{"id":280990,"date":"2026-06-29T12:04:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T12:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280990\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T12:04:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T12:04:06","slug":"platner-has-slight-edge-over-collins-in-tight-maine-senate-race-poll-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280990\/","title":{"rendered":"Platner Has Slight Edge Over Collins in Tight Maine Senate Race, Poll Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator Susan Collins and Graham Platner are locked in a neck-and-neck Senate contest in Maine, according to a New York Times\/Portland Press Herald\/Siena poll<\/a>, as voters weigh a desire for Democratic control of the Senate against Ms. Collins\u2019s record and controversy around Mr. Platner\u2019s past conduct.<\/p>\n

Mr. Platner leads the race by two percentage points among likely voters, capturing the support of 49 percent, compared to 47 percent for Ms. Collins. It is a slight advantage, but one that is considered too small for polls to measure reliably, and which could easily grow or shrink as campaigning ramps up.<\/p>\n

An oysterman who has never held elected office, Mr. Platner, 41, rode a populist message to the Democratic nomination despite reports about offensive online posts, a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol and his treatment of women. But the poll found that he is failing to attract some voters who otherwise want to see Democrats take power in Washington.<\/p>\n

Fifty-four percent of voters said they would like to see Democrats control the Senate next year, a notably higher percentage than the percent of respondents who said they supported Mr. Platner. In fact, Ms. Collins, the Republican, is winning 10 percent of voters who prefer Democratic control.<\/p>\n

[Nate Cohn, our chief political analyst, looks at the quirky political contours of Maine\u2019s Senate race<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Mr. Platner has strong backing among Democrats and some of the party\u2019s traditional constituencies, winning notable majorities of young, college-educated and Portland-area voters. A slight majority \u2014 52 percent \u2014 of women say they support his bid.<\/p>\n

While Ms. Collins, 73, is not broadly popular in the state \u2014 about as many voters view her positively as negatively \u2014 voters\u2019 views of the senator remain largely unchanged since 2020, when she won re-election by 9 percentage points, outperforming President Trump in the state. Likely voters view her more favorably than Mr. Trump by nearly 10 percentage points, and they said they appreciated her ability to bring federal resources to Maine.<\/p>\n

Still, there are signs that Ms. Collins, who is running for a sixth term, may face some fresh liabilities. A majority of Mainers \u2014 including 57 percent of independent voters \u2014 said they thought she would be too supportive of Mr. Trump in the Senate. And even some of her own supporters worry that she is \u201ctoo old\u201d to be an effective senator, though those concerns are mirrored by anxieties among Democrats that Mr. Platner is \u201ctoo inexperienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both parties see Maine as a linchpin of their battle for control of Congress. With Republicans holding 53 seats in the Senate, Democrats will have to defend all the seats they hold and flip four more to win control in November. The map is difficult for Democrats: Of all six Senate battleground states, Maine is the only one that voted against President Trump in 2024.<\/p>\n

The poll is the first high-quality survey of Maine voters conducted since Mr. Platner won the nomination. And it provided a snapshot of his standing after The New York Times published a report<\/a> revealing that several women whom Mr. Platner had dated said that he had engaged in unsettling and, in one case, physically threatening behavior.<\/p>\n

The race remains deeply unsettled. Twenty percent of Mr. Platner\u2019s likely supporters said they were only \u201cprobably\u201d going to vote for him. Sixteen percent of Ms. Collins\u2019s supporters said the same.<\/p>\n

Some voters described dissatisfaction with their options.<\/p>\n

Joan Merriam, 79, a Democrat from Rockland, Maine., described the race as \u201ca moral Catch-22.\u201d Ms. Merriam, a retired teacher, said that she was unsettled by the reports about Mr. Platner\u2019s conduct toward women, but that she also could not imagine voting for Ms. Collins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m holding my nose and voting for him,\u201d she said of Mr. Platner. \u201cShe supports Trump way too much and doesn\u2019t have a backbone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The steady drumbeat of controversies surrounding Mr. Platner\u2019s campaign have raised concern among some Democrats that he could complicate their party\u2019s path.<\/p>\n

