2026 Midterm Elections

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rodoheel said:
I already preferred Talarico over Crockett in Texas, but this definitely made me feel even stronger in that regard:

www.theatlantic.com

Why I Got Thrown Out of a Jasmine Crockett Rally

The crowd was fired up. The candidate was on her game. And I was escorted out by armed guards.
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com

There are few traits I find more distasteful in politicians than smearing journalists because they’re mad the journalist once wrote something less than fawning about them.
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Update: Crockett said the reporter was lying about being kicked out of her rally, but the reporter brought receipts:

www.theatlantic.com

‘Elaine From Atlantic … She Needs to Leave’

Representative Jasmine Crockett claimed I wasn’t kicked out of her rally. Here’s the audio.
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com

Hope Talarico wins. I like that Crockett confronts Pubs but these sorts of stories make me worry that she is more interested in being a mirror image of Pubs' behavior then in actually serving anyone in Congress.
 
Paine said:
It doesn’t matter. No amount of hit pieces pushed by Mills and Schumer will make a dent in Platner’s lead. You have to be extremely online to even understand the current “controversy,” such as it is. It’s the “Bernie went on Rogan” shit all over again. If the tattoo didn’t sink him, this won’t either.

Worst thing I can say about the guy is he doesn’t have the best judgement in terms of optics. Same thing super said last week. He’s a novice candidate, so that’s expected.

He’s still the best option against Collins.
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If he keeps pulling shit like this he's not going to be the best option against Collins for long. He is going to bury his own campaign under a mountain of stupid.
 
superrific said:
It started with you saying:

"There is no difference between Collins and Mills on those issues. Before 2028 we have 2026 elections. The question is will Mainers prefer Mills over Collins and keep the status quo by replacing a 78yo Mills for a 73yo Collins ?"

Then someone asked you about what has Collins ever done except cast deciding votes on terrible legislation. I took that to point out that she has never to my memory cast a decisive vote in favor of those things she supposedly favors. When they don't need her vote, she votes for the moderate position to keep up appearances. It's all part of her deeply troubled performance art. But she's always there for the Rs when they need her. Always. Maybe I'm forgetting one or two things, but for the most part, she's just the Pubs' leader's puppet.

Note that I wrote it was the stupidest thing you've written. Not the stupidest thing I've read or anything like that -- your worst is still above average. And maybe I was a little harsh. But I really, really object to the idea that Collins and Mills are more or less equivalent status quo options. You're starting to sound like the folks who cost us elections in 2000 and 2016.
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First, other than the important difference that Mills is a Dem and Collins is a GQPer I see little difference that will motivate Mainers to vote for Mills over Collins.

Second, I am heartened that my worst stupidist post was above average. I will sleep well tonight.
 
Paine said:
It doesn’t matter. No amount of hit pieces pushed by Mills and Schumer will make a dent in Platner’s lead. You have to be extremely online to even understand the current “controversy,” such as it is. It’s the “Bernie went on Rogan” shit all over again. If the tattoo didn’t sink him, this won’t either.

Worst thing I can say about the guy is he doesn’t have the best judgement in terms of optics. Same thing super said last week. He’s a novice candidate, so that’s expected.

He’s still the best option against Collins.
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I'm not convinced Platner is the best option against Collins. I'm not convinced in the other direction, either, to be clear. All I know is that I'll be fully behind whoever wins the primary. Both are obviously far better than Collins.
 
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altoheel said:
If he keeps pulling shit like this he's not going to be the best option against Collins for long. He is going to bury his own campaign under a mountain of stupid.
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I think you’re severely overestimating how much anyone cares about these incidents, let alone Maine general election voters.

This stuff only matters in the primary because liberal primary voters are the most tuned into this sort of hyper online nonsense. Even then, most people will hear a bit of it and move on.

I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world to have a nominee or senator who is capable of speaking to conspiracy theorist chuds.
 
