ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Who?
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
Ask a Pol asks:
After backing Graham Platner’s Senate bid, do you feel personally lied to or deceived by him?
Key Pingree:
“I don’t know if he was a liar or if he was delusional,” Rep. Chellie Pingree exclusively tells Ask a Pol Politics. “At this point it doesn’t matter to me anymore.”
Caught our ear:
“Like DC people and out-of-staters, could you just leave us alone for a while?” Pingree tells us. “Every consultant, every reporter, I mean, everybody’s been in our state … turning this into a very complicated race. And now they all want to weigh in on the next round of candidates. And I’m just sort of like, leave us the hell alone!”
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Chellie Pingree (7-9-2026)
SCENE: With Congress out of session, Ask a Pol founder Matt Laslo catches up with Rep. Chellie Pingree as Maine’s Democratic Senate race is thrown into upheaval. Graham Platner had dropped his bid after a credible allegation of rape and sexual assault surfaced. Pingree had appeared with Platner after he became the party’s Senate candidate.
Matt Laslo: Hello. Hey, how are you, Congresswoman?
Rep. Chellie Pingree: I’m good. How are you?
Laslo: Living the dream.
Pingree: There you go. That’s good.
Laslo: Usually it’s quiet when you guys are away. But this Maine Senate race kind of has the town buzzing.
Pingree: Messing with my recess week, I’ll just say.
Laslo: Right. What did you — did you? I can’t see an endorsement from you. You didn’t endorse him in the primary.
Pingree: I kind of make a practice of never endorsing in primaries, just, you know, I have so many colleagues who run for office and, you know, been in primaries myself. They’re all friends of your friends, so.
Laslo: Yeah?
Pingree: Yeah, I did. I mean, once Janet dropped out of the race, um, I — you know, we had a big state convention after that. And, you know, I was a cheerleader for him. I did an event with him a few weeks ago. So, I mean, it wasn’t — yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t, I wasn’t not — yeah. You know, we’re a big tent and a small crowd in Maine. So we’re all on the same stage together and everything else.
Laslo: Well, no. Yeah. The whole nation for Democrats, the whole nation.
Pingree: Yeah. And it’s not like, you know, does Chris Murphy — did he endorse him or not? This is my state. We’re all Democrats and we were all in. So that’s sort of how it all came down.
Laslo: Do you feel personally lied to or deceived by him?
Pingree: Well, like, you know, like many other people who can say, you know, I mean, I spent time talking to him and said, “Should I expect anything else?” So I’m not the only person who asked that question.
Laslo: Did you ask him that?
Pingree: Yeah. And he said no.
Laslo: So does that make him a liar to you?
Pingree: I don’t know if he was a liar or if he was delusional. If, you know, we’re talking about men and how they interpret things here. I mean, did he think he didn’t do something wrong? I don’t know.
Laslo: Yeah.
Pingree: I mean, at this point it doesn’t matter to me anymore. I feel like most of us had said for a while, look, if there’s sexual assault in here, if — you know, I mean, I think everyone tried to get through the, you know, sexting on his wife and all that. And it’s like, okay, that’s their marriage. People screw s**t up. And obviously there was plenty of stuff. But, um, I think most of us, you could see it was pretty fast and furious when there was a credible allegation of rape and sexual assault. So it doesn’t matter, I think.
Laslo: Are you worried now, though, that — I guess it’s still early — but that the seat’s more at risk now?
Pingree: Yeah. Of course. I mean, you know, I mean we’ve got a good bench. And I think, you know, the people who become delegates to the convention will do a good job trying to pick somebody that they think can win. And obviously, Senator Collins is vulnerable with her association with Donald Trump.
Pingree: But that said, you could be the best rock star on earth and have you run a four-month campaign. It’s just not an easy thing. We all know that. And starting from scratch, you know, on the first of August is just not going to be easy for anybody.
Pingree: And she’s a household name up there, for better and for worse these days. I mean, she’s been in office a very long time. The number of times that we have thought this is the year that the Democrats will win — I was her first opponent, so I’ve been there, done that.
Laslo: Oh, do you?
