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 “DC establishment.”

“I’m glad that Graham Platner has ended his campaign. For too long, this race has not been about Susan Collins’ repeated failures to do what’s right for Maine. We need to get back to that,” Kleban said in a statement Wednesday night. “Mainers deserve a senator who will fight for them against the DC establishment while also doing what’s right. I plan to be that senator.”

Kleban announced he was jumping back into the race in a post on Substack hours before Platner released a video saying he was suspending campaign operations. Kleban said in an interview on CNN Wednesday night that he “would not” take Platner’s endorsement if it was offered.

He also said the truncated nominating process the Maine Democratic Party will undertake to replace Plater is “not a perfect proxy for a full primary,” but that Maine voters “deserve a fair and open process that’s free of meddling from anyone from D.C. or New York.”

Kleban sought to position himself as the candidate to carry Platner’s movement forward and echoed the now-former nominee by decrying a system that’s “rigged against working-class folks.” He also said he would not vote for Chuck Schumer as Senate Democratic leader.

But Kleban stopped short of embracing Platner’s stance on Israel. When asked by CNN if he would categorize the war in Gaza as a “genocide,” Kleban did not repeat the term, instead calling it an “absolute tragedy” and saying he would condition arms sales to Israel.

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