Senate candidate Graham Platner ignited a firestorm with what critics are calling a political harassment strategy after he urged supporters to confront and harass Maine lawmakers who oppose Medicare for All. The political harassment push came during a Windham town hall, where Platner told the crowd, “we need to be able to impose costs” on members of Maine’s congressional delegation who refuse to back his agenda.
Platner went further, calling on supporters to “flood their offices” and even “follow them around and don’t let them have a public dinner without getting yelled at. Because that’s power. That’s real power.” He described the tactics as essential for building “secondary power,” adding that “American history tells us that that’s exactly the power that we have.”
The remarks signal a sharp escalation in activist pressure tactics—an approach Platner framed as necessary because, in his words, “If we can’t impose costs, then they’ll never listen to us, because they won’t care.”
Platner has made Medicare for All the cornerstone of his campaign, pairing it with a sweeping left-wing economic platform that includes eliminating the payroll tax cap, imposing a “billionaire minimum tax,” and sharply raising capital gains and corporate taxes. He has argued he wants to use “the tax code to get the money back that was stolen from the working people of this country.”
While some progressives cheered Platner’s stance, opponents warn his political harassment calls normalize intimidation as a political weapon—one that risks eroding civil debate in already polarized times.
