Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York spoke on the Hugh Hewitt Show Tuesday about Graham Platner’s campaign in Maine.
“If you look at the polls right now, not just in Maine but in Michigan with Elsad, with other places that have really out there Democratic candidates,” York said. “You have the so-called centrist or moderate Republicans doing best against the far out Democratic candidates. So my guess, it won’t work for the Democrats. I mean Platner is just not going to perform that well.”
Maine native and progressive Democrat Platner is running in the 2026 Senate campaign, making him a probable nominee after Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign. With his primary focus being to defeat Republican Susan Collins, Platner also highlights working-class issues, labor, and anti-corporate politics.
“People know very, very well who Susan Collins is,” York said.
When host Hugh Hewitt asked why York thinks the Senate candidates “have been driven off the left end of the road,” York said, “Well look, TDS [Trump derangement syndrome] is a big part of it. I don’t put everybody in the same category like Sherrod Brown and Ossoff who have both been the senators for their respective states. Ossoff still is.”
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York’s remarks come amid a broader discussion on the Hugh Hewitt Show about the direction of Senate races and the motivations behind Democratic candidates entering the field.
“But why has the Democratic Party gone nuts like this? It continued its process during the Biden years and perhaps that was driven by Trump anyway. But I think TDS is as good an explanation as any for it,” York said.