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- [00:00]
Garrison Davis
This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.
- [00:04]
Jana Kramer
This is Jana Kramer from Wind down with Jana Kramer. So why do they call it a dishwasher? Well, don't worry, it's not a trick question or anything. It's just because it washes dishes. If the filter and the dishwasher itself are dirty, those dishes aren't actually getting clean. That's why you need Cascade Platinum Plus. Powered by two times the cleaning power of Dawn, Cascade Platinum plus doesn't just remove 100% of grease and residue from dishes, it cleans your dishwasher and filter too. So you get clean dishes and a dishwasher that keeps washing. Just scrape, load and done. Find Cascade Platinum plus at your local retailer. Cascade is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to equality. Cascade would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of this year's deserving honorees. Don't miss the Elton John Impact Awards podcast, available on June 1st on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard.
- [00:59]
Tony Ayo
This is Tony Ayo from the Real Report with Tony Ayo and Uncle Murder. You ever notice how everything keeps going up? Rent, streaming, even extra Sosa at your favorite burrito spot? But with Boost Mobile, you don't have to play the Willis Go up soon game. Boost Mobile offers an unlimited talk, text and data plan at a price that'll never go up. It's the same price you'll pay for life. Switch now for unlimited wireless at a price that'll never go up. Only at boost mobile. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost Cost Unlimited plan.
- [01:37]
Garrison Davis
Welcome to It Could Happen Here, a show about things falling apart and putting them back together. I'm Garrison Davis. This episode is on probably the most controversial midterm election happening this year, the U.S. senate race in Maine, where the new Democratic nominee Graham Platner is running to end the 30 year reign of Republican Senator Susan Collins, who brands herself as a moderate independent leaning Republican but has consistently backed Trump's unpopular policies while holding on to power. Beating Susan Collins would be a key part of taking the Senate away from the Republicans. Much of the media coverage and discussion of this election has focused on the scandals relating to Graham Platner's personal life, with very little on the real relations of his campaign, the political platform he's running on, the relations between him and organized labor unions and working class Mainers. Platter's campaign has attracted overwhelming support from voters in Maine despite the series of well reported personal controversies, the Nazi linked tattoo he got as a Marine, old offensive Reddit posts, marital issues, relationship issues, and an ex girlfriend who worked at the Heritage foundation accusing him of quote unquote disturbing behavior after he got out of the military. Mainstream outlets have covered those at length. This episode I'm going to narrowly focus on the relations of Graham Platner's campaign. I'll start by going over his campaign platform, then his ties to labor unions and community organizing, and finally how those ties set up his campaign for massive success in the Democratic primary. Platner calls himself a New Deal Democrat and like Bernie Sanders, believes we need a quote, unquote political revolution in this country. He wants to shake up the Supreme Court, increase the federal minimum wage and ban billionaires from buying elections. His platform is also designed to address the concerns of working class Mainers like declining manufacturing, decaying infrastructure, closing hospitals and spiking energy costs. Platner supports universal healthcare and ultimately wants to pass a Medicare for all type system while pointing to how the country could build on the VA model, saying, quote, the level of healthcare I've received with Maine's excellent VA system should be available to all, unquote. We all know that going up against for profit healthcare will be a hard battle to win. His platform contains a list of policies that will start to break up healthcare monopolies and crack down on pharma corruption, like banning insurance companies and private equity from buying medical practices and hospitals, and banning prescription drug advertising. Platner says he wants to expand Medicare and Medicaid's power to negotiate drug prices, allow the import of low cost prescription drugs from other markets and ban stock buybacks and impose a cap on executive compensation for pharmaceutical companies that receive public funds. His platform calls to direct federal funds to reopen recently closed hospitals, birthing units and clinics, establish a national public drug manufacturing sector, make Medicare telehealth coverage permanent, reverse doge cuts to the VA, national legislation mandating a safe level of nurse to patient ratios to counter chronic hospital understaffing, and to open a new medical school at University of Maine. A large part of Grand Platner's policy platform is focused on protecting democracy by keeping money out of elections. Quote democracy cannot function when wealth buys power. Since Citizens United, unlimited dark money has flooded American politics, giving billionaires and special interests enormous influence, unquote. Platner wants to overturn Citizens United either through a constitutional amendment or a Different Supreme Court. More on that later. He also campaigns on banning congressional stock trading and advocates that former members of Congress should be banned from congressional lobbying. Public service should never become a pathway to private affluence, unquote. Platner supports mandating congressional term limits, two for the Senate and six for the House. And at a minimum, returning to the talking filibuster. His platform also includes congressional representation for everyone in the country, quote, unquote, including in places like Washington, DC. As for the Supreme Court, Platner wants to pack the court and end lifetime appointments with staggered time limited terms. He's also in favor of impeaching justices on the Supreme Court by, quote, holding the court to the same ethics standards we hold all other federal judges, unquote. Platner supports passing a constitutional amendment to, quote, prohibit partisan gerrymandering and require independent redistricting commissions to draw fair maps, which he says would keep elected officials more accountable and make voters voices stronger. To combat anti labor legislation like the Taft Hartley Act, Platner wants to strengthen our, quote, unquote right to organize by passing the Protecting the Right to Organize act, which would crack down on union busting by issuing significant penalties and override right to work laws. Plattner also supports creating a union job requirement for all jobs funded by federal dollars. In interviews, Platner has advocated for something akin to FDR's proposed economic bill of Rights, quote, in order to democratize our economy, we need to provide as rights things like housing, healthcare, education and collective bargaining. He also wants