Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is making headlines across the country with his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. In Maine this past Monday, he drew a crowd of 6,500 in Portland to hear him speak for 45 minutes, depicting Trump in blistering terms while also criticizing both political parties for kowtowing to the wealthy and abandoning the working class.

“It’s not just the Republicans,” Sanders told the crowd at the Cross Insurance Arena, “it’s also the fact that billionaires play a much too significant role in the Democratic Party as well.”

That populist message was also delivered by two Maine candidates endorsed by Sanders — Troy Jackson and Graham Platner — who are running, respectively, for governor and the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Susan Collins. 

Platner, a Maine oyster farmer and political newcomer, has caused the biggest sensation with a viral launch video and accompanying media attention that has put him on the national radar. He’s seemingly cut from the same cloth as Bernie when it comes to his populist rhetoric as in this riff while depicting Collins to the crowd. “No one cares that you pretend to be remorseful as you sellout to lobbyists. No one cares while you sell out to corporations. And no one cares while you sell out to a president who are all engineering the greatest redistribution of wealth — from the working class to the ruling class — in American history.” 

Jackson, a fifth-generation logger from Allagash, Maine and who served as the president of the Maine Senate, is seeking the governorship in 2026. Maine currently is led by Gov. Janet Mills, 77, a Democrat who was elected in 2009 and is serving her second four-year term.

Jackson is doubling down on the same populist rhetoric, pitting the working class against the wealthy elitists like Trump and his billionaire friends. “To them that is what we are, nobodies. But we know better. We know they aren’t coming to save us. They never have and they never will. And we know that the only way to build our future… the future we want, is to build it for ourselves.”

Each candidate delivers a populist rhetoric that captures the imagination of middle-America with a positive spin and attacks Trump’s pseudo-populism at its weakest point: Trump’s policies clearly benefit the wealthiest few against the other 90% of the country.

Sanders capped off the event with a jab at Trump and his power-hungry team: “These guys, trust me, believe that they have the right to rule, and democracy is an impediment to their success. They want it all. They want it all and they don’t care who they step on… to get even more and more.”

Sanders ended with this note of optimism that undoubtedly brought lovers of democracy jumping to their feet: “Not only can we stop them, not only will we stop them, but for the future of this country and in fact the world, we must, must stop them.” 

The scene makes you wonder what this country, and the world, would be like if Sanders had defeated Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination back in 2016. In hindsight, the nation was looking for an unconventional rebel-rouser in 2016. Sanders would have delivered a much different outcome than what we see today.

Angelo Lynn