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<\/p>\nEoin Higgins is the author of \u201cOwned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voice on the Left.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Democratic Party\u2019s<\/span> centrist wing is doing a 180 on Maine senatorial hopeful Graham Platner after Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race<\/a> \u2014 a major setback for their side in an ongoing intraparty war for the future of the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n The June primary was shaping up to be another proxy fight<\/a> for the ongoing power struggle between the party\u2019s progressive and centrist wings. Sen. Bernie Sanders, along with Elizabeth Warren, Ruben Gallego, and Martin Heinrich, backed Platner early on; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as well as EMILY\u2019s List, threw their support behind Mills.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the Democratic voters of Maine didn\u2019t appear interested in a protracted back and forth, nor were they impressed by the party establishment\u2019s perceived shoehorning-in of Mills as an alternative to an upstart, energetic, young candidate they already liked<\/a>. Some more mainstream Democrats already get that, like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who previously lent his powerful email list<\/a> to Mills during her campaign announcement; he will host a general election kickoff event with Platner on Friday<\/a>. Schumer and DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, meanwhile, announced<\/a> they \u201cwill work with the presumptive Democratic nominee, Graham Platner\u201d to defeat Collins.<\/p>\n Others should get on board with the new reality. The primary map is only getting more challenging<\/a> for centrist Democrats. In Michigan, their preferred<\/a> candidate Rep. Haley Stevens is in a tight race<\/a> with state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and public health official Abdul El-Sayed. Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek, Schumer\u2019s pick<\/a>, is neck and neck<\/a> with state Sen. Zach Wahls; in Minnesota, Schumer\u2019s favored candidate, Rep. Angie Craig, has a significant cash advantage, but Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan regularly trounces her in early polling<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The writing was<\/span> on the wall for Mills weeks ago. She was never able to catch up to Platner\u2019s polling, and her campaign stopped ad spending<\/a> after attacks on Platner over his past controversies failed to gain traction. It was clear the governor was throwing in the towel last week when she vetoed a data center moratorium bill backed by the Maine Democratic base<\/a> but opposed by business interests in the state. That choice raised eyebrows; the governor\u2019s suggestion<\/a> in mid-April that she would have voted against a Senate bill restricting U.S. aid for 1,000 pound bombs and armored bulldozers only confirmed suspicions that Mills was out of touch with the party faithful.<\/p>\n Platner, who spent the late summer and early fall of 2025 criss-crossing Maine doing town halls and other events, has been drawing huge crowds since August. That outreach to voters, as New York magazine writer and Mainer Rebecca Traister noted on Thursday<\/a>, probably saved him from the scandals around a Nazi-related tattoo<\/a> he got during his time in the Marines and the drudging up of old, controversial Reddit posts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Equally important was the feeling for many in Maine that D.C. Democrats were putting their thumb on the scale<\/a> and trying to take the decision away from the people. It\u2019s part of a national souring on the party\u2019s centrist, corporate wing, which has dominated the internal levers of power for decades, that came in the wake of Trump\u2019s election in 2024. The party base has become radicalized and is demanding fight and action.\u00a0<\/p>\n Go to a No Kings protest<\/a>, and you\u2019ll see liberals holding signs<\/a> calling for the imprisonment of Republicans like Donald Trump and implying that members of the administration should be dealt with more permanently. It\u2019s become a bit of a meme to remark on the normie bloodlust that\u2019s pervaded liberalism since November 2024, but only because it\u2019s true.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s part of an overall souring on the party\u2019s centrist, corporate wing, which has dominated the internal levers of power for decades.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Despite polling showing voters are eager to throw out the GOP and put in Democrats<\/a> in the midterms, approval for the Democratic Party is at historic lows. Liberals aren\u2019t going to settle for what\u2019s become the rote Democratic response to Republican misbehavior: objecting on process grounds<\/a> when out of power<\/a>, half-assedly pushing ineffective institutional fixes<\/a> once they reclaim Congress, and then brushing it all under the rug<\/a> when they win the White House. This time they want accountability, none of the \u201clooking forward, not backward\u201d that Barack Obama placated the base with in early 2009.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n