to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to protect against sex discrimination while addressing how communities of color, LGBTQ Americans and immigrants have had the legal protections that were meant to guarantee them equal rights, quote, turned against them instead of working in their defense. We need a 21st century constitution that restores the original purpose of these guarantees, equal rights under the law protected for every person in this country, unquote. His policy platform includes passing federal LGBTQ anti discrimination legislation and calls out Democrats for, quote, unquote, peddling soft bigotry to pander to Trump voters. One of Platner's most in depth policy pages is for his billionaire tax plan, which he says represents, quote, the bare minimum of what I believe we should expect a Democratic Congress under our next president to pass. Platner believes that income taxes alone, quote, cannot address the massive concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Only a tax on wealth can do so. He promotes a 5 to 6% annual tax on wealth over $1 billion, as well as taxing capital gains the same as wages, quadrupling taxes on stock buybacks and taxing excessive CEO pay to pressure corporations to reinvest profits back into their workers through higher wages, better benefits and long term security. On the campaign trail, he's talked with voters about removing the $167,000 a year income tax cap on Social Security payments so that the ultra rich contribute to the same payroll tax rate as the rest of us. He also wants to restore the enhanced child tax credit. Platner's tax plan doesn't just include raising taxes on the rich, but closing loopholes make a corporations use to avoid paying taxes altogether, quote by closing corporate loopholes, we ensure that the giants who profit off our shared infrastructure, courts and educated workforce finally pay their way and that we can sustain investments in the schools, safety and services every community depends on. One way to stop corporate tax dodging is by ending worker misclassification, that is hiring workers as quote, unquote contractors to deprive workers of labor protections and health care while using this misclassification to dodge payroll taxes. Instead of foreign policy dominated by trade agreements that exploits workers and promotes endless war. Platner's platform calls for a new era of American, quote unquote economic diplomacy that takes on billionaires who, quote, defund the societies that made their fortunes possible simply by shuffling money into an offshore account, unquote. He advocates a global billionaire minimum tax to, quote, ensure that extreme wealth is finally reinvested in the public good regardless of where it is parked, unquote. This is based on a proposal by the EU's Internal Tax Observatory. To accomplish this, Platner says, we would need to overhaul global economic institutions, use our leverage as a trading partner and use international economic diplomacy to target concentrated wealth and coordinate taxes and sanctions on ultra wealthy individuals, quote, rather than relying on broad trade sanctions that harm ordinary people. He also wants to close an inheritance tax loophole by stopping billionaires from passing down their wealth to their heirs tax free through buying appreciating assets, borrowing against those assets and then passing down the assets after they die while avoiding any taxes on the increased asset value. Platner says time for those gains to be taxed too. The tax plan also includes ways to lower taxes for working and middle class Americans. Quote, if we tax millionaires and billionaires at fair levels, we can provide a quote unquote cost of living exemption from federal income tax up to a reasonable threshold for working and middle class Americans. If we stop multinational monopolies from dodging their taxes, we can cut taxes on the small businesses and self employed individuals who are struggling to survive. The federal government could adopt a property tax fairness credit similar to Maine's that ensures low and middle income families do not pay more than 4% of their income in property taxes by providing a refundable credit including a fair calculation of rent attributable to property taxes so that renters are treated equitably, unquote. Something we've previously reported on is Platner's opposition to what he calls regressive gas and diesel taxes. Quote relying on fossil fuels to fund basic infrastructure does not make sense if we want to reduce fossil fuels used in transportation. Instead, public goods should be financed by progressive general revenues as outlined in my end billionaire welfare tax plan, unquote. Platner notes that an extra $275 billion has supplemented the tax based Highway Trust Fund since 2008. Platner also supports Ro Khanna's big oil windfall profits bill that would implement a per barrel tax equal to 50% of the difference between the current oil price and the price per barrel last year. And he promotes a national electricity rate freeze by, quote, providing direct low cost energy infrastructure financing to any state that freezes or lowers electricity rates for four years funded by the windfall profits tax and repurposed federal fossil fuel subsidies, unquote. His platform states that the most effective national security project would be a huge build out of domestic clean energy production rather than relying on private equity to invest in new clean energy. Platner supports a national energy infrastructure fund that would issue debt backed by the federal government and quote, partner with state lending authorities to provide cheap capital directly to utilities, rural electric cooperatives, public energy authorities and other developers of low risk clean energy projects, unquote. Platner believes this fund could cut Wall street speculators out of the equation, help build at scale with union jobs, lower costs and pass savings on to ratepayers. He also wants the Department of Energy to use the Defense Production act to revive domestic manufacturing to procure and stockpile critical clean energy technologies. His platform also includes creating a strategic fuel reserve for farmers and fisheries, a national whole home repair program to assist in weatherization, electrification and heat pumps to lower household bills by partnering with public housing authorities, county programs and local trade unions, as well as reinvesting the money funneled to big defense contractors back into shipbuilding. On the campaign trail, Platner talks a lot about being a veteran and the various ways that's informed his politics. He's promised to, quote, never send Americans into a pointless war and to solve the issue of a president effectively being able to declare wars. But it's not call them wars. Platner has called on Congress to reclaim its war powers and other authorities over the executive. Quote, we must pass a new War Powers Act. The same must go for ending the executive's intrusion on congressional powers of the purse, taxation and other legislative prerogatives, unquote. We'll talk more about Graham Platner's campaign platform and ties to organized labor after this ad break.
