Last season, Graham Platner – an oystercatcher running for the Democratic nomination for US Senate in Maine – landed himself in hot water, when some of his old Reddit posts, show blaming the victims of sexual violence and calling himself a communist, he came forward. Then, there was a story about Pictures of Nazis tattooed on his chest. He had covered the tattoo. Platner emerged from the scandals unscathed by acknowledging his past and saying he had changed.
At the end of May, however, the Wall Street Journal information that Platner’s wife informed his campaign that he had sent women outside of their marriage on an app called Kik. And last week, the New York Times published reports of Platner’s “disturbing” behavior from former friends.
However, on Tuesday, Platner he won the Democratic Senate primary that will face Republican Senator Susan Collins in the November general election. (As of Tuesday, Platner was running unopposed; his only opponent, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, he suspended his campaign at the end of April.)
As deputy editor of the newspaper Midcoast Villager, Alex Seitz-Wald, a local newspaper based in Camden, Maine, has been tracking Platner’s rapid political rise — and how Mainers of all stripes, the people Platner will have to win over to defeat Collins, feel about it. Seitz-Wald told it Today, It’s Explained co-host Noel King that many people have been affected by the scandal, but are not so confused that they have not yet voted for Platner. He breaks down the playoff results, Platner’s chances this fall, and more.
The following is part of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s a lot more in the full podcast, so take a listen Today, It’s Explained wherever you get your podcasts, incl Apple Podcasts, Pandoraand Spotify.
What do Maine voters think of Graham Platner? You live there; you talk to people. What has been read?
I’ve been talking to Platner’s constituents since he ran as this little-known oyster farmer in August, who no one had heard of, running against a two-term incumbent. And instantly he connected with people and developed this strong relationship; people who really relate to him.
I think that helped him survive that first round of scandals in the summer with his tattoo and the Reddit controversy. Then, with this latest round, these futures definitely hit the difference. They didn’t bend his back like the previous ones. There was much concern; there were many desires. But ultimately, Maine Democrats have been trying to unseat Susan Collins and failing for a long time, and they have tried to run for more traditional candidates and failed. And so, I think they’re willing to take a chance on it.
It seems like a logical calculation that many Maine Democrats are making right now, which is, “We need to beat Susan Collins. The stakes are too high. The Supreme Court, control of the Senate, everything else, and we’re going to put aside any concerns we have with her personal life if she’s our only chance to beat Collins.”
You will know that outside of Maine, there is a lot of speculation about who Graham Platner really is. What are people in Maine speculating about who Graham Platner really is?
Yes, and no. I think there’s been a big disconnect between what I’ve seen and heard on the ground – when I take my daughter to school every day, I pass many Platner Field signs that have been out every day for months – and between the national details, which are usually worse.
I think there are legitimate questions about his past that many Maine Democrats have been asking. But he’s also kind of a familiar guy in Maine, and I think a lot of people felt like they could connect with him, they could relate to him, even if they didn’t know who he really was. I think he also did a really good job of shooting this chip on the shoulder that Maine has about how it’s viewed by the rest of the world.
There’s this concept of: You’re a Mainer, or you’re from far away, and you’re assigned a very Maine number. He was able to use that to say all these attacks from the New York Times or whatever, the outside world, don’t listen to them. Those are people from far away trying to tell us in Maine what to do. And that goes deep into the core of Maine’s psyche.
It is known that Platner’s scandals have been around for a long time. Late May claims – again, I’m in DC, not Maine, and that seemed huge to me. Do you see any volatility after the recent round?
Indeed there is much trembling and much anxiety, much desire.
One voter told me that they were very saddened by it, because they really thought that he was different, that he was not a typical politician and especially the way he responded to that first round of scandals with the Reddit post and the tattoo. He really took ownership. And it was part of this whole redemption arc that he had created about how he was a combat veteran with PTSD and a really dark place. And then, he came home to Maine, got involved in his community and his business, met his current wife, and was a different person. But the latest round of scandals raised the narrative, because he only got married in 2023, and those (sex) came out a few years ago. He wasn’t a young man in his early 20s. And so, I heard a lot of disappointment about that and also a lot of derision from people who thought he was different pushing him back to, “Oh, he’s just a politician like all the others.”
But ultimately, partisanship is such a powerful force, and the stakes are what they are in a race that could tighten control of the Senate, many Democrats will put aside their concerns. But – and this is a big “but” – the thing to watch, I think, heading into November, Susan Collins has a proven ability, almost unique in this day and age, to win over split-ticket voters, to get people to vote for Joe Biden on the ticket and, then, to vote for him. So it may only take a small number of defects to bring things back to the Collins range, especially if there are more revelations yet.
Do you think he can win against Collins?
I think she can win against Susan Collins.
Just to set the bar for a second, I think any Democrat would have a hard time defeating Susan Collins. A lot of people look at Maine – it’s New England, it’s a blue state. We haven’t voted for a Republican president since 1988, so they consider this low-hanging fruit. It’s not true. Susan Collins is a very good politician. So I think this race, no matter who the Democrat was, was always going to be a tough, within margin of error race.
That said, Platner has been able to raise money. He has been able to hold the union together. So far, despite all these scandals, he has not found any fault from the elected officials. He has done this huge number of town halls. This is a small state where retail politics goes a long way and connecting with voters in person can make a difference. And that’s not something Susan Collins does.
In 2020, Democrats ran a clean, well-qualified candidate who raised twice as much money as Susan Collins and still lost by nine percentage points. So I think there’s a desire — almost a sense of necessity — among some Maine Democrats that we should try something different, and there’s a good chance we’re going to lose anyway, so let’s take a flyer on this guy and maybe he can do it.
