There are lots of questions about Graham Platner, and in Maine’s Senate primary campaign, some of those questions are now being delivered as part of his outreach. At a community center in Kittery, the emcee asked supporters a trivia question about “the nature of the controversy of Graham’s tattoo he received while in the Marines,” and the answer given during the game was that it “was claimed to be a Neo-Nazi tattoo (totenkopf).”
The event was staged as an organizer-led night for Platner’s supporters, with people watching and answering along as Dropkick Murphys played and participants drank soda and ate cookies. Beth Knight, a 63-year-old teacher who attended, said she believes in what her ticket called Platner’s ability to move on from past mistakes. “Graham Platner’s campaign gave me a place to put my energy in a positive way,” Knight said, adding, “I believe he has a true redemption story.”
That effort to make Platner’s past part of the campaign’s story is unfolding as the June 9 Democratic primary becomes the next stage of the contest. Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and military veteran, is set to face Gov. Janet Mills, with the winner advancing to face five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Mills is backed by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, according to the report, and other Democrats argue it is too risky to support an untested candidate, particularly in a state whose voters are often drawn to moderates.
Supporters of Platner describe a campaign that repeatedly puts the candidate in small-group settings rather than relying on broad messages alone. Megan Smith, a community organizer with the Maine People’s Alliance, said Platner is bringing “an energy of wanting to create something in this race, win or lose” and is trying to build “a lasting connection in communities where people can get together and can actually talk to their neighbors face to face again.” The report said that alongside traditional canvassing and phone-banking training, the campaign has held happy hours at breweries and other community activities as well as events for No Kings protests.
The outreach appears designed not only to attract attention but also to keep Platner’s name in circulation as he travels statewide. On the same night as the Kittery trivia event, the report said Platner was more than 350 miles away at a town hall in Fort Kent in the far north of Maine. Campaign volunteers and attendees seemed to know details about a candidate who, as the report put it, was “practically unknown just last year,” including prompts about a dog’s name and a bar where he once worked in Washington.
Even as Platner emphasizes affordability issues such as housing and health care, the campaign has also faced sustained scrutiny over personal and political history. The report said Platner has been dogged by questions about a skull-and-crossbones tattoo he said he received while on military leave in Croatia, which critics have said resembles a Nazi symbol; Platner has maintained he did not know the image was associated with Nazis and has since covered it with a different design. The report also cited questions about inflammatory comments in old online postings that Platner has since disavowed, and it said he has been questioned for being a guest on a podcast hosted by Nate Cornacchia, a retired Green Beret who has been accused of antisemitism.
As the primary nears, the report said spending and scrutiny are ramping up. It reported that since entering the race in August, Platner has spent $4.8 million on advertising compared with Mills’ $1.5 million, according to AdImpact. The report also said Mills recently released a video featuring women reading some of Platner’s older social media posts that were described as dismissive of sexual assault.
Platner’s supporters say the increased focus is not likely to derail the campaign’s message. They argue Democrats are more willing to elect someone who is honest about mistakes if the candidate shows effort to demonstrate change, and the report quoted Sen. Martin Heinrich saying: “In this environment, you know, where we have people like Donald Trump in public office who have done terrible things, there is more appetite in the Democratic Party to have people that are not just purely polished and have been on an election track their whole lives.”
At the same time, Mills and Collins’ campaigns pushed back on the idea that Platner is more accessible. Mills campaign spokesperson Tommy Garcia said, “As the only Democrat to have won statewide in 20 years, voters trust Janet Mills, they know she is the only candidate who has delivered progress for Maine people, and they see her leading our state every single day,” while Collins spokesperson Blake Kernen said that “town halls are often organized by partisan or dark money groups” and that Collins “prefers smaller group meetings, rather than holding town halls where very few people get to speak, and the level of civility is often not that high.”
Even with support efforts that emphasize personal conversation, the report said Platner still has to overcome historical precedent in Maine Democratic primaries. Michael Franz, a government professor at Bowdoin College, said there has been “an inclination of Democratic primary voters in Maine to pick the known candidate,” often an older candidate who has been in office. Franz described Platner as “a high-risk, high-reward type of candidate,” adding that he “might end up being the new national figure that captures everyone’s attention if he’s elected to the Senate,” or “he might just be the candidate that everyone thought could come out of nowhere but ended up only getting 42% of the vote.”