Scoop: Platner hits DC fundraiser, meets with House incumbents
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Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall on Oct. 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine. Photo: Sophie Park/Getty Images
Two senators held a fundraiser today for Graham Platner's Senate campaign — with tickets as high as $5,000 — as part of a D.C. tour this week where he picked up another endorsement and met with roughly 10 House lawmakers, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is backing his opponent, Gov. Janet Mills, but Platner is making inroads in Schumer's D.C. turf, with private fundraisers and meetings.
- Platner stopped by a D.C. lunch fundraiser hosted by Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) — hours after securing an endorsement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who called him "the real deal."
- Suggested donations ranged from $5,000 to $1,000 for PACs, and $1,000 to $250 for individuals, according to an invite obtained by Axios.
- His House meeting was attended by mix of progressive and middle-of-the road Democratic lawmakers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Zoom out: The Maine Democratic primary has crystalized a broader fight in the Democratic Party on the best way to regain power.
- Schumer is firmly backing Mills, believing the two-term winner is best positioned to defeat Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a five-term incumbent.
- Warren and other progressives argue that harnessing grassroots energy is the best way to counter the MAGA movement and defeat Republicans.
- Warren, the fourth sitting senator to endorse him, said Platner has "inspired people with his populist agenda for a government on the side of working families."
Zoom in: The race between Mills and Platner turned sharply negative this week, with Mills running ads highlighting Platner's decade-old online posts suggesting women should not get so drunk that "they wind up having sex with someone they don't mean to."
- Platner responded with his own ad: "If I saw these ads, even I would have questions."
- "These are words and statements I abhor, from a time in my life when I was struggling deeply."
The intrigue: Platner has made his grassroots appeal the hallmark of his campaign, but he's also tapping big-dollar, well-connected D.C. donors.
- "You don't need corporate PACs when you have a grassroots army," Platner's campaign said on X in October after he outraised Collins in the third quarter of last year.
- Platner has raised close to $8 million since launching campaign, with the vast majority coming from individuals. Some $47,000 came from "other committees," according to his FEC report, which includes leadership PACs, like Heinrich's.
