I joined NPR Weekend Edition’s Scott Simon to discuss Republican Senate strategy and the 2026 midterms.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Maine Democrats have a little more than two weeks to pick a new candidate to take on incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins. Graham Platner, who had won the June primary, withdrew from the race this week, days after Politico reported on a rape allegation from a former girlfriend, which Platner denies. There had been other red flags during Platner’s campaign – a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol, reports of unsettling behavior from other former girlfriends and an admission that he was sexting women outside of his marriage. We are joined now by Republican strategist Liam Donovan in our studios. Thanks so much for being with us.
LIAM DONOVAN: Scott, it’s great to be here.
SIMON: Democrats had seen Senator Collins as very vulnerable this cycle, and defeating her, perhaps, their best opportunity to flip control of the Senate. Is that still the case?
DONOVAN: I think it’s still the case that they have to win Maine to have a plausible path to the Senate. The math and the map of this cycle mean it is largely going through Trump country, through battlegrounds that Republicans have won in previous presidential cycles. This is the only state where there is a Republican sitting in a state that Vice President Harris and President Biden previously won.