- [15:07]
George Taveras
This is George Taveras and Sam Taggart from Stratio Lab. Okay, picture it. Your apartment after a Saturday workout. The gym bag, the couch, maybe even the car. Mi amor. It's a full novella of odors and not the glamorous kind.
- [15:21]
Sam Taggart
That's where Febreze comes in. Boost, spray, Spritz plug or clip. It doesn't just mask odors, it fights them. Honey.
- [15:28]
George Taveras
Want long lasting scent you can control? Try Febreze Plug Scent Booster today. With the adjustable intensity dial, you can control the scent to match your mood. Plus, thanks to its Fade Defy technology, your home stays first day fresh for up to 50 days.
- [15:44]
Sam Taggart
Need a quick car rescue? Clip a Febreze car vent clip and map your ride to freshness. And don't forget the fabric refresher. While you can't cram that cushion in the washer, you can top off every pillow fluff with a spritz grits of fabric refresher.
- [15:57]
George Taveras
Because home should smell like you. Fabulous. Fresh, Unforgettable.
- [16:01]
Sam Taggart
Febreze is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to equality.
- [16:10]
George Taveras
You won't want to miss the Elton John Impact awards podcast, available June 1 on the iHeartRadio app. And everywhere podcasts are heard, June is Black Music Month.
- [16:19]
Drink Champs Host
And on the Drink Champs podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Swae Lee. Do you realize how legendary you are?
- [16:27]
Swae Lee
I appreciate that I be seeing it, but I'm like, man, I still got like so much more to do. Like Prince, he dropped like 30 albums. We dropped like five right now. That's the rate we gotta be going. Y.
- [16:37]
George Taveras
That's a good attitude.
- [16:38]
Drink Champs Host
You'll also hear stories from industry legends and hip hop pioneers like Fab five Freddy.
- [16:43]
Fab Five Freddy
I directed one of Nas's early videos.
- [16:45]
Graham Platner
Which one?
- [16:46]
Nas
One love.
- [16:47]
Bruce Rastetter
Wow.
- [16:49]
Graham Platner
Yes.
- [16:49]
Fab Five Freddy
I literally filmed in his apartment in Queensbridge. His moms were still up in that apartment. Nas was just beginning to take off. His pops used to live near me In Harlem, his dad introduced him to a whole lot of, you know, conscious stuff, and he made a young prodigy.
- [17:05]
Drink Champs Host
No matter the era, Drink Champs brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversations. Listen to Drink Champs from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [17:17]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
What did black music, food and culture teach us about who we were becoming?
- [17:21]
Therapy for Black Girls Co-host
2016 was sort of that last era of monoculture where we still consumed things in community.
- [17:30]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
From Beyonce and Rihanna. Everybody wanted to be Beyonce.
- [17:34]
Therapy for Black Girls Co-host
I don't think we'll ever see another Rihanna.
- [17:36]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
To soul food, memory, identity, and the stories we carry through black culture.
- [17:40]
Therapy for Black Girls Co-host
What does it mean to be black
- [17:42]
Therapy for Black Girls Guest
and eat in America? So we were this group of people who knew how to work the land, who knew how to live with the land.
- [17:48]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
We make it do what it do. Therapy for black girls is bringing together the conversation shaping black life right now.
- [17:54]
Therapy for Black Girls Guest
You will never make me feel bad for being a black girl for being a black American girl ever.
- [17:59]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
Therapy for black girls is bringing it all to the mic. Listen to therapy for black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [18:08]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
A decade ago, the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil.
- [18:14]
Nas
So we met with a lot of larger farmers, went from Bahia to Tocatines to Mato Grosso, and he brought a team of executives.
- [18:22]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
They were going to help the country get in on a gold rush.
- [18:24]
Bruce Rastetter
Carbon and its derivatives are going to be really the next great commodity that the globe's going to trade.
- [18:29]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
But back home in Iowa, trouble was brewing.
- [18:33]
Iowa Resident/Activist
If you live in Iowa, your land, your water, and your voice could all be at risk, thanks to a man named Bruce Rastetter.
- [18:40]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
Now people are questioning if his climate solutions have anything to do with climate at all.
- [18:45]
Bruce Rastetter
Gotta give Bruce and the guys credit. They're Republicans. They don't give a money.
