A Platner write-in candidacy would be about people, not politics | Opinion
Scott Niemi of Lewiston is co-founder of the WriteInGrahamForME campaign.
This is in response to Steve Collins’ Aug. 18 column, “Graham Platner needs to stay home and shut up.”
The column took aim at Graham Platner and the people organizing to write him in, calling us a “mysterious group” and “devoted minions.” Collins argues that Graham — an oyster farmer, combat veteran and former harbormaster — is being “selfish” for not staying home and keeping quiet, even going so far as to call him speaking about union history at a Labor Day event a “grotesque disservice.”
This viewpoint completely misses what happened on the ground and why this write-in effort exists in the first place. When unproven allegations of sexual assault surfaced against Graham, it was shocking to watch the media, party officials and big donors instantaneously and seamlessly cancel the candidacy of the person Mainers had overwhelmingly chosen to win the primary election. Over 70% of primary voters chose Graham at the ballot box and their votes were tossed in the trash.
Calling Graham “selfish” for refusing to vanish turns reality upside down. Standing back up after a hit like that isn’t selfishness — it shows he’s a fighter who won’t just roll over when party bosses tell him to disappear.
After the fallout, people were angry and upset. Online Platner supporter groups fell into chaos, banning people who disagreed, and voters across the state stated they were leaving the Democratic Party and/or sitting out of the November election. Others have posted online that they plan to write in Graham whether his name is on the ballot or not.
From our estimates, we predict that hundreds if not thousands of Mainers are already planning to write in Graham as a protest vote. We are asking Graham to file as an official write-in candidate by the Aug. 25 deadline so those votes actually get counted on the official record instead of thrown in the bin. If he files this paperwork, this gives voters more options to choose their candidate(s) and rank them if they choose to vote for more than one. With ranked-choice voting, there is no vote splitting.
Graham filing this paperwork will result in currently alienated voters actually going to the polls who would otherwise stay home and would deliver votes to Jackson that he would never get on his own. Most importantly, in our opinion, if he files the paperwork, Graham Platner has a very real chance of winning this election, a chance he deserves, as it is the people of Maine who should be choosing their next senator.
Here’s an example of how this works: if Graham Platner is a voter’s first choice and they rank Troy Jackson second, and Graham is eliminated in the first round, every vote that marks Troy as their second choice gets added right to Troy’s total in the next round. Even the columnist admitted that no harm comes to Jackson under this math. In fact, it gives him a better chance of beating Collins.
The column also tried to paint our campaign as an outside plot, pointing to a text from Danny Aguilar, a volunteer digital designer who helped build our site. Danny told him straight: “If lobbyists can do it (intervene in Maine elections), why can’t private citizens?” Many volunteers are now stepping up from states other than Maine because they believe in Graham and understand the importance of supporting him and/or this Senate race at this moment in U.S. history.
When corporate PACs and out-of-state billionaires pour millions into Maine airwaves, nobody bats an eye. But when everyday Mainers — parents, mechanics, tradespeople — team up with a volunteer to build a website, the establishment calls it a conspiracy.
This write-in campaign isn’t about party politics. It’s about standing up for the working-class people who won the primary in June and making sure our voices are counted this November.
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Tagged: columns, election 2026, senate 2026
