Copyright The Boston Globe
When Platner lamented, “I’m running as a Democrat still, despite the fact my party is destroying my life,” sympathetic laughter echoed through the room. Platner also didn’t need to spell out why this moment felt more like a beginning than an end of something — not, at least, to this crowd. More than 700 showed up for his speech that Monday. Many aren’t committed to supporting him yet but were eager to check him out. Others were more resolved than ever to support him in next year’s primary election over his main rival, Governor Janet Mills, who is being openly backed by Senate Democratic leadership in Washington. The involvement of the national party — and the perception among Maine Democrats that they are not only boosting Mills but damaging Platner — has inflamed what was already brewing, not just in Maine but in many other states in this fraught political moment: a sharp backlash against the establishment and a desire for drastic change from Democratic politics as usual. A wide swath of Democrats in Maine believe that sentiment is powerful enough to help Platner not only overcome his inexperience as an untested, first-time candidate, but a career’s worth of political turmoil in one month as well. But some also believe only Platner, perhaps, can harness the mood of the moment: a gruff, goateed ex-Marine with an everyman vibe, but with the politics of Bernie Sanders and an ability to talk directly to voters while coming across as unpolished and authentic. Tuesday evening, the Globe spoke with a group of eight engaged local Democrats and left-leaning independents in Rockland, some with experience in elected office and public advocacy. Seven said they would vote for Platner if the primary were held now. “I think we’re in an unprecedented time,” said Andy O’Brien, a top adviser for the Maine AFL-CIO. “There’s a sense that there’s a big change afoot, and I think that Graham can pull it off.” Many Democrats, of course, see it differently. Perhaps Platner could beat Mills in a primary, the thinking goes, but Collins, the Republican incumbent who has survived numerous challenges before, would feast on his checkered record and trounce him in the general election, depriving Democrats of their best opportunity to pick up a Senate seat in 2026. That concern is also what’s driving national Democrats’ embrace of Mills, a tested candidate who has twice won statewide. In response to an inquiry from the Globe, Mills spokesperson Scott Ogden said the governor “is the only Democrat in this race who has stood up to Donald Trump, who is a battle-tested winner, and who has delivered real results for working Maine families,” mentioning her actions improving health care access and guaranteeing free school meals and community college. But, some Democrats are already wary of what might happen in a Platner race against Collins. “We should not be having a debate about Nazi symbolism tattooed on the potentially top ticket Democrat in Maine,” Genevieve McDonald, Platner’s former political director, who resigned after the Nazi tattoo came to light, wrote on social media. “The fact we are even willing to entertain it shows desperation within the Party, not dedication, and how far we have fallen from rational thought.” Since her departure, other high-profile aides have also left. Hours before the town hall, news broke that campaign manager Kevin Brown was leaving — four days after taking the role. (Platner said that Brown, a friend, had decided against the job due to his wife’s pregnancy.) And on Friday, Platner’s national finance director announced on LinkedIn he was leaving, saying his “professional standards” were “no longer aligned” with those of the campaign. The energy at Platner’s events can overshadow the considerable work he still has to do to build a coalition. At the event at Great Salt Bay Community School, Sean Ryan, a museum specialist from Georgetown, said, “I’m here to really see what’s up and give him a chance.” But Ryan was particularly skeptical of Platner’s insistence he was unaware the tattoo on his chest resembled the “death’s head” associated with the Nazi SS, given his apparent familiarity with political and military history. Planter has said he got inked while in the military at age 22, was on leave in Croatia, and was drunk. “I honestly find it hard to believe,” Ryan said, that a “history buff” such as Platner is “not aware of what’s on his chest for the last 20 years.” In an interview with the Globe, Platner said he saw the tattoo as a “reflection of my military service.” “I mean, I am a military history buff, and I have seen all kinds of this very similar-looking skull and crossbones on, frankly, military units going back centuries,” he said. “I’ve had it for 20 years, and it’s never come up in this context.” (He has since gotten the tattoo covered with another design.) Even Platner’s admirers seem almost braced for more damaging information to come out. Jenna Campbell, a data analyst