Hungry to oust longtime centrist Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), early supporters of the embattled progressive candidate say it’s time their colleagues drop lingering skepticism over personal baggage to embrace the party’s best chance at winning the toss-up seat.“If Democrats want to win the Senate, as I’m sure they do, I think they’re going to rally around the Democratic nominee in Maine,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told the Washington Examiner.
“They need to coalesce,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said. “He has taken responsibility.”
An eagerness for Democrats to embrace Platner, a scandal-plagued nominee, resembles Republicans falling in line for the Trump-endorsed Paxton after ousting leadership-backed Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the competitive Texas Senate race. But even as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Democrats’ campaign arm extend a lukewarm embrace, there remains a greater reluctance among some to champion Platner in the way Republicans quickly did for Paxton after months of vehemently opposing him.
“It just doesn’t matter what I think. It literally doesn’t matter,” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT). “It matters what the voters in Maine think, and the challenge that Platner has is the challenge that any candidate has. It is to address, in a direct way, both personal and political issues that are legitimate questions for the voters. He’s got to do that.”
