Democrats running to replace Platner in key Senate race call for ICE to be 'abolished'

A man dies in a confrontation with federal agents in Biddeford, and within days the leading Democrats vying for a Maine Senate seat are standing in front of a crowd calling to abolish the agency altogether. Not reform. Not investigate first and see what actually happened. Abolish. That's the whole platform now, apparently, before the facts of the shooting are even settled.

This is the same move Democrats made in 2020 with "defund the police," and it went about as well as you'd expect: they got hammered in swing districts and quietly walked it back for years. You'd think losing a winnable Senate race in 2022 would have taught somebody something about running to the left of your own voters on immigration enforcement. Instead here we are again, watching candidates in a genuinely competitive race chase the loudest voices in the room instead of the actual electorate they need to win over.

Mainers are not an especially radical bunch. Plenty of them have real concerns about how ICE operates, and those concerns deserve a hearing. But there's a wide gap between "this agency needs oversight and accountability" and "get rid of it entirely," and candidates who can't see that gap are telling you they'd rather be applauded at a protest than actually elected in November. Abolishing the agency that handles deportations and interior enforcement isn't a policy position, it's a slogan, and slogans don't secure a border or keep track of who's here illegally.

If this is the opening bid in the race to replace Platner, national Republicans should be thrilled. A tragic shooting is a moment for sober questions, not a springboard for the same failed activist talking point Democrats already tried and abandoned once. Voters have long memories, even if candidates don't.