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A poll released this week, in addition to showing a dead heat in the Maine Senate race, suggests that Democratic candidate Graham Platner’s working-class bona fides as an oyster farmer — which he has made a central part of his campaign — aren’t resonating.
Platner currently trails incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins by 21 points, 37% to 58%, with registered voters who do not hold a four-year college degree, according to a New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll released on Monday.
Additionally, the poll shows Platner up 37 points with White college-educated voters but trailing Collins by 23 points with White non-college-educated voters.
In the September 2020 New York Times/Siena poll, Collins led Democrat Sara Gideon by just 48%-45% with White non-college-educated voters, a 20-point swing from six years ago in a race Collins won by about nine points statewide.
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Graham Platner, left, pictured alongside Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, right. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images; Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
Platner’s sagging support from those without a college degree has prompted some on social media to suggest his messaging to working-class voters as an oyster farmer from rural Maine is falling flat, despite his repeated pledges to fight against “corporate greed” and the billionaire “oligarchy.”
Ryan Girdusky, founder of the 1776 Project PAC, posted on X that “Graham is what a college educated person thinks a working-class person is supposed to act like and working-class people can see he’s a fraud.”
“Blue collar voters can tell he’s not one of them,” journalist Melissa Braunstein posted on X.
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Platner has faced criticism during his campaign for claims about his background as he has long identified himself as an oyster farmer and harbor master, giving a blue-collar tinge to his left-wing campaign, at the same time financial disclosures show that he brings in relatively little money from oyster farming and reports have suggested that Platner receives the majority of his income through veteran’s disability payments, Digital previously reported.
In his pitch to working-class voters, Platner has also had to overcome his own wealthy background that resulted in him attending private schools, including The Hotchkiss School, an exclusive $75,000-a-year boarding school in Lakeville, Connecticut.
“Mainers know authenticity, and they can spot a pretender from a mile away,” Maine Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby told Digital. “Maine voters aren’t looking for a performance, they’re looking for someone who understands their lives and will fight for them — that has always been Susan Collins.”
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Graham Platner addresses the crowd at his watch party after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate at a YMCA in Blue Hill, Maine, on June 9, 2026. Platner will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the election for the seat. (Matthew Symons for Digital)
The various controversies surrounding Platner, including infidelity, physical abuse of an ex-girlfriend, a Nazi-linked tattoo, disparaging comments about the military and referring to himself as a “communist,” appears to have hurt him with voters as only 44% said he has “good character” while 47% said he is “too extreme” for the state.
Digital reached out to the Platner campaign for comment.
Still, despite the questions about his background and his controversial statements, Platner’s pitch to voters as a combat veteran who will push back against Trump and the establishment of both parties has helped him to a two-point lead over Collins, according to the New York Times poll, in a race that could decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate in November.
Fifty-four percent of respondents in the poll said they’d like to see the Democrats win back the Senate majority in the midterms, five points higher than the 49% who are supporting Platner. And Collins is capturing 10% of voters who prefer the Democrats control the Senate.
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Warning signs for Collins in the poll include a majority that said they thought the senator would be too supportive of Trump and even some of her own supporters worry that the 73-year-old Collins is too old to be an effective senator.
Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
