A poll released this week, in addition to showing a dead heat in the Maine Senate race, suggests that Democratic candidate Graham Platner’s working-class bona fides as an oyster farmer — which he has made a central part of his campaign — aren’t resonating.Platner currently trails incumbent Republican Sen.Susan Collins by 21 points, 37% to 58%, with registered voters who do not hold a four-year college degree, according to a New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll released on Monday. Additionally, the poll shows Platner up 37 points with White college-educated voters but trailing Collins by 23 points with White non-college-educated voters. In the September 2020 New York Times/Siena poll, Collins led Democrat Sara Gideon by just 48%-45% with White non-college-educated voters, a 20-point swing from six years ago in a race Collins won by about nine points statewide.PLATNER’S ANTI-CORPORATE CRUSADE HITS AWKWARD SNAG AS RECEIPTS TELL ANOTHER STORYGraham Platner, left, pictured alongside Sen.
Susan Collins, R-Maine, right.(Graeme Sloan/Getty Images; Heather Diehl/Getty Images)Platner’s sagging support from those without a college degree has prompted some on social media to suggest his messaging to working-class voters as an oyster farmer from rural Maine is falling flat, despite his repeated pledges to fight against "corporate greed" and the billionaire "oligarchy."Ryan Girdusky, founder of the 1776 Project PAC, posted on X that "Graham is what a college educated person thinks a working-class person is supposed to act like and working-class people can see he's a fraud.""Blue collar voters can tell he’s not one of them," journalist Melissa Braunstein posted on X.EXCLUSIVE: COLLINS PITS RECORD BUILT IN MAINE POTATO FIELDS AGAINST PLATNER'S 'ANGRY RHETORIC'Platner has faced criticism during his campaign for claims about his background as he has long identified himself as an oyster farmer and harbor master, giving a blue-collar tinge to his left-win...