Graham Platner is trailing Susan Collins by 21 points among registered voters without a four-year college degree, according to a New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll released Monday. The numbers sharpen the pressure on a campaign that has centered his oyster-farmer identity as evidence of his appeal to working-class Maine voters.
The poll put Platner at 37% and Collins at 58% in that group. It also showed him ahead by 37 points with White college-educated voters and behind by 23 points with White non-college-educated voters.
Maine Senate numbers
The polling split matters because Platner has leaned on a plain-spoken biography in the Maine Senate race. He has described himself as an oyster farmer and harbor master, but financial disclosures show he brings in relatively little money from oyster farming.
Reports have suggested that he receives the majority of his income through veteran’s disability payments. That gap between the campaign image and the financial record is part of the scrutiny surrounding his background.
September 2020 comparison
The new result also sits beside a different White working-class pattern from the September 2020 New York Times/Siena poll, when Susan Collins led Sara Gideon 48% to 45% with White non-college-educated voters. The September 2020 result represented a 20-point swing from six years ago in a race Collins won by about nine points statewide.
Platner’s deficit among voters without a four-year degree is the clearest sign yet that his working-class pitch is not landing evenly across the coalition he needs. He is doing better with White college-educated voters, but the larger weakness is in the group his biography was meant to reach.
Collins and Platner
Ryan Girdusky posted on X that “Graham is what a college educated person thinks a working-class person is supposed to act like and working-class people can see he's a fraud.” Melissa Braunstein posted on X that “Blue collar voters can tell he’s not one of them.”
Laurel Libby said to News Digital, “Mainers know authenticity, and they can spot a pretender from a mile away,” and added, “Maine voters aren't looking for a performance, they're looking for someone who understands their lives and will fight for them — that has always been Susan Collins.” For Platner, the immediate challenge is to close the gap with non-college voters before that divide hardens into the defining fact of the race.
