Joanna Klonsky--Platner’s Fall

Joanna Klonsky--Platner’s Fall

July 13, 2026 · 56 min · Episode 2542

About this episode

Joanna Klonsky discusses Graham Platner's resignation and its implications for the Democratic Party's candidate selection process.

Graham Platner steps down, allowing Dems in Maine to select another candidate to run against Senator Susan Collins. Ben riffs. Joanna Klonsky explains what Platner’s rise and fall says about the Democratic Party’s effort to break from centrists and find “real” people, who aren’t spineless, to run for office. How vetting works, or in this case, doesn’t work. The obsession with convincing white males to vote Democratic, though they've been voting Republican since LBJ signed the Civil Rights Bill. And a few words about Platner’s enablers, who kept on spinning, even after he was accused of rape. Joanna is a political strategist in Chicago. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

People in this episode

Host: Ben Joravsky

Guest: Joanna Klonsky

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Democratic Party, Chicago

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