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Why has an oyster fisherman from Maine – criticised for having a Nazi tattoo – become a frontrunner for the Democrats, and one of their best hopes to help take back the US Senate in this year’s midterm elections? The north eastern state of Maine has become integral for Democrats as they look to unseat Republican senator Susan Collins, and elect their first Democrat senator in decades. But it also tells a bigger story, about how the Democratic party is looking to take on Donald Trump more widely, beyond this November’s midterms and into the 2028 presidential elections. Justin and Anthony unpack what Maine tells us about Democrat strategy and why Graham Platner, currently polling first, is not a typical Democrat candidate. And does it tell us something significant about what voters want in 2026? Plus, we speak to Josh Keefe, a reporter for the nonprofit Maine Monitor, who went to school with Graham Platner. He discusses his memories of Platner, what Mainers think about his tattoo and Reddit scandals, and he tells us what he loves about his state as in the return of our United States of Americast feature. HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent GUEST:
• Josh Keefe, Reporter for the Maine Monitor GET IN TOUCH: • Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB • Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480
• Email Americast@bbc.co.uk
• Or use #Americast This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app. You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say “Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155 Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you’re reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below. Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl
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