- [18:50]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
On this season of drilled carbon cowboys, the story of how the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil and what it tells us about the limits of technology and markets to solve the climate crisis. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [19:13]
Garrison Davis
Welcome back to it could Happen Here. Democratic nominee for U.S. senate, Graham Platner was interviewed by the New York Times and said that since the end of the Second World War, American foreign policy, our wars and interventions haven't been good for workers or American families. Quote, they often are very good for corporate interests, defense contractors, and people in places of political power who want to use war as a mechanism of protecting their political power, unquote. Platner told the Times that he has a complicated relationship with the military where he's still proud of being a Marine but is ashamed of what's happened in the Middle east and says that the policies and systems orchestrating those wars are, are, quote, unquote, flawed from the top down and that he considers himself anti
- [20:04]
Graham Platner
war, but it doesn't matter if you try your best inside of a flawed policy in a flawed system. It's flawed from the top down. It's bound to fail. It's bound to bring an immense amount of violence upon people who in no way, shape or form are deserving it of it. Because, I mean, we destroyed Iraq and we destroyed Afghanistan and all the suffering, all the killing, all the dying, all the displacement, all of it was, was we brought that we, the United States did that. And that I'm ashamed of. The anger that I feel is for the people that sent me who are frankly still the same people who are sending people off right now to go but be in harm's way so we can start and have a stupid war with Iran.
- [20:54]
Garrison Davis
Platner has been clear that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza and that the US has aided in the genocide of Palestinians. Quote, it is the moral question of our time and we failed as a nation. Platner believes that Israel should not receive any US Tax dollars and has proudly opposed aipac, though he has voiced support for sending aid to Ukraine. Platner calls abolishing ICE the quote, unquote moderate position and that he supports a path to citizenship, strong border security and a, quote, unquote, end to the mass deportation machine. His policy platform says that, quote, unquote, many multinational corporations have no interest in immigration reform because, quote, they want illegal workers with no rights who they can pay slave wages and abuse at will, unquote. In response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which Susan Collins assisted in by voting for Brett Kavanaugh, Platner wants to codify abortion rights and protect privacy rights. His platform states, quote, the Constitution should make clear that Americans have a fundamental right to privacy, including personal medical decisions, control over one's own body and freedom from unjust surveillance. In an age of mass data collection and artificial intelligence, this protection is more important than ever. Unquote. Platner certainly leans pro gun. He's taught leftist armed self defense classes and owns AR15s. He doesn't support an assault weapons ban, but did back a referendum to create a red flag law in the state of Maine. Other miscellaneous campaign planks include more funding for the post office, passing the Postal Banking act, developing a federal child care policy for kids under 6, defending Medicare access for people with disabilities, strengthening the Clean Air and Clean Water act, opposing any federal support for private school vouchers, reviving federal support for housing, something like the VA Home Loan program for more Americans, banning hedge funds from buying homes through legislation like the END Hedge Fund Control of American Homes act and legalizing cannabis and clemency for people caught up in the war on drugs. That is a long list of policies, goals and prospective legislation that would be no easy task to enact. Some would mean a fundamental transformation in American politics and the world economy. Platner knows that not everything in his platform can be passed overnight, but says that Democrats need a strategic vision to fight for. Telling the main monitor, I'll be the first one to say that me being in the Senate as the junior senator from Maine is not going to get us Medicare for all. There is this sort of establishment pushback where people are often like, well, you're not going to be able to do that immediately. Like, well, no shit. That's what power building is. That's what a long term plan is. In interviews, Platner often talks about his quote, unquote theory of power and how the Democratic Party has, quote, never been able to articulate what it's trying to do. Like what's the end goal? It never really articulates a clear set of policies to get us there and then never seems to want to wield power to make those policies a reality, unquote. Platner told the New York Times that Democratic Party leadership has failed the moment that the party needs new leadership and that Chuck Schumer should be replaced. Of course candidates can say anything to get elected. We've all seen politicians run on populist platforms only to then serve lobbyists, corporate interests and themselves once in office. Trump himself first ran as a populist outsider, despite being a billionaire. Senator John Fetterman also comes to mind, though. The only thing that really made Harvard graduate John Fetterman an outsider was that he wore a hoodie and had stupid facial hair prior to his Senate campaign. He served as mayor of Braddock for 13 years and Lieutenant Governor for four. Fetterman also claims that suffering a stroke, quote unquote liberated him from quote unquote progressivism. All this to say John Fetterman and Graham Platner's respective backgrounds are quite different, but obviously words and promises aren't enough to measure a candidate's worth, one must look deeper at the ties to local communities and organizations that might inform a candidate's political platform and facilitate their ability to run for office. To quote Graham Platner, we need to build political power through getting people like me into the US Senate, into Congress, and we also need to do it while building organizational power outside of the system. There has never been a moment in American history where we've gotten good things just because the institutions or people in power decided to do it. They need to be pressed. I mean, this is honestly why the country has killed the labor movement. We did it on purpose. We did it because the labor movement is the foundation of power that can actually, like push back against the system. Unquote. Graham Platner is only running for Senate because last summer the AFL cio, along with other local labor unions were looking to put up a candidate to run against Susan Collins on a working class platform. In July 2020, five candidate scouts showed up outside Platner's door asking him to run for Senate. Platner says he and his wife told them to quote, unquote, fuck off. The Scouts, including progressive strategist Daniel Moroff, had learned about Platner from a video he was in a few years ago about community organizing against a corporate Norwegian salmon farm that was trying to move into their bay.
