Graham Platner vies for working class coalition at townhall ahead of senate primary

ORONO, Maine (WABI) - U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner held a town hall on the UMaine campus in Orono Wednesday evening.

He took questions from Mainers about his campaign and the policies he would support if elected to the Senate.

Audience members asked him questions including addressing his past controversial comments online, staying true to his roots in Washington if he were to be elected, and appealing to people outside of the Democratic Party.

One of the main points Platner emphasized was the need to drive down costs, including making it illegal for private equity firms to own single-family homes.

He argued in favor of building a coalition that works in favor of the working class.

“A health insurance industry that bleeds us dry, just to not show up for us when we need it. We see a housing system that doesn’t treat housing like a human right but simply uses it as another tool to bleed working people dry and take wealth and labor and put it into the pockets who already have enough already,” he said.

Platner also used the opportunity to call out the top-brass leadership of both the democratic and republican parties.

“The democratic party, at its highest echelons in Washington D.C., there are people in leadership who have been consumed by the same corporate apparatus that controls the republican party,” he said.

New polling from the Maine People’s Resource has Platner with a commanding 33-point lead over Governor Janet Mills in the Primary.