Free Republic

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, the self-described "working class Mainer," attended an elite boarding school in Connecticut that costs upwards of $75,000 a year. Its alumni include Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart, former CIA director Porter Goss, Clinton family crony Strobe Talbott, MacKenzie Scott Bezos, and the veteran news anchor Chris Wallace. "Graham Platner is enrolled as a first-year student at the Hotchkiss School, located in Lakeville, Conn.," a Maine newspaper, the Ellsworth American, reported in November 1999. "Platner is familiar to many through his role as the Artful Dodger in 'Oliver' and as a 20th Maine Civil War Re-Enactor."...

Graham Platner, a far-left Democratic candidate running for Senate in Maine who has captured the enthusiasm of the party’s grassroots base, sought to preempt rumors circulating in recent weeks that a black skull-and-cross bones tattoo on his chest is a Nazi symbol. Speaking with Tommy Vietor on the “Pod Save America” political podcast, released on Monday night, Platner, 41, confirmed the existence of the tattoo, seen in video he shared displaying his bare chest, but suggested that his opponents in the race have been spreading claims that the symbol is affiliated with Nazism, which he forcefully denied. “I am not...

Sanders-backed Democrat who accuses Israel of 'genocide' has Nazi 'Totenkopf'. Graham Platner, a military veteran and Maine Senate candidate, faces backlash after revealing a Nazi tattoo and denying knowledge of its meaning. Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner sports a Totenkopf tattoo on his chest, in an archival video released by Platner himself. The skull-and-crossbones symbol is commonly associated with the Nazi SS. Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner sports a Totenkopf tattoo on his chest, in an archival video released by Platner himself. The skull-and-crossbones symbol is commonly associated with the Nazi SS. (photo credit: screenshot/via YouTube) By Andrew...

Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic Senate candidate backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), wrote in 2020 that he had an "antifa supersoldier" label on his "armor," according to an archived post reviewed by Axios. Why it matters: Progressives have elevated Platner as one of their top candidates in next year's midterm elections, but his old Reddit posts have thrown his campaign into turmoil. Platner is running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, Senate Democrats' top Republican target next year. The contest for the Democratic nomination between Platner and Maine Gov. Janet Mills — who's preferred by Democratic Party leaders — already...

A member of the Bush family running for Maine governor attempted to get ahead of his dark past unveiled by the Daily Mail before launching his campaign, according to a new report. Jonathan Bush, the 56-year-old cousin of former President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, launched his gubernatorial bid earlier this month. In 2018, the Daily Mail revealed Bush confessed to ‘numerous physical altercations’ with his ex-wife Sarah Selden. This included him 'repeatedly slamming his closed fist into her sternum [breastbone]', while in the presence of their child who was a baby at the time. The...

Ah! It seemed too good to be true. A Marine veteran who was also an oyster-farmer man of the people who, as a Democrat, promised to take down Maine's Republican Senator Susan Collins in the 2026 election. The new Golden Boy of Democrats everywhere as well as an eager media who sung his accolades across the land.Unfortunately for them, it all came crashing down as you can read in a sad report on Thursday by Benjamin Hart of New York magazine's Intelligencer section which bluntly proclaimed, "Graham Platner’s Honeymoon Is Over."

Two years after signing a radical measure that cleared the way for abortions through all nine months of pregnancy, Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced she is jumping into the race for U.S. Senate Her decision sets up a high-stakes showdown with Republican incumbent Susan Collins. The Democrat governor, who cannot seek a third term due to term limits, declared her candidacy in an interview with the Bangor Daily News, ending months of speculation about her political future. “I think I can win this, and I think I’m the one who can beat Susan Collins, because I have a track record...

Maine’s two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills will run for the U.S. Senate seat held by veteran Republican Sen. Susan Collins next year, two people familiar with Mills’ plans said on Friday. The development sets up a potential showdown between the parties’ best-known figures in a state where Democrats see a chance to gain a seat in their uphill quest for the Senate majority. Mills is tentatively expected to announce her candidacy on Tuesday, according to the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss plans they were not authorized to share publicly. Mills was the top choice of national Democrats who...

Sen. Susan Collins is reportedly shopping around a potential off-ramp to the government shutdown that has paralyzed Washington, but the Maine Republican is not ready to give in on the primary demand by her Democratic colleagues. Collins has been circulating a “discussion draft” of a proposal that would include GOP pledges on a deal related to enhanced Obamacare tax credits, Punchbowl News reported. But Collins is insisting that any extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies should be negotiated after Congress passes a funding resolution that would allow the government to reopen. Collins told reporters Monday that she has a...

Maine Rep. Jared Golden, the only Democrat in the House to vote for the Republican-led government funding bill, drew a primary challenger Monday who accused him of consistently siding with the GOP over his own party. State Auditor Matthew Dunlap’s bid sets the stage for a high-profile showdown in a district Democrats will likely need to hold to regain control of the US House. Golden represents one of the country’s most competitive districts, winning his 2024 race by less than a percentage point while President Donald Trump carried it by roughly 10 points. Dunlap told CNN ahead of his announcement...

Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) is blaming leftist groups and his own party for the ongoing government shutdown. In a social media post on Wednesday, Golden wrote, “This government shutdown is the result of hardball politics driven by the demands far-left groups are making for Democratic Party leaders to put on a show of their opposition to President Trump.” He added the shutdown is “hurting Americans and our economy, and the irony is it has only handed more power to the president.” Golden continued: This fight is ostensibly about health care, so let me be clear: I opposed the GOP’s Medicaid...

Bush, assuming he runs as a Republican, is not likely to align himself with the MAGA movement, as he has called President Donald Trump 'personally troubled'. And in December 2023, he donated $50,000 to a super PAC that was in support of Nikki Haley, Trump's main rival in the 2024 Republican primaries. He has not given much to Maine politicians but has supported Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who voted against Trump's Big Beautiful Bill.

The secretary of state's office told Maine's Total Coverage that these allegations are being investigated. VIDEO AT LINK................ NEWBURGH, Maine — A woman in Newburgh said she ordered paper plates, rice and coffee from Amazon. When she opened the package, she said it looked like it had already been opened and retaped, so she expected those items to be damaged. Instead, she said she found all the items she ordered as well as hundreds of bundled, blank Maine state ballots for the November election. She said she called the Newburgh town office right away and handed the ballots over. The...

Law enforcement is investigating how 250 ballots ended up in a Maine resident's Amazon package, the secretary of state's office said Wednesday. “We are aware of the serious allegations that packages of ballots were received by a private citizen. Law enforcement is investigating the matter,” the office told WABI. The news outlet did not report which law enforcement agency that is. The alleged discovery comes just weeks before Question 1, a voter ID citizens referendum, is expected to appear on the Maine ballot. The news stories are unclear whether the question appears on the apparently blank ballots.

Three Senate Democrats voted in favor of the Republican Continuing Resolution, bucking their party and hoping to avoid a Schumer Shutdown. Those Senators are Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), John Fetterman (PA), and Angus King (ME). In a post on X, Fetterman explained his vote, writing, "I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them -- but I won't vote for the chaos of shuttering our government." He added, "My vote was our country over my party." Earlier, Sen. King had expressed concerns over the CR and played coy as to how he would vote. "You'll find out...

The number of public school employees who celebrated the political assassination of Christian and conservative commentator Charlie Kirk has reached such a high level that teachers’ unions are now tracking Kirk’s supporters and preparing to coordinate the legal defense for teachers whose jobs are now in jeopardy. An internal union email obtained by the Maine Wire shows the National Education Association (NEA) has told its members that it’s monitoring supporters of the slain conservative activist and is preparing legal and communications defenses for school teachers who publicly celebrated his assassination.The email, sent by the head of the NEA’s Portland Education...

This morning the House passed a clean CR designed to fund the government through November, thereby avoiding the possibility of a shutdown at the end of this month. Democrats how vowed not to support it in the Senate.The vote was 217-212, with one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, joining Republicans in voting yes. Two Republicans — conservative Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Victoria Spartz of Indiana — and all other Democrats voted against the bill.The short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, now heads to the Senate, where Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other...

Bowdoin College conservative students went to bed afraid Sunday after administrators informed the campus of “credible” threats that prompted the cancellation of a vigil honoring Charlie Kirk, a student leader told The College Fix by phone and email. “Despite being the recipients of this ‘supposed threat,’ we have not been informed of anything else, so many of my members are living in complete fear,” Bowdoin College Conservatives President Zak Asplin said Monday. Safa Zaki, president of the private Maine college, issued an announcement Sunday night that the situation was investigated and no longer deemed to be a threat. However, in...

One of the state's first harm reduction community centers has abruptly closed, leaving extreme filth so severe that the building is condemned. Fecal matter, thousands of used needles and people sleeping in the basement were all found inside a commercial building now locked up and slapped with a condemned notice. One of the doors had been broken into and from there, you have access through the rest of the building,” Lewiston City Building Inspector Travis Tardiff said. “Several other doors had been unlocked to allow other people in.” Most of the building is empty, but the Church of Safe Injection...

A U.S. citizen is facing significant charges after ‘they’ attempted to intervene in the apprehension of illegal aliens in Maine, nearly running over U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents in the process, authorities say.On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released details about the disturbing incident, which unfolded on Aug. 25 in Knox County.Local law enforcement was responding to the scene of a commercial vehicle rollover crash with the assistance of USBP.Two men who were traveling in the truck were found to be illegal aliens: Victor Hugo Cardona-Calderon (visa overstay) and Jhoan Andres Ortiz-Calderon (final order of removal from an...