Platner's got Democrats thinking about outsiders

The Hill -   Populist Democratic candidate Graham Platner shook up his party’s establishment when his primary competitor, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her Senate campaign last week amid polls that showed she was badly trailing her rival, an oyster farmer who had come out of nowhere to win a national following in the party.

Platner’s rise is just the latest example of the outsiders era in the Democratic Party, a period coinciding with President Trump’s tenure that has also seen Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, defeat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the race for New York City mayor last year. 

Platner, Mamdani and Trump all seemed to win political support with attacks on their respective parties’ political establishments; each has a brand signaling a desire to shake up the state quo.

It’s left some Democrats wondering whether that means there is a wide-open lane for an outsider to become the party’s presidential nominee in 2028.