Philadelpha, July 7, 2026 --  

Democrats' latest experiment with blue-collar populism has failed miserably. Pray they don't try again.

When the winner of the Democratic primary for Maine's Senate seat flamed out over a rape allegation, the party suffered a major setback its flirtation with populism. Maine's Graham Platner, a former Marine and college dropout, handily won the nomination with his folksy blue-collar demeanor and anti-establishment ideas.

But his ugly side soon emerged: people found old racist posts on Reddit and photos of Platner sporting a Nazi-linked tattoo. Then allegations of infidelity and abusive relationships snowballed until an ex-girlfriend accused him of rape.

Why on earth would top Democrats including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren embrace a candidate like this? Because they have spent much of the last decade watching Donald Trump run rings around them as he severely eroded the Democratic base. Democrats are simply desperate to turn their party around.

While an unlikely blue collar hero, President Trump has successfully enthralled working class men with a pattern of hurling abuse at people who don't look and act like them. In the last three presidential elections, Democrats saw more and more of their traditional unionized working-class base defect to Donald Trump. This started with the most racist rust belt white male Democratic voters in 2016, reaching more working class whites and Cuban-Americans in 2020, and then adding many Mexican-Americans and a few African-Americans in 2024.

For some Democratic strategists, winning is everything -- and Graham Platner offered hope. He shares many traits that make Trump attractive to working class men -- he is a white businessman. He promises simple (if dubious) solutions to America's problems. He has a history of racist gaffes and abusive behavior toward women. And now, he also shares Trump's ugliest attribute of all -- a rape allegation. Even Trump -- an abusive bully if you ever saw one -- denounced Planter as a "low-level thug."¹ Apparently, Democrats' plan to to win was to out-thug a thug by being even thuggier.

Democrats' attempts at populism have proven far more successful with the Democratic Socialist variety. These candidates woo disaffected voters populist economic goodies: government run grocery stores, free housing and medical care, rent freezes and free child care.

Three New York City congressional districts and one in Denver were captured by such candidates in the Democratic primary last month, defeating four establishment candidates (three of them sitting congressmen.) Another Democratic Socialist candidate defeated an establishment challenger in Washington DC. Because these are all safe Democratic districts, these candidates are all but assured of winning in the general election.

The problem with Democratic Socialism as a populist vector for growing the Democratic Party is limited appeal. Such candidates rarely win outside safe Democratic districts, so they are useless for growing the party.

In less urban areas and swing districts, Democrats generally need a folksier blue collar candidate. Before Graham Platner's rise and fall, the prototype for this was Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman. Fetterman, like Trump, has a privileged background -- he has a master's degree from Harvard. But years of mentoring poor youths in western Pennsylvania led him to adopt a blue-collar persona featuring Dickies shorts and hoodies. His first political office was as mayor of a decrepit industrial suburb of Pittsburgh, where he infamously pulled a shotgun on a black man he wrongly accused of firing a gun (now that's thuggy!)²

But Democrats have soured on Fetterman for becoming increasingly Trumpy. He was the lone Democratic Senator to take Trump's side in a number of cases, most recently a resolution to end the Iran War.³ Fetterman is now more popular with Republicans than Democrats. If this pattern holds, he will need to switch parties to win-reelection in 2030 -- hardly a populist model for the Democrats.

In contrast, Graham Platner wowed lefty Democrats with his more hard-left positions on the issues, presumably making him less likely than Fetterman to drift rightward toward Trumpish populism. (Now we will never know.)

There are many reasons to decry the rise of populism in the Democratic Party. But in Maine, the incumbent Republican Senator offers a unique one. Susan Collins was one of the few Republicans voting to convict President Trump after the January 6 attacks, and is one of only two "Never Trump" Republicans left in the Senate. No matter how committed some Americans are to the Democratic Party, anyone who supports democracy must support America having more than one party. Collins is a exactly the kind of Republican we need to bring that party back from the woods once the Trump era ends. The last thing America needs is for her to be ousted in favor of an uneducated populist accused of rape who walks around with a covered-up Nazi tattoo.

Related Web Columns: It Can Happen Here, June 9, 2026

Notes:

1. The Hill, Trump Rips Into Platner After Primary Win: 'Low-Level Thug', June 10, 2026

2. Pennsyvlania Capitol-Star, Fetterman Justifies -- But Does Not Apologize For -- Chasing Down and Brandishing Shotgun at Black Jogger While Braddock Mayor, February 10, 2021

3. USA Today, What Fetterman's Vote Against Iran War Powers Resolution Means, June 18, 2026