ME-SEN: Planter was not winning over white working class voters.

[RandySF]

A New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll a few weeks ago found Platner leading Sen. Susan Collins by just two points among likely Maine voters. But among the white working-class voters he was supposedly built to attract, Platner won only 36 percent support.

That was worse than Democratic gubernatorial nominee Hannah Pingree, who received 45 percent from the same group. It was also below even Kamala Harris’s 39 percent share among Maine’s white working-class voters in 2024.

So the problem with Platner was not merely that Democrats picked a flawed candidate. It’s that they built a caricature of a working-class candidate based on what highly educated political operatives imagined working-class voters wanted.

The result was predictable. Maine’s working-class voters weren’t buying it.




https://politicalwire.com/2026/07/07/democrats-still-dont-get-working-class-voters/

[lame54]

1. Working class voters should read the jobs reports

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. It was pretty clear in last week's polls that he had an uphill climb.

[RandySF]

3. But the myth was the stated reason for ignoring all the red flags.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. Yep. People love a vibes-based candidate, no matter what the data says. Or red flags, for that matter.

[Raftergirl]

5. Besides being lower than pond scum, the guy is a classic bullshit artist. Something was off from the beginning

and then the red flags started swirling all around him. None of his life story has made any sense.

[RandySF]

6. He even lied about being a harbor master.

[BannonsLiver]

7. Yep. The data is the data.

I don’t think the trend lines were good, either. No real sign of a turnaround.

This is a great example of how data can really put a very fine point on something. We should all remember that in a couple of years when big issues are going to be debated within the party as we select a nominee, and later in the general election where a victory will require winning a large chunk of independents to get er done.