A new poll shows Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Plattner leading Sen. Susan Collins by 7 percentage points in the race for the seat.
In the General Atlantic Research poll, 48% of likely voters said they would support Plattner in a hypothetical matchup, while 41% said they would support Collins. Eleven percent are undecided.
Broken down by gender, 53% of female respondents supported Plattner and 34% supported Collins. Meanwhile, men surveyed said they support Collins over Plattner, with 47% backing the incumbent and 44% backing her potential challenger.
When Plattner’s primary rival, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her Senate bid in late April, the Democratic establishment was rattled because polls showed her trailing seriously behind rival Democrats. The state’s Democratic primary will be held on June 9.
Plattner’s rise comes amid intense debate over the party’s future and as left-wing outsiders come into the spotlight, such as New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani (D), whose campaign last year drew widespread national attention.
However, Plattner has also faced controversy in recent months amid reports of controversial social media posts he made years before running for Senate and the revelation that he had a tattoo that resembled a swastika, which he later said he had covered up.
The General Atlantic Research poll, conducted May 8-18 with 827 likely voters, had a margin of error of 3.7 percent.
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