Graham Platner

It's not just numbers.

All of this stuff has a material reality for regular people in this country, one that I have seen up close and personal and seen the outcomes of.

And I think that makes me very qualified

to go up into that place of power and make sure that when policy is crafted, we are always keeping in the forefront of our minds, what is this going to do to regular everyday Americans?

What is the material outcome of this?

Because I think that the people who are quote-unquote qualified, for quite some time they've completely forgotten that that's what they should actually be thinking about.

And that's why we are in the straits we are today.

Well, I mean, I started raking blueberries when I was nine.

I had my first W-2 job before I even went to high school.

I bagged groceries and pushed carts, did landscaping, and then worked on the Appalachian Trail for the AMC on the professional trail crew.

Those were all jobs that require you to work and use your hands.

After that, I joined the infantry, where I spent my 20s engaged in combat operations for this country, struggled afterwards, and then eventually came back to Maine, where I have become a diver and an oyster farmer.

My wife and I combined make about $60,000 a year.

For the record, my father is a small-town lawyer in Ellsworth, Maine, who did bankruptcy and real estate law for his career in Ellsworth.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Not a billionaire.

Most certainly not.

My mother, by the way, still works.

She still runs her restaurant because in her 70s, she has no retirement.