NPR’s Scott Detrow speaks with Adam Jentleson, Democratic strategist and founder and president of the liberal think tank Searchlight Institute, about where Graham Platner goes from here.
Transcription
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Graham Platner was once seen as the key to Democrats picking up enough seats to take back the U.S. Senate. Now, Democratic Party leaders are withdrawing their support and calling for him to drop out of the Senate race in Maine. Yesterday, Politico reported that a woman he once dated accused him of sexual assault. Platner denied the allegation and said, quote, “any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false.” But this news came after other reports of disturbing behavior from women who previously dated Platner and an extramarital sexting scandal. So where does the race go from here? That’s why we called Adam Jentleson. He is a Democratic strategist and founder and president of the Searchlight Institute, a liberal think tank. Thanks for coming, Adam.
ADAM JENTLESON: Thank you for having me.
DETROW: Is this campaign already viable?
JENTLESON: No, absolutely not. I’m surprised Platner hasn’t quit already. Maybe I’ll quit when this segment is over. But he’s gone, and the sooner the better, because Maine Democratic Party rules do allow the party to select a replacement as long as he leaves before Monday. So time is ticking. I think the Democrats still have a great chance of winning this seat if he drops out, so he should leave sooner rather than later.
DETROW: Platner had a lot of support from Democratic voters, even amid all those other scandals. What do you think is the least terrible way to quickly elect a new candidate that voters don’t support?
JENTLESON: I think we have to find a claim to legitimacy for this new candidate. You know, we saw how, you know, not being chosen by voters dogged Kamala Harris as the nominee when she was chosen by, you know, essentially party members to be the nominee. You know, she was vice president, but she was… she didn’t win the Democratic nomination in the traditional way. So I think the same standard needs to be applied here. You know, there were seven Democratic candidates running for two statewide offices about a month ago in the primaries, right? There was the race for senator and there is the race for governor.
DETROW: Yes.
JENTLESON: Among those seven candidates, there are many credible nominees, all of whom I think would have a solid chance of beating Susan Collins. The only one who can’t is Platner himself. You know, and all of them would have some right to be legitimized because a lot of people voted for them. I think that, you know, holding a convention that you have to plan in less than a month and then, you know, coming up with rules and bylaws that everyone agrees to, you could make it work, but it’s… you know, if you use subjective standards to choose the nominee at that convention, I think you’re going to run into a lot of problems and run a real risk of leaving the party divided, which would be a real disaster as we get closer to the general election against Susan Collins.
DETROW: Well, that’s what I want to ask because a big part of Platner’s strength was that he was not an establishment figure. It didn’t come up in politics in any way, and that really appealed to voters in a way that we’ve seen in a lot of states right now. I mean, how do you get those people who supported Platner to join a mainstream politician who is elected one way or another through a very quick process that is not as open as a normal primary?
JENTLESON: Well, I think there’s a risk in overstating that case, to be honest with you. I think the primary that Maine had a month ago was kind of a split screen, right? Because, you know, in the Senate there were people who voted for Platner, who, as you say, is an anti-establishment politician. But on the governor’s side, on the same day, those voters went to the polls and elected Chellie Pingree, who is… or, excuse me, Hannah Pingree, Chellie Pingree’s daughter, who is, you know, an establishment politician. You know, she’s wonderful. I think she’s going to be a great governor and I think she has a great chance to win, you know? But she wasn’t an anti-establishment candidate, you know?
And when you look at the votes, you know, about 156,000 Mainers voted for Graham Platner, you know? And the guy who’s positioned as the anti-establishment candidate, you know, who Graham is trying to introduce as his replacement, Troy Jackson, only got about 45,000 votes. So 100,000 Mainers voted for Graham Platner, but then they also supported Hannah Pingree or Nirav Shah.
DETROW: Adam, let me…
JENTLESON: So many of those same people who voted for him also supported some of the more traditional politicians.
DETROW: I want to make sure we have time for a thornier question with all of this. I wonder if you think that the Democratic Party, the party that embraced MeToo, that talked about believing women, do you think that they lost credibility or moral authority by sticking with Platner through all the scandals that led up to this moment?
JENTLESON: Not if they get rid of him. I think one of the things that Republicans did was, when they were faced with these questions, they stuck to them. They stayed with Trump. They stayed with Matt Gaetz. They kept any number of nominees after learning deeply immoral things about them. So as long as we take care of business here and replace him with someone we can all support, I think we can keep our heads up.
DETROW: And in 30 seconds or less, do you still think Susan Collins is beatable?
JENTLESON: I absolutely believe that. You know, this is a very favorable national environment for Democrats. Trump’s numbers are terrible. Susan Collins has been, you know, a staunch supporter of Trump time and time again. He has lost his independent streak. You know, we just have to get someone in this race who can, you know, be normal and, you know, present the case and prosecute the case against Susan Collins. And in that case, I think it is still very possible to win this seat.
DETROW: Put “be normal” on a bumper sticker. That’s Adam Jentleson, Democratic strategist, founder of the Searchlight Institute think tank. Thank you so much.
JENTLESON: Thank you.
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