- [26:54]
Graham Platner
My daily grind is coming out in the morning, cleaning equipment and tying knots and fixing rope and fixing line and fixing boats and cleaning oysters and listening to podcasts. My name is Graham Platner and I live in Sullivan, Maine. The owner of Frenchman Bay Oyster Company, Born and raised here in Sullivan, I grew up three houses down from the
- [27:16]
Garrison Davis
house I currently live in, Bangor. Daily News reported that in July Platner spoke with Jason Shedlock, the president of the Main State Building and Construction Trades Council via Zoom, to, quote, talk about the potential run while working on his oyster boat. About a week after first knocking on his door, the campaign Scouts showed up again, but this time with a detailed plan and the connections to get a campaign up and running. Union support helped provide resources to shoot a launch video, facilitate small dollar fundraising, and get Platner's name in local papers. He had never run for office before, but did serve as the harbor master and chair of the planning board for the town of Sullivan. In terms of Platner's own working class or middle class background, Platner's father was a lawyer in rural Maine and his mom was a small business owner who currently owns a local restaurant. As a kid his family got a financial aid package for a fancy private school in Connecticut, but Platner got himself kicked out after three months and then went back to Maine. After exiting the military, he worked as a bartender while going to University in D.C. dropped out, then worked as a private military contractor for six months at the embassy in Afghanistan. While there, Platner says he got deeply disillusioned with government corruption and the military industrial complex, quit, moved back to Maine, started working at a friend's oyster farm and got into local organizing. In a less reported on a Reddit post made by Graham Platner, he credited late political commentator Michael Brooks with moving him towards left wing working class politics. Around 2019-2020 Platner also made Reddit posts about being an anti fascist. The Senate campaign launched in mid August and in just nine days it raised $1 million with an average donation of $33. 98% of the donations were under $100. During its first week the campaign was attracting 300 volunteers per day. Pretty soon the campaign attracted the attention of Bernie Sanders who come September invited Platner to speak on his upcoming Fight Oligarchy Tour and has continued to campaign with and back Platner. Meanwhile, Governor Janet Mills was recruited by Chuck Schumer to beat Platner in the Democratic primary. From early on in the race, Platner had received backing from local labor unions. Beyond the main AFL CIO, Platner has received endorsements from Ironworkers Local 7 National Nurses United Maine State Nurses Association, American Postal Workers Local 458, the National Postal Mail Handlers Local 301, the Electrical Workers Union, Local 2327, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Maine State Council of Building and Construction Trades, North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, Carpenters Local 349 and 352 Painters and Allied Trades DC 35 Massachusetts and Northern New England Labors District Council, Millwrights Local 1121 Laborers International Union of North America, Local 3, 27668 and 976Teamsters Local 340 and the United Auto Workers, who represents nearly 2,000 workers in Maine, including marine draftsmen at the Bath Iron Works, nonprofit Employees, workers at the Portland Museum of Art and graduate employees across the University of Maine system. In their endorsement, UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mansella said, quote, graham Platner has emerged as a voice for the people of Maine, fed up with the corrupting influence of the oligarchy and money in our politics. More importantly, he's building a mass movement that will not only power his campaign, but will be ready to take on the challenges facing working families in Maine and across the country. Once in office, our members are ready to hit the ground running with Graham's campaign and take back the power for Maine's working class, unquote. Platner has said he wanted this campaign to be an extension of the local community organizing that he and his wife were already engaged in. Telling the main monitor the campaign is a quote, organizing strategy first and an electoral strategy second. For the past few years, Platner's organized with a mutual aid and community activist group called Arcadia Action and was named in local news coverage for organizing a protest after Trump was re elected. The protest focused on the preservation of constitutional rights, support for Ukraine and and protecting transgender Mainers. Platner was also an active member of the Penobscot county chapter of the Maine's People's alliance, the largest quote unquote progressive community action organization in the state, which claims to have more than 32,000 members. As a member of the Maine People's Alliance, Platner Traveled to Washington D.C. a couple years ago for a march to protest access to healthcare and since then has been doing grassroots community organizing in Hanock County. According to the organization, the member led board of directors of Maine People's alliance voted unanimously to endorse Graham Platner. To quote the announcement, Maine People's alliance board co chair Gina Morin they them said, quote, listening to Platner during interviews and town halls, it is clear that he addresses the critical issues affecting our country and specifically Maine. He speaks directly to the reality that the top 1% are hoarding wealth of while the middle class and the poor are left to go without. He's also addressed the need to fix these same issues that we have been working on for years, such as healthcare affordability, the housing crisis and immigrant rights. His activism drove him to seek this office out of frustration. His values and dedication are what align him with the Maine People's Alliance. The organization said back in February that Platner has been, quote, active and vocal in resisting ISIS presence here in Maine and has been calling on our members of Congress to do more to protect everyone in Maine and across the country from ICE's violent racist tactics. Unquote. Maine People's alliance board member Sean Donnelly said, quote, graham names the oligarchy and corporate greed as the true enemies of progress in Washington and he understands that the only way to defeat them is is through grassroots organizing. His personal story of finding purpose through his community and activism has the power to inspire many who may feel angry, disconnected, or hopeless about politics. Graham is a talented leader whose values, vision and strategy are aligned with the mission of the Maine People's Alliance. Following the primary, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Platner over Susan Collins, who was one of the deciding votes in sending Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. And last week, the Maine Service Employees association, which represents more than 13,000 active and retired public service workers in the state, formally endorsed Graham Platner. So why are these endorsements and community ties important? These relations are what a working class campaign's political platform emerges from. And this community voting bloc is a mechanism to hold working class candidates accountable for to their constituents. Platner has told the New York Times that he's a, quote, firm believer that organized people is the only actual place of power to conflict with organized money. And in our society, money is very organized, unquote. He echoed this sentiment at a campaign rally covered by more perfect union Politics
- [35:22]
Graham Platner
is about power, and in this society, power is either organized money or it's organized people.
