Episode 24 · Jul 19, 2026 · A Healthy Conversation
with Phil Hirschkorn
About this episode
With co-host Dr. Lisa Belisle away, co-host Dr. Jeff Barkin is joined by Phil Hirschkorn, political reporter and host of Political Brew on NewsCenter Maine, to take stock of an unusually consequential moment in Maine politics. Hirschkorn, who covered elections for national outlets including CNN, CBS and PBS before coming to Maine, describes a political environment that feels, in scale of national attention, closer to a presidential race than a typical midterm. The conversation centers on the U.S. Senate contest, where Maine is widely seen as one of a handful of states that could determine which party controls the chamber.
Much of the discussion examines the rapid rise and abrupt collapse of Graham Platner's Democratic Senate candidacy. Hirschkorn, who attended dozens of Platner's town halls and interviewed him repeatedly, describes a campaign that drew genuine enthusiasm and won more than 70 percent of the June primary vote, even as a series of controversies accumulated from the fall onward. Barkin raises the question of candidate vetting, and Hirschkorn explains that the standard in high-stakes races involves intensive personal disclosure designed to surface background issues that, in Platner's case, appear not to have been systematically pursued by the out-of-state recruiters who brought him into the race. After a final cascade of scrutiny that included a serious allegation Platner denied, he announced his withdrawal in a video and then formally submitted paperwork to Secretary of State Shenna Bellows' office, clearing the way for the Democratic Party to select a replacement.
Hirschkorn walks through the replacement process, in which delegates chosen at county meetings will select a new nominee from a field that includes Dr. Nirav Shah, the former Maine CDC director; Troy Jackson, the former Maine Senate president; Bellows herself; and congressional candidate Jordan Wood. Barkin offers the view that Shah, who led the primary field in the gubernatorial race, may be positioned differently from the more progressive contenders in a state with an older electorate and a strong tradition of ticket splitting. Hirschkorn notes that Shah has moved quickly to establish a public presence, while Republican Senator Susan Collins, running for a sixth term, enters the general election cycle with both the advantages of her Senate Appropriations chairmanship and the scrutiny that comes from a national race her opponents frame as a test of her independence.
Mentioned in this episode
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From this episode
“It feels more like a presidential race, especially with the national interest. We're told that the balance of power in Washington hinges on Maine, both in the House and the Senate. And I think that's why there is this intense attention on what's going on here on the ground.”
“Sometimes it's hard for all of us humans to admit our worst mistakes, even to ourselves, and then to admit them publicly to a bunch of strangers that want you to, I don't know, do something, take a job, be a candidate. You know, that's hard. And then I guess sometimes, and this is just me sort of speculating here, you know, sometimes you think, 'Well, they'll never find out about that.'”