Democrats Blew It!

Realizing they might have thrown away a key U.S. Senate seat pickup in Maine, Democrats are desperately seeking a credible replacement to Graham Platner, their now disgraced and former nominee to take on Republican Susan Collins this November. But this is just one of several Democrat debacles that may have already sunk the party’s chance of retaking control of the Senate.

Since Platner officially withdrew earlier this week, cable news pundits and op-ed columnists have flooded the airwaves with replacement scenarios. Most of them suggest that a Platner doppelganger without the baggage could defeat the five-term incumbent Collins.

That sentiment demonstrates how many Democrats, embracing the sudden “democratic socialist” political fad, are snatching defeat from their historical advantage in the 2026 midterms in key Senate races like Maine.

An emergency convention of about 600 Maine Democrat leaders is expected to name Platner’s replacement next week. The list of Democrats who are the frontrunners for that selection does not inspire confidence. Not only do they lack the “buzz” of energy that Platner had, but most of them just got done losing the primary against either him or Hannah Pingree, the Democrat nominee for governor in the Pine Tree State.

The Collins campaign is already branding her potential opponents as a pack of “low energy” losers seeking to defeat her.

Collins is the only GOP member of Congress in the New England states and has survived several cycles of attempts to unseat her. But her moderate politics, strong constituent services to Maine, and a legendary record of not missing a vote have made her an institution in the state. Polls usually show her behind her opponents, but invariably she wins re-election by a comfortable margin on Election Day.

This year, however, Collins faced a Maine which had become even more liberal, and Democrats sensed their opportunity to pick up a vital seat in their quest to regain a Senate majority. It could still happen, but their advantages have evaporated, and Collins now is a heavy favorite to return to the Senate for a sixth term.

Voices of (relative) reason among Democrats, including former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Bill Clinton adviser James Carville, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (each of them with successful election track records) have been warning their party about the intoxication of the democratic socialist craze. But an orgy of tax-the-rich, defund the police, and anti-business clichés, encouraged by high-profile off-year local elections in a few large cities, is sweeping the progressive wing of the party and drowning out any words of caution.

The next debacle for Democrats could be in Michigan, where neo-socialist Abdul El-Sayed is running against Rep. Haley Stevens for the Democrat nomination to retain the Senate seat now held by retiring Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat. This is the leading prospect for Republicans to pick up a seat held by Democrats, and the GOP has a very strong nominee in Rep. Mike Rogers.

El-Sayed has been leading in the Democrat primary polls, but is considered the weaker candidate against Rogers. Perhaps sensing another electoral miscue by nominating El-Sayed, Peters has just endorsed Stevens. The primary is August 4.

A Collins re-election and a Rogers pickup win would make any prospects for a Democrat Senate majority quite dim.

But Democrats’ problems don’t stop there. The Minnesota primary is August 11, and the incumbent Democrat Tina Smith, is also retiring. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Senate nomination is already a very bitter battle, with Sen. Bernie Sanders and other democratic socialists weighing in here as well. The most radical DFL candidate, Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, could win the DFL nomination to run against likely GOP nominee Michelle Tafoya, whom many consider the strongest Republican running statewide in 20 years.

Although Minnesota has been a very blue state for many years, widespread revelations of enormous fraud in state-managed welfare programs, as well as Governor Tim Walz’s nosediving favorability, have created a sudden opportunity for GOP statewide candidates.

The urban centers of Minneapolis and St. Paul, like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other large cities, have elected democratic socialists in local elections. But rural, small-town, and suburban communities are increasingly conservative, and any statewide democratic socialist candidate could well lose in 2026.

A Republican Senate pickup in Minnesota would probably assure a GOP majority.

There are other competitive or potentially competitive Senate races in 2026, and not all of them will have outspokenly democratic socialist candidates on their ballots. But the most radical voices in a party tend to fill the airwaves and suck up all the media oxygen, often dragging down more moderate candidates who might otherwise stand a better chance of winning.

Following the Platner political misadventure in Maine and concerning developments elsewhere, initial Republican pessimism is giving way to more and more optimism about GOP chances on Election Day.

Barry Casselman is a writer for AMAC Newsline.