Mark Charest

I'm not running for office. But if I were, these are some of the lessons I'd take away from what happened in NY yesterday. 1. Authenticity is measurable. Voters can smell a focus group from a mile away. 2. Endorsements from the current Democratic leadership now read like warnings. The establishment wing of the party is no longer a sword. It's a question mark. 3. Conviction beats caution. The candidates who said hard things about rent, about who pays for what, about Gaza, they won. The triangulators lost. 4. Cost of living is everything. Everything else is wallpaper. 5. The middle is not a strategy. It's an empty room. Voters reached past the establishment to grab someone who actually believes something. 6. Don't fear the base. Court it. The Democrats who ran from their own voters lost. The ones who ran toward them won. 7. If you want to lead a party you have to be willing to fight inside it. Mamdani didn't ask permission. He took the field. The lesson under the lessons: the country is tired of being managed. People want to be led.

@cahil @grahamformaine Can I get one of these? Campaign merch is hard to come by.

BREAKING: Susan Collins "very concerned" about her reelection chances.

@AnimasOutlaw @Yuri6Actual @6Voodoo

@Yuri6Actual @6Voodoo As a guy who has been involved in the abrupt disassembly of two oil tanks in my career, you'd be surprised how well they stay intact during catastrophic failure.

Say what you want about US Air Defense Artillery but at least we aren’t blowing up our own oil tanks

Why do we treat the Supreme Court as if it’s the only branch of government without any checks or balances on its power? There's already a compelling case to impeach and remove at least two justices.

@SteveRob Finally, the hard-hitting investigative journalism Maine needs.

Are Mainers souring on Graham Platner and yanking their yard signs? At least one local business in Hancock County has removed two prominent Platner signs on Route 1. Also, it’s owned by Platner’s mom.

@MoniFunGirl @Krisco7791 Is he a communist or a Nazi? Make up your mind.

@Krisco7791 I agree … Graham Platner is a self professed communist / revolutionary.

A photograph posted to the Socialist Rifle Association shows Graham Platner’s unmistakable ginger beard as he shields his pale skin from the scorching sun of the firing range. Last October, The Robinson Report broke the story that Graham Platner — the disabled Sullivan veteran with an oyster hobby who is now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate — had personally instructed members of the Socialist Rifle Association in firearms training in Maine. Now, two additional accounts — both from self-described left-wingers — have surfaced that confirm Platner’s top role in the Maine chapter of firearms and political activism org. The reporting previously rested on Platner’s own words, as well as pictures from an official Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) social media account that appeared to show Platner serving as a range officer for the group’s training sessions. Graham Platner’s SRA trainees display an Industrial Workers of the World flag. The IWW was founded in Chicago in 1905 by a coalition of radical unionists, socialists, anarchists, and Marxists, including figures like Bill Haywood and Eugene Debs. Posting under the Reddit handle “P-Hustle,” he wrote in August 2020 that his chapter ran “lots of range days, firearms education classes,” that he’d “just put on a defensive handgun course two weekends ago,” and that the group ran monthly introductory courses plus “more advanced classes for experienced members.” In a separate post, he recruited a Mainer to the chapter directly: “We’re quite active.”

The Democratic establishment is not afraid of Platner losing, they are afraid of Platner winning.

I'm not just defending Graham Platner; I also want to give future progressive leaders the chance to redeem themselves. Unless you're looking for a perfect liar, it's hard not to say something stupid when you're young.

Benjamin Netanyahu is an international fugitive. He is charged with the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.

Their plan: Spend $300 million to buy Susan Collins a sixth term. My plan: Defeat them, then ban billionaires from buying elections.

@LarryOConnor “And the media obediently swoon” motherfucker have you been in a coma for the last two months?

Have you noticed something? Whenever a new, horrible story is revealed about this lying, violent detestable scumbag he says something like "the oligarchs are attacking me because they want this to be about me but I'm trying to talk about you, the people of Maine" And the media obediently swoon and refuse to follow-up or ask specifics and he gets away with it. But then, if you actually look at his commercials and his social media posts and his supporters' posts, they DON'T EVER talk about "the people of Maine" His campaign is a never ending attack on Susan Collins and her supporters. Did I mention he's a lying, violent, detestable, rage-filled, pompous, arrogant pathetic scumbag?

@juliush34 Shut the fuck up dork

@SenSusanCollins Hold a town hall you fucking coward

Mainers expect results, and I will always show up to work hard for our state every single day.

I’m actually crying this is so fkn funny

Being called a thug and the worst person ever to run for office by Donald Trump might be the highest compliment I have ever received.

@AndyMasley No one fucking cares

Promoting this level of low trust conspiracy theory politics is just so repulsive to me

@aobrien2010 My response

Someone paid to have an anti-Platner banner flown over Portland, ME.

@Inverted_Dash @MikeNellis Say that to my face, asshole.

@MikeNellis The idiots in Maine who vote in Democratic primaries tell us one thing: We've got more idiots than we'd hoped. But they don't elect our representatives.

I was a bit worried Planer would be under 70% with a sizable protest vote, but nope... he’s clearing that by quite a bit. Maine Democrats have made their voices heard, and they want to beat Susan Collins and effectively end Trump’s second term. Let’s go.

@Acyn Proud to support Graham.

Platner: I want to thank Governor Mills for a lifetime of service to a state that we both love. And to any of those who feel let down or disappointed or disillusioned, it is my job to earn your trust, faith and support. And I will spend every day of this campaign and if I have the privilege every day in the United States senate doing exactly that