Graham Platner met with Democratic leaders in Washington DC on Tuesday as the embattled Maine Senate candidate contends with yet another revelation threatening his campaign, which is at the center of his party's hopes of regaining control of Congress. Platner did not respond to questions from reporters and quickly entered a waiting car as he exited the meeting, which stretched for more than an hour and a half at the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). A spokesperson for the DSCC did not respond to a request for comment.
Platner's Tumultuous Campaign
Platner's campaign has been captivating and tumultuous in turns before the 9 June primary. A political unknown before 2025, the Maine oyster fisher and marine combat veteran's plainspoken progressive pitch to voters resonated on social media and sparked conversation about the way Democratic candidates should position themselves against authoritarianism. His public appeal, polling numbers and considerable fundraising power earned the endorsement of senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ruben Gallego and other progressive stalwarts. Platner's rise sidelined the Democratic Maine governor Janet Mills's campaign to unseat Republican senator Susan Collins, who is running for a sixth term. Democrats must net four seats to win control of the Senate, and Collins is the sole Republican up for re-election who represents a state Kamala Harris won two years ago.
Personal Conduct Raises Questions
However, Platner's personal conduct has raised questions about his character and electoral chances in November. Platner exchanged sexually explicit texts with other women during his marriage, according to information his wife shared with his campaign last year, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported, and which the Guardian has confirmed. Journalists learned of the texts from the campaign's former political director Genevieve McDonald, who obtained them from Amy Gertner, Platner's wife, in the common process of proactive opposition research. The Platner campaign released a statement from Gertner, in which she said she had been "deeply hurt" by McDonald's action.
"I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend," she said. "I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives – the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our mind."
Past Indiscretions Surface
The incident, however, built on other findings of past indiscretions. Reddit posts from 2013 to 2021 – from when Platner was aged 24 to 37 – resurfaced in October, in which he claimed to be a "communist", labelled white, rural Americans "stupid" and "racist", and called police officers "bastards". In these posts, Platner used anti LGBTQ+ slurs, questioned why "Black people didn't tip" and said that survivors and victims of sexual assault should "take some responsibility for themselves and not get so fucked up".
All of this was before he told the hosts of Pod Save America that as a marine stationed in Croatia, he went drinking one night and got a tattoo of a skull and crossbones in a design resembling the Totenkopf, an emblem that was used by the Nazi Schutzstaffel. He has since had the tattoo covered up, and said he only recently understood its meaning. Platner gave a direct-to-camera mea culpa and has spoken regularly about this conduct since, describing himself as imperfect and his comments as the product of post-traumatic stress disorder from his harrowing military service in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I witnessed violence and horror at a scale that I was not quite prepared for, all in the service of something that I now believe was pointless," he said.
Democratic Voters Nervous
On Monday, Mills informed reporters that while her campaign had been suspended, her name still remained on the ballot. After the controversy that plagued the early months of Platner's campaign, some Democratic voters in Maine have been nervous about more scandal that could have the potential to end his Senate bid. During a late-April town hall in Sabattus – before news broke of his sexually explicit messages to several women – voters directly asked the presumptive nominee whether he had any remaining controversies to address.
"Is there anything you need to share with us?" Carolyn Greeley, 68, asked Platner during the event. He assured those gathered at the town's American Legion that there was nothing left for rivals to uncover. "I'm just asking, is there anything from your past that they can dig up on a woman – that maybe no didn't mean no at the time?" Greeley pressed. "Is she going to come forward and say: 'I was so drunk I didn't know what I was doing.'" Platner was resolute. "No," he said. "I've gone on dates, I've had girlfriends, I've gone through life. I have relationships that have ended. I have one relationship that didn't." Greeley later told the Guardian that she was "really afraid for [Platner]" and what opposition research might come out down the line.