Majorities do not believe Mr. Platner has \u201cgood character\u201d or the \u201cright kind of moral values.\u201d By contrast, 66 percent of likely voters say Ms. Collins has \u201cgood character,\u201d and 61 percent describe her as having the \u201cright kind of moral values.\u201d<\/p>\n

More likely voters view Mr. Platner as \u201ctoo extreme,\u201d with 47 percent saying the phrase fit him well, compared with 34 percent who said the same about Ms. Collins.<\/p>\n

Mr. Platner has been dogged by issues from his past since the early weeks of his candidacy, including revelations of explicit text messages<\/a> he sent to women while he was married.<\/p>\n

More than 90 percent of likely voters said they had heard about the various controversies. About 30 percent of Mr. Platner\u2019s supporters said the reports had raised questions about whether they could support him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssuming nothing changes, I will be voting for him, though not enthusiastically,\u201d said Sarah Carnahan, a social worker from Farmington, who described herself as aligned with democratic socialism.<\/p>\n

But Ms. Carnahan, 43, said she had begun wondering: \u201cWhat if there\u2019s one huge bombshell we don\u2019t know about yet? Is there something that would change my mind?\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the contest may rest with female voters, who have made up a majority of the electorate in past Senate races in Maine.<\/p>\n

Mr. Platner has sharply criticized Ms. Collins for supporting Brett M. Kavanaugh, part of the conservative Supreme Court majority that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that had guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion for nearly half a century.<\/p>\n

Mr. Platner\u2019s support among female likely voters is seven percentage points lower than the share who said they would support the Democrat running for the House in their district. But he is still running ahead of the support the 2020 Democratic nominee for Senate, Sara Gideon, received from women in exit polls<\/a> and a 2020 New York Times\/Siena survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About 60 percent of likely voters who support Ms. Collins give a positive reason for their backing \u2014 either her politics or her personality \u2014 compared with just 36 percent of Mr. Platner\u2019s voters who pointed to a positive attribute about their candidate.<\/p>\n

Ms. Collins\u2019s strongest positive, according to the poll, is that voters believe that she can deliver for the state, a theme she has stressed during the campaign. Likely voters think Ms. Collins would do better than Mr. Platner at bringing money and resources to Maine, 61 percent to 34 percent.<\/p>\n

Mr. Platner has the edge, though, when it comes to being an independent voice \u2014 a key tenet of the state\u2019s identity \u2014 and doing what\u2019s best for ordinary Mainers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe cuts through the B.S. of political speech,\u201d said Michael Bachand, 71, a retiree from Standish. \u201cWe have an opportunity for the first time in a long time to start a new movement for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of Ms. Collins\u2019s success will depend on whether she can outrun what is widely considered to be a challenging political environment for Republicans in Maine and across the country.<\/p>\n

About three in 10 likely voters in Maine say they approve of how Mr. Trump has handled cost-of-living concerns, gas prices and the war in Iran. Just 27 percent of likely voters thought the recent agreement to end the war in Iran was a good deal.<\/p>\n

Abdullah Haque, 45, of Bangor, said he disliked how Ms. Collins \u201csnivels at Trump\u2019s feet.\u201d But he said he planned to vote for her because he was worried about his personal financial situation and believed she was better for the state\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI care a lot about the local economy here,\u201d said Mr. Haque, 45, an independent voter who works in health care administration. \u201cI\u2019m policy-driven. Outside of financial interests, I don\u2019t like her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Collins has a history of defying expectations. In her 2020 Senate race, pre-election polls<\/a> suggested that she would lose the race by around three to four percentage points. She won by nine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senator Susan Collins and Graham Platner are locked in a neck-and-neck Senate contest in Maine, according to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[82364,1452,107819,89518,5315,46937,9,24,49920,63,95540,107821,107820,855,134,136,135,82365,1069],"class_list":["post-280990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-collins","tag-donald-j","tag-gideon","tag-graham","tag-maine","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-times-siena-college-poll","tag-nyc","tag-platner","tag-portland-press-herald","tag-sara-1971","tag-senate","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-susan-m","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}