About the Candidate
Born in Blue Hill and raised in Ellsworth and Sullivan, Graham is a lifelong Mainer. He is a Marine and U.S. Army veteran and oyster farmer.
Education
John Bapst Memorial High School, George Washington University (attended); United States Marine Corps: MCRD Parris Island Recruit Training, Basic Infantryman Course, Machine Gunners Course (Honor Graduate), Combat Life Saver Course Infantry, Machinegun Leaders Course (Honor Graduate), Sergeants Non-Resident Program; United States Army: Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course State Department: WPS (Worldwide Protective Service) II
Previous campaigns and elected office(s) held
None.
Why are you running?
I’m running because no one I know can afford to buy a home in the place they grew up, because people are bankrupted by hospital bills and because we haven’t raised the federal minimum wage in almost 20 years — all while we send trillions of dollars fighting other countries’ wars overseas. Hard work used to be enough to live a good, stable life in Maine. But it’s not anymore because the people we’ve been sending to represent us in D.C. like Susan Collins sell us out. And I’m tired of it.
Top three priorities
We live with a political system designed to make some people rich and keep the rest of us settling for scraps. My first priority will be fixing that by ensuring that the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share, and that we lower taxes and costs for working people. We also must fix the healthcare system, which lines the pockets of Big Pharma execs by jacking up prices on the rest of us. Finally, we need to end the forever wars that send people overseas to die and waste trillions of tax payer dollars.
If elected, how would you work with the Trump administration to deliver results for Maine? How would you push back?
I’ll work with anyone to fight for Mainers, but we can’t expect the same people to fix what they broke. Look at what this administration is doing: gas prices are out of control, private equity is pricing us out of the neighborhoods we grew up in and people are forced to choose between groceries and going to the doctor. Meanwhile, Trump is spending billions on his forever war. I’ll always work with the administration to bring money back to Maine, but I also know we need to hold him accountable.
Would you pledge to support your party’s current leaders in Congress? If so, why? If not, why not?
The next Democratic leader needs to be one of vision and also somebody who is willing to fight. I am not seeing either of those things coming out of the current Democratic leadership. The only way forward for us as a party is to become the party of the working class again. To become the party of labor unions, of structural change, of massive tax reform to pull back all the money that’s been stolen from us.
If you could change one thing about how Washington functions, what would it be and why?
We need to ban billionaires from buying our elections and tear down the system that enriches politicians at the expense of working people. D.C. is broken because our politics is bought by corporations and a billionaire donor class that steals from working people every day. We must publicly fund our elections, overturn Citizens United and get money out of our politics, and make it illegal for members of Congress to trade stocks.