Maine’s Democratic Senate primary intensified Tuesday as Gov. Janet Mills’ campaign launched an attack aimed at rival Graham Platner’s past online remarks, bringing the focus to social-media controversies in the race to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Mills’ campaign released a video in which women read comments Platner previously posted online that were dismissive of sexual assault, according to the advertisement’s narrator and the women’s concluding statements. The ad includes a reference to what it says was a Reddit comment where Platner wrote that people should not “so drunk ‘they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.’”
The video ends with a voice-over stating, “Graham Platner: the closer you look, the worse it gets.” In the advertisement, the women characterize the remarks as bullying and say there is “no way” they could vote for him.
Platner, who is an oyster farmer and U.S. Marine veteran from rural Maine, apologized after the comments first resurfaced months earlier when they were deleted, and he said he posted them while struggling with mental health issues after leaving the military. The remarks resurfacing included endorsements of political violence and other material that raised questions, including dismissing rape in the military and criticizing police officers and rural America, according to the report.
Ben Chin, Platner’s campaign manager, described Mills’ new ad as a “desperate attempt for relevance.” In a statement, Chin said it reflects frustration with a candidate “building an actual movement of working people,” adding that Mills’ campaign has instead “launch[ed] a barrage of attacks to try to tear Graham down.”
Mills’ campaign responded with its own statement saying Platner’s comments show him “minimizing sexual assault and blaming survivors.” The campaign also distributed comments from several Maine women, including Peggy Schaffer of Vassalboro, who said in a statement: “Graham Platner’s comments aren’t just disgusting or disturbing, they are disqualifying.” Schaffer added that the comments make him “unelectable in any general election.”
The exchange also sits within a broader political contest for Democrats that sees Maine as a possible pathway to retake the Senate. The race is between Mills, 78, a Democratic stalwart backed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Platner, 41, who has filled town halls across the state with a populist message centered on the cost of housing and health care and who has picked up endorsements from independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego.
The campaigns’ messaging has already touched on other personal-history issues. The report said Platner has faced questions about a skull-and-crossbones tattoo reminiscent of a Nazi symbol; he said he got the tattoo during a night of drinking and covered it with a different design after saying he was unaware of its Nazi association. Mills, for her part, had posted earlier in the month that “for what it’s worth, I don’t have any tattoos.”
As Mills released her attack, Platner also put out an advertisement Tuesday featuring an endorsement from a Maine woman named Susan Collins who is unrelated to the Republican senator. Collins described the senator as a “D.C. insider” and said Platner is a “Democrat with backbone,” while the report said the Collins campaign declined to comment on the competing ads or on the argument between Platner and Mills.
The report said Democrats need to net four seats to retake the Senate majority, and they view Maine, North Carolina, Alaska and Ohio as part of that path.