Paine said:
Worst thing I can say about the guy is he doesn’t have the best judgement in terms of optics. Same thing super said last week. He’s a novice candidate, so that’s expected.

He’s still the best option against Collins.
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OK. But at some point, "best judgment in terms of optics" runs out of line as an excuse, right? I'm not concerned about the tattoo. That's optics. But this other stuff? Idk. I'm not saying I'm against him, but I am appropriately concerned.
 
heelinhell said:
It's 100 days until the primary and Platner is leading both Mills and Collins in the polls. Chuck is all in on Mills.

Unfortunately, I expect the Platner is a Jew hater meme to continue until the primary. But what if the Jew hater wins ? Will the Dem leadership support and fund him the general election ?
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Yes, they will. If he wins the primary he will be the guy. Just like Connecticut 2006.

This, by the way, is why I greatly distrust the way we conduct primaries. There has to be a way to run them so that the winner emerges stronger, not weaker. But I guess that ship sailed a while ago.
 
heelinhell said:
First, other than the important difference that Mills is a Dem and Collins is a GQPer I see little difference that will motivate Mainers to vote for Mills over Collins.
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Other than his shooting ability, I don't see much difference between Steph Curry and a whole lot of other NBA guards.
 
Purely anecdotal but in the midst of our aggression towards Iran r/conservative is a straight up ghost town. Almost every post on the front page has <50 total comments. Engagement is waaay down, you have to assume support is as well.
 
From Graham Platner

Hello,

NBC News just reported that Chuck Schumer is still telling people that he is going to spend millions of dollars to try to defeat us and prop up his preferred candidate, Janet Mills.

I just don’t get it. And I never will.

By every measure, our campaign is the dominant frontrunner for the Democratic nomination against Susan Collins this November:

  • We’re leading in the polls – against both Janet Mills and Susan Collins.
  • We’re leading in fundraising – something Chuck Schumer typically pretends to care about.
  • We’re packing town halls and events – while an army of 14,000 volunteers continues to knock doors, make phone calls, and recruit new supporters.
But I don’t take corporate PAC money. I don’t take money from special interests like AIPAC. I’m not going to kiss anyone’s ring – billionaire or party boss.

I also support Medicare for All. I want to dismantle ICE. I’m not afraid to call what’s happening in Gaza a genocide. And I want Democrats to actually stand up and fight against this authoritarian fascist regime – instead of just saying they are going to in their constant fundraising texts.

Maybe that’s what I did wrong. I expected that the national Democratic party would actually listen to and want to represent Democratic voters…

Susan Collins is the most vulnerable Republican senator in the country. If we are to have any prayer of taking back Senate control in 2026, Maine is a must-win race. We’ve tried running corporate milquetoast Democrats against Susan Collins for decades. Not one of them has been able to get it done. We cannot afford to lose to Collins again. Not when the stakes are this high.

But apparently Chuck Schumer is still planning on spending millions of dollars to attack me with TV ads. Because I represent a threat to his power, to corporate power, and to the billionaire class that runs Washington.

I’m sure none of the attacks will even be about policy. They don’t want to talk policy or how to improve the lives of working-class Mainers. Instead, they’re just going to blow millions of dollars attacking me personally – instead of trying to defeat Susan Collins.

I’m not going to let it happen without a fight, though. I hope you won’t either. I know you're already a monthly donor and one of our campaign's biggest supporters. Thank you. But the attacks are coming, and I need your continued help now to fight back. There are just 100 days left until the primary, and we have to be prepared if we’re going to win, finally defeat Susan Collins,
 
Here's my theory about this election, to put my own cards on the table.

This is going to be a wave election. I find it very difficult to believe that Collins' brand of performative anxiety is going to overcome the very real factors that should be pushing Maine against all Pubs -- including and most especially the bizarre demonization of Canada that Collins has done nothing to stop. And we have the decisive edge in midterm elections now, because the high propensity voters are on our side now.

