Elizabeth Warren endorses Graham Platner in Maine Senate race

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has endorsed oyster farmer Graham Platner in the race for Senate in Maine.

Platner, a progressive candidate facing off against Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary, has racked up a string of endorsements from fellow progressives in the party.

The winner of the primary will likely take on Sen. Susan Collins in the general election. Collins is a moderate Republican who has held the seat since 1997 and fended off tough challenges in the past.

"Graham Platner is going to flip Maine and then actually deliver change for working people in the Senate," Warren, of Massachusetts, said in a press release announcing her endorsement. "He’s a combat veteran, an oyster farmer, and has inspired people with his populist agenda for a government on the side of working families––not the billionaires and giant corporations."

In a statement, Platner called it an "honor" to receive Warren's endorsement.

"She’s been an inspiration and I look forward to working by her side in the Senate to take on Wall Street, monopolies, and the corruption in Washington," he said in a statement.

For her part, Mills has also received endorsements from notable Democrats, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. Mills is backed by the Democratic establishment. She has served as governor since 2019 and as Maine Attorney General before that.

Platner, on the other hand, is running an upstart campaign after limited work in public office and politics. He has drawn large crowds at rallies and has polled higher than Mills in early surveys.

The Democratic Party, which lost major ground in Congress in the 2024 election, is facing some pressure from within to bring in new, younger candidates as they look to make gains in the midterms. Platner, who is 41, is more than three decades younger than Mills.

Platner's early successes came despite controversies in the beginning of his campaign. In October, images surfaced showing Platner with a tattoo of a skull and crossbones widely recognized as a Nazi symbol. He has since gotten the tattoo covered up, and said he did not know what the symbol was at the time he got it.

The tattoo revelation came shortly after old social media posts resurfaced that showed Platner disparaging Black people, police officers and rural America, and dismissing concerns about rape in the military. Platner apologized for the comments in a video, and said “I see someone I don’t recognize.”

Mills' campaign used these old postings against Platner in an attack ad released this week, where women react on camera to the statements in Platner's postings.