Free Republic

At first glance, the 2026 election looks like any other midterm. The incumbent party is exhausted. The opposition is eager to rebuke an unpopular president. Economic concerns predominate. An electoral thumping seems inevitable. Check results from 2022, 2018, 2014, 2010 and 2006 for reference. Under the surface, however, an ugly force is stirring in U.S. politics that makes this midterm campaign different. For the first time in generations, antisemitism has emerged from the shadows to influence American public life. From Graham Platner to Abdul El-Sayed, from Hasan Piker to Tucker Carlson, antagonism toward Israel, “Zionists” and foreign intervention has morphed...

WATERVILLE, Maine — Graham Platner supporters are still pining for the disgraced pol just days before the US Senate election, concerned their backup choice lacks the pizzazz needed to mobilize the base. Almost four months after Platner was forced out of his Senate race due to a rape accusation, local Democrats at a rally for his replacement, Troy Jackson, admitted they wished Platner were still on the ticket and regretted how his political career was cut short. “The establishment did not want him to be out there mobilizing people who had never voted before, just for change,” former Waterville Mayor...

As president of the Maine Senate, Democrat Troy Jackson, now running for U.S. Senate as an opponent of "greedy corporations," cosponsored a bill allowing online lenders to skirt Maine's interest rate caps when offering small-dollar loans to borrowers with poor credit. A lobbying firm that employed Jackson's son supported the 2022 bill on behalf of a "predatory" lending company that was sued months earlier for violating consumer protection laws, a Washington Free Beacon review found. The bill, which Jackson and five other Maine Democrats introduced in February 2022, was framed as a measure to "Establish Consumer Protections Regarding Small Dollar...

In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C. For the first time in her two-decade Senate career, the Republican lawmaker from Maine was in danger of losing her seat. President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings were dragging her down in the polls, and she was falling behind her likely 2020 Democratic challenger in fundraising. Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, was on a mission to close that gap. Reed was meeting that day with three executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor,...

A new poll indicates longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins is ahead of her Democratic challenger in a crucial Senate showdown in blue-leaning Maine. Collins, who is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate, stands at 49% support among likely voters, with former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee, at 46%, with 5% undecided in the New York Times/Siena poll. Collins' three-point edge is within the survey's margin of error. Democrats are heavily targeting Collins as they work to flip the seat, which is key to their efforts to win back the Senate majority from the Republicans...

🚨 WTF?! Maine’s New Democrat Senate candidate Troy Jackson is in a ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP with his COUSIN, and has TWO CHILDREN with her THIS is the guy the Democrat Party swapped Graham Platner out for 🤣 Per The Main Wire’s @SteveRob, Jackson and his “partner,” Lana Pelletier, share great grandparents, making them second cousins. They then decided to pop out two children. The Democrats are having a REALLY tough time finding candidates who aren’t total freaks 😂

At least his Reddit history isn’t out there. Newly minted Maine Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson frantically deleted almost all of his past social media posts heaping praise on accused rapist Graham Platner, The Post has learned. Jackson, a former lumberjack and onetime Maine Senate president, had been a staunch backer of Platner up until a former girlfriend publicly accused the Marine veteran and dilettante oyster farmer of sexual assault earlier this month. In all, the 58-year-old Jackson appears to have scrubbed at least 20 posts boosting Platner before the allegations emerged, based on information from the Internet Archive’s Wayback...

Sen. Bernie Sanders insisted that he has no regrets about his initial stance standing by disgraced oyster farmer Graham Platner despite an avalanche of warning signs. Sanders (I-Vt.) had been among Platner’s earliest backers, catapulting him to prominence with his endorsement shortly after the oyster farmer jumped in the race for Maine’s Senate seat. “No, I don’t think so,” Sanders told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday when asked about whether he had regrets for not abandoning Platner sooner. The self-described democratic socialist had stuck with Platner during a string of scandals, defending him after revelations emerged that he...

On July 8, within minutes of Graham Platner abandoning his campaign for U.S. Senate, a 29-year-old Democratic activist named Cheyenne Hunt took to X to declare that his downfall would not be the last. “What happened in Maine should serve as a clear message: The days of women being sacrificed at the altar of our elections are over,” she wrote of Platner, who was accused of sexual assault. You may not have heard of Hunt, but you are almost certainly familiar with her work. A lawyer and progressive content creator, Hunt worked with Platner’s accusers to help orchestrate the media...