- [35:27]
Fab Five Freddy
People.
- [35:28]
Graham Platner
And the money is organized. It always has been and it always will be until we organize enough people to pull it back.
- [35:36]
Garrison Davis
In May, Platner told Jon Stewart that getting someone like him elected, quote, needs to be in tandem with a fully organized, broad based coalition here in the state of Maine that can put pressure on members of our delegation if need be, because it's not going to be enough to just rely on the systems, unquote. Two days before the primary election, Platner spoke at a town hall about building a Senate office that prioritizes a relationship with labor unions rather than the owners of the industries that labor works in, a Senate office where a worker, labor organizer, or civil rights representative should get more face to face time with a senator than any lobbyist.
- [36:19]
Graham Platner
I very much believe that we need to connect that kind of local organizing work directly to a Senate office in D.C. so it's something like I used to. I have been an organizer with Maine People's alliance before, and I firmly believe that we need closer coordination between community organizations, environmental organizations, frankly, all of the organizing groups around Maine with institutional power, because I do think that that's. History tends to show that you're most successful when outside organizing is working in tandem with institutional power. That tends to be when we get the most significant wins.
- [37:05]
Garrison Davis
I'll come back to discuss how the Platner campaign was actually run after this ad break.
- [37:17]
George Taveras
This is George Taveras and Sam Taggart from Stradiolab. Okay, picture it your apartment after a Saturday workout, the gym bag, the couch, maybe even the car. Mi amor. It's a full novella of odors and not the glamorous kind.
- [37:31]
Sam Taggart
That's where Febreze comes in. Boost, spray, spritz, plug or clip. It doesn't just mask odors, it fights them, honey.
- [37:37]
George Taveras
Want long lasting scent you can control? Try Febreze Plug Scent Booster today. With the adjustable intensity dial, you can control the scent to match your mood. Plus, thanks to its Fade Defy technology, your home stays first day fresh for up to 50 days.
- [37:53]
Sam Taggart
Need a quick car rescue? Clip a Febreze car vent clip and map your ride to freshness. And don't forget the fabric refresher. While you can't cram that cushion in the washer, you can top off every pillow fluff with a spritz of fabric
- [38:05]
George Taveras
refresher because home should smell like you. Fabulous. Fresh, Unforgettable.
- [38:10]
Sam Taggart
Febreze is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to equality.
- [38:19]
George Taveras
You won't want to miss the Elton John Impact awards podcast, available June 1 on the iHeartRadio app. And everywhere podcasts are heard.
- [38:27]
Drink Champs Host
June is Black Music Month. And on the Drink Champs podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Swae Lee. Do you realize how legendary you are?
- [38:36]
Swae Lee
I appreciate that I'd be seeing it, but I'm like, man, I still got like so much more to do. Like Prince, he dropped like 30 albums. We dropped like five right now. That's the rate we gotta be going.
- [38:46]
George Taveras
Yep, that's a good attitude.
- [38:47]
Drink Champs Host
You also hear stories from industry legends and hip hop pioneers like Fab five Freddy.
- [38:53]
Fab Five Freddy
I directed one of Nas's early videos.
- [38:55]
Graham Platner
Which one?
- [38:55]
Nas
One Love.
- [38:57]
Fab Five Freddy
Wow.
- [38:58]
Swae Lee
Yes.
- [38:59]
Fab Five Freddy
I literally filmed in his apartment in Queensbridge. His mom's was still up here in that apartment. Nas was just beginning to take off. His pops used to live near me in Harlem. His dad introduced him to a whole lot of, you know, conscious stuff, and he made a young prodigy.
- [39:14]
Drink Champs Host
No matter the era, Drink Champs brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversations. Listen to Drink Champs from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [39:27]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
What did black music, food and culture teach us about who we were becoming?
- [39:31]
Therapy for Black Girls Co-host
2016 was sort of that last era of monoculture where we still consumed things in community.
- [39:39]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
From Beyonce and Rihanna. Everybody wanted to be Beyonce.
- [39:43]
Therapy for Black Girls Co-host
I don't think we'll ever see another Rihanna.
- [39:46]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
To soul food, memory, identity and the stories we carry through black culture.
- [39:50]
Therapy for Black Girls Co-host
What does it mean to be black
- [39:51]
Therapy for Black Girls Guest
and eat in America? So we were this group of people who knew how to work the land, who knew how to live with the land.
