Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Dan Kleban, the Maine Beer Company founder who briefly ran for Senate last year before dropping his bid and endorsing Gov. Janet Mills in the race, relaunched his campaign Wednesday by taking early swings against GOP Sen. Susan Collins and the \u201cDC establishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad that Graham Platner has ended his campaign. For too long, this race has not been about Susan Collins\u2019 repeated failures to do what\u2019s right for Maine. We need to get back to that,\u201d Kleban said in a statement Wednesday night. \u201cMainers deserve a senator who will fight for them against the DC establishment while also doing what\u2019s right. I plan to be that senator.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kleban announced he was jumping back into the race in a post on Substack<\/a> hours before Platner released a video saying he was suspending campaign operations<\/a>. Kleban said in an interview on CNN Wednesday night that he \u201cwould not\u201d take Platner\u2019s endorsement if it was offered.<\/p>\n He also said the truncated nominating process the Maine Democratic Party will undertake to replace Plater is \u201cnot a perfect proxy for a full primary,\u201d but that Maine voters \u201cdeserve a fair and open process that\u2019s free of meddling from anyone from D.C. or New York.\u201d<\/p>\n Kleban sought to position himself as the candidate to carry Platner\u2019s movement forward and echoed the now-former nominee by decrying a system that\u2019s \u201crigged against working-class folks.\u201d He also said he would not vote for Chuck Schumer as Senate Democratic leader.<\/p>\n But Kleban stopped short of embracing Platner\u2019s stance on Israel. When asked by CNN if he would categorize the war in Gaza as a \u201cgenocide,\u201d Kleban did not repeat the term, instead calling it an \u201cabsolute tragedy\u201d and saying he would condition arms sales to Israel.<\/p>\n