WASHINGTON — Former logger and onetime Maine Senate President Troy Jackson is on course to replace accused rapist Graham Platner as the Democratic Senate nominee following a series of party caucuses over the weekend. As results from the Pine Tree State’s 16 counties showed Jackson running away with the committed delegate count, would-be contenders Nirav Shah, former head of the state’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention; state Secretary of State Shenna Bellows; Maine Beer Co. founder Dan Kleban; and ex-congressional hopeful Jordan Wood dropped out one by one. “Today, I am stepping aside, and I am doing it for...

There’s a battle to shape the Democratic Party this fall, and two top Senate Democrats are taking different paths in their bids to put their mark on the process. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., endorsed Abdul El-Sayed in the duel for the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan. It’s a break from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is backing Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. The diverging endorsements are emblematic of the fight going on behind the scenes and publicly in the Democratic Party as the old guard fights to stand its ground, while a progressive surge threatens to completely overtake the...

Democratic Senate contenders are dramatically out-raising their Republican peers, according to Federal Election Commission data — with Georgia’s Jon Ossoff and James Talarico in Texas leading the pack. Eight of the top 10 Senate candidate fundraiser this year are Democrats, whose top contestants have raked in $574 million, compared to the Republicans’ $336 million, per the FEC. Incumbent Sen. Ossoff (D-Ga.) is the biggest fundraiser on both sides, having raked in a jaw-dropping $77 million as of June 30, and has a staggering $42.5 million in cash on hand. He’s raised nearly $98 million as a Senate candidate, including the...

Former state Senate President Troy Jackson is racking up support to become Maine’s next Democratic Senate nominee, with both his top opponents ending their campaigns on Sunday. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and physician Nirav Shah, a former top public health official in the state, both announced they would be leaving the race. Bellows made her announcement Sunday morning, while Shah exited the race Sunday evening after Democrats across the state selected delegates to next week’s state nominating convention. Shah threw his support behind Jackson. “To Maine Democrats: Susan Collins will not be defeated without a united Democratic Party....

r/tankiejerk: ForwardDiamond3484. Ana Kasparian is victim-blaming Graham Platner's accuser. July 8, 2026. https://www.tiktok.com/@destinydebates/video/7660271699652250893 https://www.reddit.com/r/tankiejerk/comments/1uqz3c9/ana_kasparian_is_victimblaming_graham_platners/

A driver was shot dead Monday while trying to mow down Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Maine, according to authorities. Graphic footage on social media shows a man lying by the side of the road near a car, with a bullet hole visible through the driver’s side of the front windshield following the incident in Biddeford just after 7:15 a.m., the Portland Press Herald reported. The unidentified driver reportedly accelerated at ICE agents at an intersection in the small town before the officers shot him dead, eyewitnesses said. Officers in green vests surrounded a car and drew their...

The Democratic Party is at war with itself — and in Maine, the fight has spilled into the open. Graham Platner, an alleged rapist with a Nazi tattoo on his chest, won the Democratic nomination for United States Senate last month, beating the candidate the party establishment had recruited by a commanding 53-point margin. For months, Republicans and others had warned that Platner was unfit for the job. The Democrats did not care. As soon as party leaders saw polling that suggested he could beat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November they embraced him, hosting him in Washington, DC, and...

Apple and Google spent months suppressing negative news stories about the scandal-plagued Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner prior to his recent downfall, according to a new study obtained by Fox News Digital. The Media Research Center (MRC), a conservative watchdog group, found that Apple News and Google News published zero stories between November of last year and May of this year about the various controversies that muddied Platner's Senate bid, including headlines about his Nazi tattoo and his offensive Reddit posts. The MRC study said the blackout in coverage began after a poll released in late October suggested Platner...

Kalshi‘s predictions are based on people betting on the outcome of a race, not on the opinions of voters in Maine. It’s just another way for money to influence our politics.Unfortunately CNN as well as CNBC recently made lucrative deals with Kalshi and are allowing it to influence their reporting. Guess it saves them he cost of polling regular Americans who don’t have the time or money to constantly bet on things.

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said he would work with anyone who wanted to fight against President Donald Trump when asked about Democrat Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who’s embroiled in controversy amid allegations of adulterous behavior.

California Rep. Ro Khanna once again admitted that he believes the women who have accused Maine Democrat Graham Platner of being physically rough with or mistreating them — but is standing by him nonetheless. Khanna (D-Calif.), who was an early backer of Platner, contended that the oyster farmer had redemption and underscored his goal of ensuring Democrats flip Maine’s Senate seat. “I do believe those women. And I have said that his past conduct was shameful, and I totally condemned it,” Khanna told “Fox News Sunday.” “He did two, three tours of duty in Iraq. He came back with PTSD,”...