- [39:58]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
We make it do what it do. Therapy for Black Girls is bringing together the conversation shaping black life right now.
- [40:04]
Therapy for Black Girls Guest
You will never make me feel bad for being a black girl, for being a black American girl ever.
- [40:08]
Therapy for Black Girls Host
Therapy for Black girls is bringing it all to the mic. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [40:17]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
A decade ago, the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil.
- [40:23]
Nas
So we met with a lot of larger farmers, went from Bahia to Tocatines to Mato Grosso.
- [40:29]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
He brought a team of executives. They were going to help the country get in on a gold rush.
- [40:34]
Bruce Rastetter
Carbon and its derivatives are going to be really the next great commodity that the globe's going to trade.
- [40:39]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
But back home in Iowa, trouble was brewing.
- [40:42]
Iowa Resident/Activist
If you live in Iowa, your land, your water and your voice could all be at risk. Thanks to a main man named Bruce Rastetter.
- [40:50]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
Now people are questioning if his climate solutions have anything to do with climate at all.
- [40:55]
Bruce Rastetter
Gotta give Bruce's a guy's credit. They're Republicans. They don't give a money.
- [41:00]
Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator
On this season of Drilled Carbon Cowboys, the story of how the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil and what it tells us about the limits of technology and markets to solve the climate crisis. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [41:23]
Garrison Davis
Welcome back to It Could Happen Here. This past April, one of Platner's former high school classmates, turned journalist named Josh Keefe, wrote an article for the Maine Monitor about why Platner's campaign has been so successful in Maine. Platner told his former classmate that the campaign is being run like a community organizing project, this kind of campaign and kind of politics with an organizing focus. This doesn't work if you just run TV ads. My background is in organizing and I want to take that on the road as a candidate. And the only way it ever works is by going out and engaging with people directly. You got to like, not sleep direct. Person to person. Engagement has been the hallmark of Platner's campaign strategy here. Age is certainly playing a factor in the race. Platner is 41, Janet Mills is 78, and Susan Collins is 73. Platner's younger age is not just compelling to voters who want a younger generation of candidates, but it also impacts how he can campaign. Blattner is effectively campaigning full time, making three to six campaign appearances a day while his business partner handles the Oyster Farm. From late September to the early June primary, his campaign held 83 town hall events across the state, pulling in hundreds of people per event and filling out community venues. In comparison, Susan Collins has not held a single public town hall meeting in over 25 years. Janet Mills didn't even release a policy platform until April. Platner told More Perfect Union, quote, people want to hear about the future, people want to hear about your policies, and people also want access to you so they can figure out if you're full of shit or not, unquote. Considering the smaller size of Maine come the November election, there's a good chance Platner will have spoken face to face with nearly every voter in the state. At these town halls, he often talks about power, how working class power won the New Deal, and how since the 70s, corporate interests have been undermining that power, using money to influence policy. At an event in Freiburg, Maine, Platner said, quote, we are the richest society in the history of humanity. We can have universal health care, we can have universal childcare, we can have universal education going from kindergarten all the way through higher education. We can have a tax code that pulls back the wealth that was stolen from the working class of this country for the past 50 years. What we need to do is from the ground up, build power the old fashioned way. This comes from organizing, unquote. Platner's campaign has helped with other local electoral and legislative efforts. And the main Monitor reported that Platner's events often serve as locations for, quote, food donation drop offs. He is frequently introduced by a local activist who gets to talk about their work, unquote. Platner told the main Monitor, quote, we really have to fundamentally understand that no one is coming to save us and the only way to build that power on your own is here in the real world, face to face with your neighbors, building trust in relationships again, unquote. Platners also said that building that kind of outside power is also how to find more people to run for office and gather the resources needed to get them elected to take power. In an interview with Jon Stewart, Platner said that because the U.S. senate is in many ways a uniquely undemocratic institution set up to be a specific bulwark against working class people to protect the elites that actually makes it a, quote unquote, unique place of power if candidates with strong ties to working class communities can occupy those seats. Following their historic loss in 2024, the Democratic Party establishment has been in a uniquely weak position, opening up the opportunity to address the issues that have led the party into national relevancy. Graham Platner lays blame on the Democrats abandoning the working class. And that doesn't just mean white construction workers, but the actual multicultural, multiracial working class wage workers and those who cannot live off their investments. For the past 40 years, the party has abandoned organized labor and begun catering to upper middle class professionals and has become a party of the elites and Ivy leagues in the United States. There are a lot of people who don't vote based on an ideology they hold, but in response to what's happening in their communities. Hospitals closing, jobs disappearing, groceries and utilities getting more expensive. Why would they vote for a party that says everything is fine, the economy is technically doing great, The Democratic establishment has wagered that voters would rather protect the system rather than change it. And in 2024, that wager was proven wrong. People want change, even if that change is being promised by a billionaire charlatan whose real interest is in serving the upper class and tech companies. But for as many people who decided to vote for Trump, there were many others who saw through the charade, but were so disillusioned by party politics that they chose not to vote at all. Platner's campaign has made itself not just about taking on Trump or even Susan Collins, but a part of a larger seismic shift. The working class reasserting its power and taking back the Democratic Party. To quote the main Monitor, quote, unlike Janet Mills, he's not trying to convince voters he will stand up to Trump. He's trying to start a movement to build a world without the despair and resentment that he believes allows Trump's brand of politics to flourish, Unquote. Later, at that event in the town of Freiburg, Platner told the crowd, quote, people, when their lives begin to deteriorate, are going to look for folks to blame. And if we don't have an actual answer, then hatred and xenophobia and racism and homophobia and transphobia, all of them will fill the vacuum. This means we have to go out in our community and we have to wear our hearts on our sleeves. Maine has semi open primaries, meaning that unenrolled voters can vote in a party primary. In the lead up to the primary, Platner's campaign did a series of videos where he gets coffee with Republican leaning voters. And they talk about how their interests are more aligned compared to the interests of Trump, the billionaire class and Susan Collins. Platner himself has said that his rise in Maine says more about the appetite for a new kind of politics rather than him specifically as a candidate. But from the perspective of some voters, the slow drip of scandals and controversies might actually bolster Platner's image as an anti establishment candidate. For example, these people interviewed by CNN and Ms. Now, are you considering holding
- [49:02]
Bruce Rastetter
your breath and voting for him?
