ELLSWORTH, Maine (AP) — In another world, the revelation of a questionable social media post, a tattoo that closely resembles a Nazi symbol and a sudden change in campaign staff would have been enough to sink any political candidate.
but graham platnerDemocrats are not backing down as they seek to flip the Maine Senate seat in a crucial 2026 race.
The plain-spoken oyster farmer and combat veteran has been open about his past mistakes and his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. He believes voters want to see a new Democratic face that will fight for them, and believes the old political rules of heavily vetted candidates and civility no longer apply.
There is reason to believe he may be right. Republican Donald Trump was elected president last year as a convicted felon. And last week, Virginia voters supported Jay Jones for attorney general, even after it became public that the Democrat sent text messages calling for violence against political opponents.
Platner is convinced him that his brand was brash populism. And what it takes to oust the Republican Party is a demand for economic equality. senator susan collinsHe is a fifth-term incumbent, and his seat could be crucial to Democrats’ hopes of taking back the Senate in 2026. First he needs to win the Democratic nomination, which won’t be easy since Gov. Janet Mills is also running.
“I don’t do this job because I want power, I don’t want influence, I don’t want money,” Platner said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I’m doing it because we need better politics. I’m fully committed to that project.”
Roots in Maine, many years of work overseas
Platner, 41, grew up in Sullivan, a small town about 270 miles up the coast from Portland, the son of a lawyer father and a restaurant owner mother who divorced when he was young.
“We raised our children with strong values and beliefs, and we believe Graham still has them,” his mother Leslie Harlow said in a speech on behalf of her son. “I know that Graham was always a child, a young man, a man who made his own path.”
He attended Hotchkiss School, an expensive prep school in Connecticut, but said he was quickly expelled his freshman year because of behavioral issues and difficulty adjusting.
Platner eventually graduated from a Catholic high school in Bangor and then joined the military, serving three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
Platner says he struggled to reintegrate into civilian life after returning home, but emphasizes that his redemption story was made possible by a stable family and work life. He and his wife, Amy, married last year and live in their hometown with their dog. One of them, Zevon, is named after one of his sources of inspiration, singer Warren Zevon.
A photo of him and Amy hangs in his house, not far from the boat launch near his oyster farm. In the garden, oyster cages, boat motors, and buoys are spread out on the lawn, and piles of oyster shells are nearly shoulder-high.
This is the life that Platner has fought against demons to live. But he is prepared to obstruct it in order to win a seat in the Senate.
“I’m here to see the political system completely fail my community, and it was my responsibility to do that,” Plattner said.
The past revealed through the trajectory of election activities
Platner said he was disillusioned when he returned home from service to see neighbors suffering from PTSD and overwhelmed with housing and medical bills.
He turned to the online forum Reddit, where he picked fights online and left widespread inflammatory comments. Mr. Platner deleted the documents, but they have since resurfaced and show him supporting political violence, denying rape in the military, and criticizing police officers and rural America.
He apologized for comments he posted between 2013 and 2021, but said he is not ashamed of who he was back then.
However, after the first wave in October, many more old Reddit posts emerged, some of which used derogatory terms for women and people with disabilities. The second wave of posts kept his rough style but showed strong opposition to what he saw as racism and sexism, and the rise of fascism.
“If you believe in the politics of change – and I do – you have to believe in the power of people to change,” he said in an online meeting with supporters in early November.
I also have tattoos.
About 20 years ago, Platner got a skull and crossbones tattoo on his chest after drinking with some Marines while on vacation.
The statue was later revealed to be a Totenkopf, a symbol of Hitler’s paramilitary organization Schutzstaffel (SS), which was responsible for the systematic murder of millions of Jews and others in Europe during World War II.
Similar to his post on Reddit, Platner has been candid about how and why he got the tattoo, and has maintained that he didn’t know what the image meant until someone pointed it out to him during the campaign.
The nomination battle is fierce
Democrats are currently looking for ways to regain the Senate majority next year. That means turning attention to Maine, the home state of Mr. Collins, New England’s only remaining Republican senator.
But it remains unclear which Democratic candidate will lead this fight in a state known as “Vacationland.”
governor Janet Mills The 77-year-old longtime state politician entered the race with the warm embrace of Washington, D.C., Democratic Party elite leaders and advocacy groups. Mr. Platner bills himself as a candidate who represents the new face of the Democratic Party.
A representative for Mr. Collins declined to comment on Mr. Platner’s campaign. Mills’ campaign said in a statement that Mills “will be a relentless champion for Maine people in the U.S. Senate, and that’s why Maine people will send her to the Senate next year.” Both Mr. Collins and Mr. Mills have criticized Mr. Platner’s past actions.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin recently told Fox News Sunday that it’s up to voters to decide, and that “we’ll fight like hell no matter who they send.”
Mr. Platner was a political unknown before running for office, but there are signs that he is campaigning as a professional. Employee turnover is also high, including political director and former state representative Genevieve MacDonald. McDonald cited the Reddit post as the reason for his resignation.
“I was not aware of these statements when I agreed to participate in my campaign. These are not the words or values I can stand for as a candidate for the United States Senate,” McDonald said in a public letter.
The campaign required staff to sign non-disclosure agreements, which Platner defended as standard for high-stakes campaigns. However, this practice came as other staff members, including the finance director and director of finance, left the camp. Separately, his campaign manager resigned just four days after accepting the position after learning his wife was pregnant.
Platner dismissed concerns about staff turnover as part of the campaign’s growing pains. Rather, he says, his background, evolution, and even mistakes are what voters are looking for.
“People are angry here in Maine,” he said. “They are dissatisfied and disillusioned. They see a political system that is not in their interest.”
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Krusi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
