Graham Platner

One, they've been the ones wielding power for the past 50 years.

Look where it got us.

I don't think anybody's looking around right now and being like, yeah, this is all working really great for most Americans.

We're all very happy with the outcomes that we have.

Of course not.

And so I honestly think that the question itself is sort of a defense of the system as it has stood.

And I just don't buy it.

I think the fact that I have served my country, multiple combat tours, the fact that I've seen up close the actual realities of war,

And then struggled afterwards with not just the trauma and the sort of challenges that come with that, but also coming back to a society itself that had sent a lot of us off to fight in those wars.

And when we came home, it almost didn't even acknowledge that those wars had happened in the first place.

Yeah, very much so.

And going through that and then going through, frankly, like the darkness and the alienation, the isolation that comes from it.

And then...

Getting help, getting therapy, going to the VA, moving back to my hometown, building a life in the community that I was born and raised in, reconnecting with people and rebuilding hope in that.

And then at the exact same time, building a small business, growing food in the ocean for my community.

I mean, we don't sell an oyster outside of a 25-mile radius.

And that whole experience, I think to me, that makes me quite qualified to understand that policy, decisions made in DC, they have real material outcomes for people.

It's not theory.

It's not vague.

It's not just words on a page.