{"id":773,"date":"2026-05-20T10:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T10:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=773"},"modified":"2026-05-20T10:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T10:04:07","slug":"platner-earns-backing-of-influential-big-spending-democratic-veterans-group-in-maine-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=773","title":{"rendered":"Platner earns backing of influential, big-spending Democratic veterans group in Maine Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>WASHINGTON \u2014 As he works to consolidate support among national Democrats, Graham Platner, now the party\u2019s presumptive nominee for US Senate in Maine, has picked up the backing of a significant player in party politics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=771\">\u2018A tough New Englander.\u2019 Meet the South Natick carpenter\u2019s son frustrating Trump as a federal judge.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>VoteVets, the most influential Democratic-aligned veterans\u2019 political organization, is endorsing Platner, according to a statement exclusively shared with the Globe. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Retired US Army Major General Paul Eaton, a senior adviser to the group, noted Platner\u2019s extensive military service, which included four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Marine.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>\u201cGraham knows the cost of service and what happens when we let leaders in Washington march us into failed forever wars,\u201d said Eaton, who criticized incumbentRepublicanSenator Susan Collins for failing to stop President Trump from harming the economy and putting US troops in harm\u2019s way in the Middle East.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe choice in this race couldn\u2019t be more clear \u2026. We look forward to helping him win this race and bringing much needed accountability to Washington,\u201d said Eaton.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>In a statement, Platner accused longtime lawmakers like Collins of approving military actions abroad while defense industry interests profit, \u201cand now they\u2019re trying to do it again with another forever war in Iran,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019m running to end the forever wars and the careers of the politicians who keep supporting them, and I\u2019m honored to have the support of VoteVets in this fight,\u201d Platner said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>(Collins initially supported Trump\u2019s strikes on Iran, for which he did not seek congressional approval; she has since advocated for measures, which have so far failed, requiring the approval of Congress for Trump to continue the war.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For Platner, who now carries on his shoulders Democrats\u2019 hopes to flip their most favorable state on the Senate map this year, the VoteVets endorsement is notable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For one, the group historically devotes considerable resources to supporting its candidates\u2019 campaigns \u2014 meaning Platner can now likely count on some substantial additional backing in his challenge of Collins, a formidable campaigner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In the 2024 election cycle, VoteVets spent $50 million helping to elect candidates it endorsed, the group says. That included nearly $3 million in ads boostingthen-Representative Ruben Gallego, the Arizona Democrat and Marine veteran, who won a contentious Senate race. They also spent $1.5 million helping Derek Tran, a US Army veteran, defeat GOP incumbent Michelle Steel in a Southern California congressional district.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=770\">Jaylen Brown often rubs people the wrong way, but that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s not making some good points<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Though it has endorsed a range of candidates, VoteVets is most closely associated with championing more moderate, center-left military veterans who have found success defeating Republican incumbents in the Trump era. Last year, the group gave a $500,000 contribution to former representative Abigail Spanberger in her successful campaign for Virginia governor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The group\u2019s backing of Platner, a populist progressive, points to his potential to expand his political tent. In the primary race, he boxed out the party establishment choice, Governor Janet Mills, while arguing for a drastic shakeup of the party\u2019s policy positions and political approach more broadly. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This year, VoteVets has faced some heat for dropping a huge amount of cash \u2014 $8 million \u2014 in Iowa\u2019s contentious Senate primary to boost state Representative Josh Turek, who is seen by some Democrats as the most electable choice in the Republican-leaning state. (Turek, a US Paralympian, is not a military veteran.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Turek\u2019s opponent, state Senator Zach Wahls, shares some similarities with Platner \u2014 he\u2019s a progressive with the backing of organized labor, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has also sharply criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Wahls has accused VoteVets of working on behalf of the party establishment in the race, while the group has denied the charge, according to The Washington Post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>VoteVets has been a major outside player in elections since the group was formed in 2006 amid political backlash to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is the most active group in terms of recruiting, and then supporting, Democratic military veterans and national security officials who run for office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Platner\u2019s military service in those conflicts \u2014 a core aspect of his biography \u2014 shaped his political worldview. Despite personally opposing the Iraq invasion, Platner enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2003 at 18 years old, and then endured some of the heaviest fighting of the conflict. He has spoken during the campaign of the traumatic toll of those deployments, his struggle to re-acclimate to civilian life, and ultimately becoming disillusioned with US foreign policy and the high cost of military intervention abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Last weekend, Platner held a veterans-focused town hall in Portland, with veteran supporters and leaders from Veterans For Responsible Leadership, another group that has backed his candidacy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Elsewhere in New England, VoteVets endorsed Representative Seth Moulton, of Salem, in his primary challenge against incumbent Senator Ed Markey, of Malden. VoteVets has long been a key backer of Moulton, who served four tours of duty in Iraq as a Marine Corps officer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The group is also backing Maura Sullivan, a Marine veteran and former Obama administration official who is running in the open primary in New Hampshire\u2019s 1st Congressional District, as well as Luke Bronin, the former Hartford mayor who is challenging longtime Representative John Larson. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=768\">Jason Kidd is out as Mavericks coach, two weeks after Dallas hires new team president Masai Ujiri<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic Senate hopeful has won the support of a veterans group known for investing big in its candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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