So the goal isn't to find the candidate who will win the election. We need to find a candidate who won't lose the election. We need to avoid gifting them a seat like the Pubs did by running Herschel Walker in GA.

Mills would be the ideal candidate but for her age. Could that become grounds for losing? Maybe. It's a concern.
Platner would be a great candidate but for all this stuff coming out about anti-Semitism. Not a lot of Jews in Maine; maybe Mainers don't really care. But that's a way that a should-be victory could go down.

Collins is Jon Tester. She has triangulated her way to a couple of wins but I think her time is up if we don't blow it.
 
superrific said:
OK. But at some point, "best judgment in terms of optics" runs out of line as an excuse, right? I'm not concerned about the tattoo. That's optics. But this other stuff? Idk. I'm not saying I'm against him, but I am appropriately concerned.
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FWIW, the tattoo story concerned me far more than the current ones.

It appears the YT channel Platner appeared on was a bog standard military/vet content slop channel until relatively recently. Platner having watched that channel in the past is unsurprising given his biography.

If Platner went on this interview and bought into what the guy was saying in other vids, that would be another issue, but that isn’t what happened. Same with the tweet a few days ago.

At the end of the day, if one thinks that Platner is an anti semite or even a Nazi waiting to rip the mask off when he gets into office, I don’t know what to say to that person. The idea that he is this close to winning a primary and just can’t help but let a little Nazi slip is pretty funny.
 
Paine said:
At the end of the day, if one thinks that Platner is an anti semite or even a Nazi waiting to rip the mask off when he gets into office, I don’t know what to say to that person.
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That's why, ideally, it doesn't get to that stage.

I'm not a Mainer. I know nothing about Maine. My only goal is to defeat Collins. Until we have the presidency, Platner will be indistinguishable from Mills, and even then who knows. So my only consideration is who would win -- which is not something I'm qualified to answer. I can at most speculate. Thus I'm not going to be supporting or opposing either or both of them without more.

But I do think it's helpful to our national brand for our candidates not to be dallying in white supremacy. You know how the GOP works. They pile up a mountain of shit, and point at a small Dem turd and say "LOOK!" Somehow, it works a disturbingly often. So I'd prefer us not to even have a small turd. Beggers can't be choosers, I get it. Nobody is going to be a perfect candidate. Even Obama had J. Wright.

That's where I stand.
 
superrific said:
That's why, ideally, it doesn't get to that stage.

I'm not a Mainer. I know nothing about Maine. My only goal is to defeat Collins. Until we have the presidency, Platner will be indistinguishable from Mills, and even then who knows. So my only consideration is who would win -- which is not something I'm qualified to answer. I can at most speculate. Thus I'm not going to be supporting or opposing either or both of them without more.

But I do think it's helpful to our national brand for our candidates not to be dallying in white supremacy. You know how the GOP works. They pile up a mountain of shit, and point at a small Dem turd and say "LOOK!" Somehow, it works a disturbingly often. So I'd prefer us not to even have a small turd. Beggers can't be choosers, I get it. Nobody is going to be a perfect candidate. Even Obama had J. Wright.

That's where I stand.
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I just don’t think it’s accurate to say Platner is dallying in white supremacy. Otherwise I agree with your assessment.
 
heelinhell said:
From Graham Platner

Hello,

NBC News just reported that Chuck Schumer is still telling people that he is going to spend millions of dollars to try to defeat us and prop up his preferred candidate, Janet Mills.

I just don’t get it. And I never will.

By every measure, our campaign is the dominant frontrunner for the Democratic nomination against Susan Collins this November:

  • We’re leading in the polls – against both Janet Mills and Susan Collins.
  • We’re leading in fundraising – something Chuck Schumer typically pretends to care about.
  • We’re packing town halls and events – while an army of 14,000 volunteers continues to knock doors, make phone calls, and recruit new supporters.
But I don’t take corporate PAC money. I don’t take money from special interests like AIPAC. I’m not going to kiss anyone’s ring – billionaire or party boss.

