Graham Platner is a leftist Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Maine. He is a self-described communist, holds all manner of radical policy stances, and admittedly views white, rural Americans with outright contempt. He wrote that “all” police are bastards and appeared to endorse political violence. As his ideological and personal baggage have mounted, the Democratic base in his state and around the country has rallied to the cause. They love what they see. 

According to various polls, Platner now enjoys a commanding lead over his party’s incumbent governor — the enervated Democratic establishment’s choice for the Senate nomination — as well as a slight edge over the sitting occupant of the upper chamber seat he’s seeking. (It must be noted that centrist Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was written off six years ago, trailing in literally every single publicly available general election survey for months, before winning reelection fairly comfortably.