Graham Platner’s landslide victory in Maine means that Democrats will have their official candidate in a race that is crucial to their hopes of retaking the Senate.
But Platner is no ordinary Democratic nominee. For both personal and political reasons, his candidacy has drawn national attention and become the most covered race to happen this year.
That’s because Graham Platner is many things, and more people than just Maine have strong opinions about those things.
First of all, he is definitely a new (bearded) face for the party – a 41-year-old politician who has never run for anything before, who has worked as an oyster farmer, who did three tours in Iraq with the Marines and also served in Afghanistan, and who presents himself as a tough guy. They are there problems for Platner’s working-class credentials (he attended prep school and is dependent on wealthy parents), but still, if he does well in November, it could strengthen the case for more outsiders who don’t fit the typical mold of a candidate.
At the same time, Platner is a player in a fierce factional conflict within the Democratic Party, where he aligns himself with a left-wing socialist group that is trying to replace the existing establishment. Many strong opinions about him from national figures, pro and con, come from people on both sides of the struggle.
And finally, there’s his messy personal history — a Nazi skull tattoo, lewd Reddit posts, fragile past relationships, to drinkand send sex to other women being married. A new round of these reports in recent weeks has increased the fears of Democrats about his chances in the general election – and even opened. discussion about if he can still be replaced on the ballot if more scandals emerge.
In the midst of a year in which President Donald Trump is deeply unpopular and the nation’s blue tide is rising, the primary levels of allies in control of the Senate may be more important than any of these specific aspects of the candidate.
Yet Platner’s passion means his performance could have real implications for politics going forward — for Democrats’ caucuses, what kinds of candidates are being recruited to run, and what scandals are discrediting them these days.
Platner, a leftist activist and foreign politician
Platner’s candidacy came about because several leftists actors and organizers hire him in the race and is run his campaign. Fans of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and democratic socialism, want radical politics to fight the oligarchy, and see ordinary Democrats as useless puppets. In recent years, opposition to Israel has risen to the top of their priorities as well.
In the past decade, this left-wing group has powered Sanders through two presidential primaries, brought “The Force” into the House of Representatives, and elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani – whose chief strategist, Morris Katzalso belongs to Platner. They have also helped pull the Democratic Party in their general direction on issues, including over Israel.
What they haven’t done is beat a Republican in a high-profile general election — like this one, against five-term Sen. Susan Collins. And these activists’ choice of an inexperienced outsider in Platner defies the conventional wisdom of who might win such a race.
Party leaders prefer to nominate politicians with a proven track record of electoral success. That’s what they’ve done in other key Senate races like North Carolina, Ohio, and Alaska. And so they are tried to do in Maineby actively recruiting two-term Governor Janet Mills to run – but the race eluded them.
Mills was a 78-year-old two-term governor whose popularity it was going down and who ran away low energy campaign after running for several months on such a run. Platner was about four decades younger, an outsider, and promised to take on the establishment on both sides. There were elements of class and gender politics to her appeal, too — there’s been a lot of writing in recent years about whether Democrats have lost the ability to connect with the working class and men in general.
Platner’s campaign caught fire, became a viral phenomenon, and he collected such poll leader that Mills suspended his campaign in April, making Tuesday’s primary largely routine.
He clearly appealed to Maine Democratic voters, going beyond his base of support among Bernie supporters.
“He’s taken positions on the far left of the party, but I think more important than that has been his character and his attitude,” Mark Brewer, a political scientist at the University of Maine, told me. “He’s a challenger, he’s not politics as usual, he’s going to take a hammer to the establishment. I think for a lot of Democrats in Maine, and across the country, that’s the kind of situation they’re in.”
Platner’s negative personal history raises concerns about his position
Yet the latest round of spotlighting on the Platner scandal in recent weeks has also drawn attention to some of the dangers of nominating a lesser-known outsider — and prompted finger-pointing by Democrats at left-wing activists who, they fear, have risked swinging a winnable election.
Platner survived the first round of such scandals late last year, almost his tattoo – a picture of a skull and bones used by the Nazis – and dirty reddit posts. He claimed he didn’t know the tattoo was a Nazi symbol, but admitted to having a troubled past and said he changed after overcoming a severe bout of PTSD.
His critics claimed that the tattoo should be on his face, taking away from the reputation and expressed doubts that he just discovered its meaning. at the end of last year; defenders argued that its long obscure publishing history did not include any signs of Nazi sympathies. More broadly, many of Platner’s supporters have argued that the party needs to tolerate a messier profile if they want candidates who can connect with ordinary people.
As Mills’ exit from the race indicated, Democratic primary voters initially seemed to accept Platner’s explanation. But recent reports have again revived debates about his character and his electability: The The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Platner’s wife discovered sex texts with other women on his phone just last year – not so long ago. She has stood by Platner and said they worked through the issues in their marriage.
A moment later he came A New York Times report about what the magazine saw as his “disturbing” behavior in certain past relationships – such as sexual comments and, one ex claimed, twisting his arm and trapping him in the room during arguments. (Platner has denied this and said the ex’s claims are politically motivated; he has worked for conservative political groups.)
Naturally, there are fears among Democrats that the worst could happen – memories of Eric Swalwell’s hasty exit from the California gubernatorial race after several women. accused him of sexual misconduct they are still fresh.
But, so far, the allegations against Platner have not risen to that level, and Platner’s prominent endorsers, like Sandersthey are standing next to him. (“There are no saints in the United States Senate,” Sanders He said on Monday(maintaining that Platner had “the audacity to take on the big money that runs the country.”) And although Mills noted before Tuesday’s election that he was still on the ballot, he. he refused to restart his official campaign.
Even if party leaders wanted to fire him, it’s hard to see how they could – he owes them nothing. Only a collapse in his support among Maine voters could fuel that, and the thin early polling shows it tightens race but not the turn of decisions against him.
If Platner ends up losing this race — and especially if Democrats fail to take the Senate because of it — party leaders will blame leftists, arguing that they should be completely discredited. (Just look at X’s feed Neera Tandena senior figure in several Democratic administrations, who has recently responded to Platner’s bad news and to point out fingers to the activists who signed him up in the race.) More generally, primary voters may again be more concerned about nominating unconventional, untested, or controversial candidates in battleground races.
On the contrary, if Platner wins, it will be another victory for an upstart group that is trying to rebuild the Democratic Party — and another sign that traditional credentialed, endorsed Democratic candidates need to watch their backs.
