A year ago, Graham Platner was a harbourmaster in a Maine fishing town and chaired the local planning board on the side. Today, he is a Democratic Senate nominee in a race the party sees as central to retaking control of the chamber — and the man several of senior figures are now publicly demanding step aside, after a woman accused him of sexual assault.
Platner, 41, lives in Sullivan, a small coastal town in Maine, where he farms oysters. He served multiple tours in the Marine Corps in West Asia and has said he returned from war angry and lost. That time, he told MS NOW, was “a pretty dark period”, though he spent time reading and rebuilding his life.
Politics, he said, was never the plan. Local organisers approached him after a video of him discussing fishing issues circulated, according to The New York Times.
“Until recently, I thought that harbormaster would be the height of my political career,” he said after winning the primary.
THE RISE
Backing universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy and a higher minimum wage, Platner tells his supporters “there is no metric of hard work that justifies a billionaire when people in eastern Maine work three jobs just to put food on the table”.
The 41-year-old, who drew the backing of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, beat the Democratic establishment’s chosen candidate after Governor Janet Mills dropped out over fundraising troubles.
He won roughly 72% of the primary vote, according to NBC News, and set up a November contest against Susan Collins, in the Senate since 1996, whom he has called “as spineless and corrupt as the establishment she now serves”. Voters drawn to him see an outsider, a veteran and an oysterman who would bring change to Washington.
THE PAST
But Platner’s campaign has been shadowed by his own past.
A chest tattoo resembling the Nazi Totenkopf symbol surfaced during the campaign. He said he got it in Croatia in 2007 while drinking with fellow Marines and did not know its meaning at the time, BBC reported. He later covered up the tattoo when he found out what it meant, he said, though a former girlfriend has disputed that timeline, saying he knew earlier.
Old Reddit posts of Platner too resurfaced. Among the controversial ones was a post that said sexual assault victims should “take some responsibility for themselves” and that women should avoid getting so intoxicated.
He has since apologised, saying: “Maine, I am asking you not to judge me for the worst thing I said on the internet, on my worst day 14 years ago, but who I am today and the kind of senator I promise to be.”
The Wall Street Journal separately reported, and Platner confirmed, that he had exchanged sexually explicit messages with women outside his marriage. “At the beginning of our marriage, I made mistakes, and Amy held me accountable for them,” he was quoted as saying by BBC. His wife has said the marriage is “stronger than ever before”, NYT reported.
Just before the primary, three former girlfriends told The New York Times that his past relationships had been volatile and toxic. One alleged he twisted her arm, pushed her into a bedroom and blocked the door.
Platner denied this, saying: “Any allegations that I had behaved violently toward a girlfriend were simply not true,” he told NYT. On MS NOW, he called the account “the statements of someone who is politically motivated”.
Also read: Who is Jenny Racicot? Woman alleges Graham Platner sexually assaulted her; details surface
Through all of this, Veterans for Responsible Leadership have stood by him. “We believe in the power of redemption and we believe that people can grow and change if they take full accountability for their past mistakes, and Graham has done that so far,” the group’s executive director Scott Peoples said, according to Military.com.
Others argue that Platner did “dumb things” but that was part of what made him appealing to voters who were tired of the political establishment.
LATEST ALLEGATIONS
Platner’s ex-girlfriend told Politico that Platner entered her home in 2021 after she had told him she did not want visitors, and sexually assaulted her.
Platner denied the charge in a video statement, saying: “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious and false allegations against me. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he was “mindful the political reality it will inflict” and was “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to and the goal of defeating Susan Collins”.
The response from his own party has been swift and largely unified against him. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand called the allegations “incredibly disturbing”, adding that “violence, abuse and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable”.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said it would not fund the race if he stays on the ballot.
Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Elissa Slotkin have called for him to step aside, and other Democrats withdrew their endorsements of his candidacy. The Maine Democratic Party formally called on him to withdraw, saying that “multiple women have made serious, credible allegations against Graham Platner”.
If Platner steps aside before July 13, Democrats can still replace him on the ballot. If he does not, his name remains, and Maine Democrats will have to decide whether to fight the Senate’s most competitive race with a nominee much of Washington has already abandoned.
