<\/p>\n
A controversial candidate is heading to one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races. Democrats hope Graham Platner’s primary win in Maine gives them a shot at taking over the Senate.<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old oyster farmer and combat veteran has never held elected office, but Tuesday night, Maine Democrats chose him as their nominee for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n
“I love every single one of you, everyone who has shown up at town hall, who has knocked on a door, who cast their vote, not for me, but for a vision of a life in Maine that you can afford,” Platner said.<\/p>\n
He’ll face longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins in November, in a race that could help determine the balance of power in Congress.<\/p>\n
His victory comes despite months of controversy surrounding his campaign, including a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol that he recently had covered, reports that he sent sexually explicit messages to several women while he was married, and, most recently, accusations by a former girlfriend of violent episodes.<\/p>\n
Some Democratic leaders have condemned that behavior while continuing to support his candidacy.<\/p>\n
“It is shameful. It is ugly. It happened in a dark period of his life, and the Maine voters that I met said they don’t like it,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). “They knew that he had these chapters. They are willing to extend him grace and redemption.”<\/p>\n
With just five months until the midterms, polls show many Democratic voters remain frustrated with their party and uncertain about its path forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think the Democrats need to articulate a fuller strategy, not just against Trump. I want the Democratic Party to be pro-growth, pro-innovation, and actually about getting stuff done,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).<\/p>\n
Republicans also face challenges with high prices and the ongoing war in Iran.<\/p>\n
Democrats need to flip four seats to take control of the Senate in November. Maine is among the top targets, along with Alaska, Ohio, and North Carolina.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A controversial candidate is heading to one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races. Democrats hope Graham Platner’s primary win in Maine gives them a shot at taking over the Senate. The 41-year-old oyster farmer and combat veteran has never held elected office, but Tuesday night, Maine Democrats chose him as their nominee for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3817,6911,1153,5822,128,135,4000,5650,639],"class_list":["post-29521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-bid","tag-candidate","tag-control","tag-controversial","tag-democrats","tag-fall","tag-maine","tag-pick","tag-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}