So far this year, the power elected officials hold to shape our day-to-day lives is on full display: Will they institute universal childcare in New York like Mayor Mamdani? Or will they force trans people to change their gender marker on their licenses like the Kansas State Legislature?
This year, we have the chance to fight not only to cut the legs out from under Trump’s billionaire agenda, but to take on the Democratic establishment that is refusing to stand up to him and fight for working-class people. SURJ is proud to put our endorsement behind candidates we believe will help implement that vision.
We helped our first endorsed candidate, Analilia Mejía, win her special election in a major upset in New Jersey. Next, we were excited to endorse the Sunrise Movement co-founder and longtime organizer Will Lawrence running for Congress in Michigan.
Now, we’re proud to put our endorsement behind Graham Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, who is running in the Maine Democratic Senate primary, calling out the divide-and-conquer tactics of the billionaire class and the despicable actions of ICE, standing up for Palestinians, trans people, and the working class.
Maine is one of the whitest states in the nation that holds the potential to not only flip the Senate for Democrats, but to elect one of the few people to that body who is not in the pocket of billionaires or the Democratic establishment. SURJ will be contacting white working-class voters in this race– exactly the work we were built to do.
Platner’s story is one not unlike many of our own families: a person swept up into the military industrial complex, left with PTSD and little support, facing the dissonance of the billion-dollar war machine abroad and deep disinvestment in working-class communities here at home.
Like many of us, his conviction to fight the racism that enriches billionaires and harms the rest of us came from years of, in his own words, struggling and feeling confused and disillusioned. Like many of us, he has had to overcome the intense conditioning those of us who are white are swimming in to arrive at a vision of shared interest that has transformed him to want to fight for a better world.
Join us to get to know Graham and learn how you can plug into SURJ’s electoral work on April 7.