- [49:04]
Garrison Davis
I got until Tuesday to decide, but I'm pretty sure I'll vote for him. I don't think a lot of this crap is anybody else's business. For some Democrats, they're willing to look
- [49:14]
Bruce Rastetter
past the interpersonal stories.
- [49:16]
Nas
I'm not really interested in the guy's foibles, you know, I'm interested in his vision and what he has to say. And I love what he has to say. So, yeah, it's been definitely difficult because everybody is piling on this guy.
- [49:33]
Iowa Resident/Activist
Does he have a problematic past? Yes. But I would rather have a redemption story than somebody telling you how wonderful they are, how much research they do, and yet they still make the wrong decision for the people of Maine.
- [49:48]
Garrison Davis
On election day, June 9, Platner won 71.9% of the vote with 154,058 votes. Governor Janet Mills, who stopped campaigning a month and a half prior but remained on the ballot, was won 41,000 votes, or 19.3%. Graham Platner won more primary votes than any other Democratic Senate candidate in the history of Maine. As he walked onto the stage for his victory speech, Dropkick Murphy's cover of which side are you on? Blared in the background. Platner promised, quote, I will be a senator for the people who cannot afford to buy a senator now.
- [50:35]
Graham Platner
Now the national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by. But in trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at. This is a movement about us,
- [51:09]
Swae Lee
About
- [51:10]
Graham Platner
the far too many working far too hard and struggling far too much at the hands of the ruling class.
- [51:18]
Garrison Davis
At a town hall just a few days before the primary, Platner spoke about the need to rebuild our old alliances with labor unions, community organizations and civil rights groups. The only thing that's ever beat fascism is a broad based working class coalition. Fascism is what we are up against. I think a lot of the folks at the national level misunderstand the reason they keep getting everything wrong. They think this is a race about me, but it isn't. This is a race about us. This is a race about the future of politics in Maine. This is a race about building power the old fashioned way, from the ground up, going out into our communities and having hard conversations, putting in time and energy that many of us do not have. We've got to do it anyway. So what I'm asking to do, if you don't want to volunteer on this campaign, that's fine. Join a labor union, go help out at the local food pantry, go help out at a food bank. It doesn't matter what you do, but you gotta do something. Because the moment we're in right now, it's going to require all of us. There were 215,000 votes in the Democratic primary. Platner's campaign had 15,000 volunteers. These volunteers went up against and beat the Democratic establishment and now they face the GOP establishment. This shift in the politics of the Democratic Party is not isolated to Maine. Democratic socialists just won in Washington, D.C. and following the election of Zoram Hamdani, nine more DSA candidates just won the Democratic primary in New York, including three seats in the US House of Representatives. But Maine occupies a unique place in American politics. The stereotypical purple state. Unseating Susan Collins would prove that real working class politics don't just win liberal cities, but can take down what Bernie Sanders would call the oligarchy.
- [53:19]
Graham Platner
There's an old saying, as Maine goes, so goes the nation. If you want to stop, if you want to stop war with Iran and end the forever wars, if you want to give workers the raise they deserve, seniors the security they worked for, you want to bring back Roe v. Wade. As Maine goes, so goes the nation. If you want to stop a Trump family slush fund, their ballroom, their deals with Saudi princes and tech oligarchs, if you want to stop the corruption, as Maine goes, so goes the nation. If we want to dismantle ice, win back the Senate, check Donald Trump's power and take back ours. As Maine goes, so goes the nation. Together we will defeat Susan Collins.
- [54:15]
Garrison Davis
Graham Platner is slightly ahead in the polls, above Susan Collins, but the race is still quite Close. In 2020, when Collins was facing a challenger, she too was behind in the polls, but still pulled off a victory. That does it for me at It Could Happen here. See you on the other side.
- [54:39]
Therapy for Black Girls Co-host
It Could Happen here is a production of coolzone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media Visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts you can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in Episode Descriptions. Thanks for listening.
- [54:57]
Garrison Davis
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.