from Bath who wanted to “hear what he has to say” Monday, noted that while “nobody’s perfect,” she suggested she might not support Platner if the hits keep coming. With the primary eight months away, the pivotal challenge for Platner does not seem to be whether he can survive the initial onslaught; he seems to have, for now. It’s whether he can persuade enough Maine voters of all stripes to not only overlook his more controversial comments, but also buy into his populist message of radical change. (A third candidate, former congressional aide Jordan Wood, has raised considerable money but was polling in the low single digits when the first string of Platner revelations dropped.) Platner told the Globe he expects more negative stories because his opponents “don’t want this campaign to be about what I want it to be about.” For voters concerned about additional revelations, his message is, “I am right now exactly who I was three weeks ago.” “If I start to change who I am today, if I start walking back my values and my politics now, then I would say absolutely, hold me to account on that,” he said. “But if somebody just, like, finds another internet comment that I made in 2013, I just hope people don’t think that’s a reflection of me changing now, because that was the person I changed from.” Platner acknowledged his past comments and other controversies come with the territory of running for office. But he believes there is a more painful dimension that makes the attacks feel personally destructive. “The reason I struggled, the reason I was on the internet looking for answers and getting angry at people. The reason I had a skull and crossbones tattoo is because I was a combat infantryman who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “There is an element of this that I just can’t help but yeah, I mean, take a little bit personally.” “Look, I know it’s a dirty game,” Platner added. “I also know that I am trying to do politics in an extremely different way. That’s why I’m just going to continue doing what we’re doing.” The sense that Platner is authentically himself is what endears him to many supporters. That many feel he is being candid about his past, including apologizing for those comments and casting them as part of his overall growth as an adult, deepens the appeal. That’s true even for skeptics. Deb Bailey, the lone Rockland Democrat out of eight who did not say she would vote for Platner right now, said the tattoo was “hard to swallow.” But she added she is open to supporting him, and certainly would if he were the nominee against Collins. “One of the things I like about Graham is his honesty about what happened to him, getting the help … he needed that, and he’s kind of come through that,” she said. (“I did take my sign out of the yard, though,” Bailey said.) If anything, Platner told the Globe, his campaign events feel different now after the raft of negative stories because of the “feeling of support” from crowds. “That’s something that’s been really kind of overwhelming for me emotionally, as I’ve gone through all of this over the past couple of weeks,” he said. “Just the amount of people that come to these things now, and they just yell nice things at me… It’s really heartwarming for me.” Some Democrats, such as the ones in Rockland talking through the race last week, believe Platner’s unpolished demeanor and past comments might help win back working-class male voters whom the party has lost in past election cycles. “Working with union members, our blue collar dudes… we’ve lost a lot of those people to Trump,” O’Brien, the AFL-CIO advisor, said. “And Graham could get them back,” added Valli Geiger, the Democratic state representative for Rockland. It echoes hopes that some on the left have long held about the appeal of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who endorsed Platner early in the campaign and has continued to defend him amid the negative stories. (Platner told the Globe Sanders has called to offer advice, which he characterized as, “keep going, and… remember why it is we’re in this.”) Some in Maine are already worried about an acrimonious primary that could tear the party apart — not unlike Sanders and Hillary Clinton’s fight for the presidential nomination in 2016, a parallel several voters invoked with concern. But Platner supporters expressed admiration for Mills, whose politics they may not precisely love but whose experience and toughness they respect. Mills, Geiger said, is a “formidable opponent” and has been “a formidable opponent of [President] Trump’s trampling of law and Constitution. Just for me, it’s not enough.” Maine Democratic voters will have time to decide what, exactly, is enough as they weigh their choices in a primary with national implications. But several voters on hand in Damariscotta already knew what it is they’re looking for. “We need something to believe in,” said Mike Barnes, a retired Army serviceman. “And right now, he is the man.”