Pingree: And so, you know, she’s formidable. She’s a tough person to beat. And, you know, she’s now the chair of Appropriations. And if you were up here, you’d be watching ads all day long about the incredible number of earmarks — support to every small town in Maine that needed a fire station or a new water treatment plant or an addition to their school or something.
Pingree: So yeah, there’s — I don’t think there’s anyone who underestimates how difficult this campaign is. The reverse of it is, you know, no one wants to be a Republican right now. No one wants to be tied to Trump.
Laslo: Do you — so are you not going to be a delegate for the convention?
Pingree: No. We don’t have, like, a superdelegate system or anything like that. And literally to be a delegate to the convention, I would have to go to a county committee and run for delegate. And it’s not to say I couldn’t, but I don’t — I mean, I really trust, you know, Mainers are pretty smart, have good common sense.
Pingree: There’ll be a lot of people who really want to engage in this. And I don’t — you know, I can go and watch if I want. But I don’t, you know, I don’t need to. I trust the kind of common wisdom here and that it’ll all work itself out for who’s the best candidate.
Laslo: See, I secretly want the Maine Beer Company guy to win. That’s my bias.
Pingree: Who doesn’t want a beer company guy?
Laslo: And if he — I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Maine, but he has a pretty cool business.
Pingree: It’s a very — well, you know, you probably can drink it.
Laslo: Yeah. See, it’s everywhere, but that’s the one. He also has — 10 years ago, I had it with you on camera at your place.
Pingree: That’s right. Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s right. You got history. You got history with Dan Cleveland.
Laslo: That’s right. Yeah. He has a very cool — their primary site, they’ve got this giant whale skeleton that hangs in their — they’re good people. It’s a good business.
Pingree: You remember my family’s from Yarmouth. We still have old family farm there.
Laslo: Oh, totally forgot that. Totally forgot that.
Pingree: Oh, yeah. So you’re practically — or maybe you need to be a delegate to the convention. Although my number one pitch to people is just like, would you — I mean, and I’m sorry, I don’t mean to, you know, pick on you — but like DC people and out-of-staters, could you just leave us alone for a while?
Pingree: Because, you know, part of the problem is that this race attracted so much attention. And every consultant, every reporter, I mean, everybody’s been in our state, you know, turning this into a very complicated race. And now they all want to, you know, weigh in on the next round of candidates. And I’m just sort of like, leave us the hell alone!
Laslo: Do you hear complaints? I mean, that’s always what Mainers are saying, but especially now.
Pingree: Yeah. You know, if you have a family here. Yeah, yeah.
Laslo: Do you — are you hearing complaints about Schumer, or is it not that specific to the DC swamp?
Pingree: It’s just, you know, it’s funny because I mean outsiders tell us about Schumer and, you know, like, don’t let Schumer put his thumb on the scale and all that. But really what Mainers are more like is just like all the reporters and consultants annoy them.
Laslo: Yeah. Fair. And the progressive — I mean, you know, even like Bernie and Roe, I mean, like, we don’t need you guys.
Pingree: Like, I’m a progressive. You know, I’m fine. I like those guys. But it’s like, we don’t need you in Maine to, like, put your thumb on the scale here.
Laslo: Interesting. Are you worried that some of the progressives won’t come out because he’s so different than, it seems like, most of these other people running? They don’t seem to have that populist appeal that he did, which seemed to be exciting even non-voters again.
Pingree: I think that’s a perception from the outside. I think that if you ask many Democrats, you know, there’s going to be a lot of people who they like in this field. And again, you know, Graham Platner was unique in his kind of deep voice. And he was a good speaker and a smart guy. But, you know, Shenna Bellows and Troy Jackson are, you know, very progressive.
Pingree: I don’t — and I don’t know who else will be in the race. But there’s not a Democrat who will be running in this who will be espousing some sort of conservative points of view. There just won’t be. It’s not where the Democratic Party is right now.
Pingree: And I think, you know, I’ve been talking to a lot of people over the last few days and yeah, they’re disappointed about the end of Platner, but I think they are also — the next thing they say is, “Yeah, but I really want to win. I really want to win.”
Laslo: Interesting.
Pingree: It’s not an election people are going to sit on their hands.
Laslo: And that’s just because of Trump.
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