I also support Medicare for All. I want to dismantle ICE. I’m not afraid to call what’s happening in Gaza a genocide. And I want Democrats to actually stand up and fight against this authoritarian fascist regime – instead of just saying they are going to in their constant fundraising texts.

Maybe that’s what I did wrong. I expected that the national Democratic party would actually listen to and want to represent Democratic voters…

Susan Collins is the most vulnerable Republican senator in the country. If we are to have any prayer of taking back Senate control in 2026, Maine is a must-win race. We’ve tried running corporate milquetoast Democrats against Susan Collins for decades. Not one of them has been able to get it done. We cannot afford to lose to Collins again. Not when the stakes are this high.

But apparently Chuck Schumer is still planning on spending millions of dollars to attack me with TV ads. Because I represent a threat to his power, to corporate power, and to the billionaire class that runs Washington.

I’m sure none of the attacks will even be about policy. They don’t want to talk policy or how to improve the lives of working-class Mainers. Instead, they’re just going to blow millions of dollars attacking me personally – instead of trying to defeat Susan Collins.

I’m not going to let it happen without a fight, though. I hope you won’t either. I know you're already a monthly donor and one of our campaign's biggest supporters. Thank you. But the attacks are coming, and I need your continued help now to fight back. There are just 100 days left until the primary, and we have to be prepared if we’re going to win, finally defeat Susan Collins,
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Great. Democrats running against our party leadership. Boy, for a bunch of people who hate Schumer's supposed ineffectiveness, you all are not exactly painting a path forward.

Again, I say: primaries suck. We're going to have some of our people attacking our possible candidate for being a crypto-fascist. Some of our people are going to attack the other possible candidate, and party leadership, as corporate sellouts. Gee, what could go wrong?
 
heelinhell said:
From Graham Platner

But I don’t take corporate PAC money. I don’t take money from special interests like AIPAC.
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See, here it is again. Why did he have to mention AIPAC but nobody else? In my experience, American Jews do not like being singled out. This is the main liberal defense of Israel: everybody violates human rights; why is everyone so focused on Israel's violations of human rights? It's anti-Semitism to put the onus on the Jews always.

I really don't like that argument about Israel, but of course nobody wants to be singled out in this way. It's not quite scapegoating, but there's a family resemblance. And it just seems so unnecessary. I'm positive I'm not the only person to notice this.

Would it have killed him to put a couple of other groups in there among the special interests he won't support? Like, I don't take money from special interests like AIPAC or NRA? AIPAC or anti-vaxers? But I suspect that he doesn't want to mention them because he thinks it will cost him votes. He probably thinks opposing AIPAC won't cost him many votes. That's why I say that Maine is beyond my expertise. Maybe this is the right electoral strategy. But it still doesn't look good to me.
 
superrific said:
See, here it is again. Why did he have to mention AIPAC but nobody else? In my experience, American Jews do not like being singled out. This is the main liberal defense of Israel: everybody violates human rights; why is everyone so focused on Israel's violations of human rights? It's anti-Semitism to put the onus on the Jews always.

I really don't like that argument about Israel, but of course nobody wants to be singled out in this way. It's not quite scapegoating, but there's a family resemblance. And it just seems so unnecessary. I'm positive I'm not the only person to notice this.

Would it have killed him to put a couple of other groups in there among the special interests he won't support? Like, I don't take money from special interests like AIPAC or NRA? AIPAC or anti-vaxers? But I suspect that he doesn't want to mention them because he thinks it will cost him votes. He probably thinks opposing AIPAC won't cost him many votes. That's why I say that Maine is beyond my expertise. Maybe this is the right electoral strategy. But it still doesn't look good to me.
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This is happening in Democratic primaries across the country. Singling out AIPAC, that is. Israel is historically unpopular with Democrats right now, and AIPAC is rightfully seen as an engine driving Dem pol support for Israel’s belligerence. It’s good politics.
 
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