say monthslong delays in treating children on MaineCare who need dental procedures under general anesthesia have become unacceptable, driven in part by low reimbursement rates from the state health and human services department. It’s unclear how many on MaineCare are affected since that data is not tracked, but it’s estimated to be thousands of children per year