Despite latest scandal, Graham Platner is poised to win Maine Senate primary

With his U.S. Senate campaign beset by scandal once again — this time over sexting with a number of women while married — Graham Platner still appears poised to win next week's Democratic primary election in Maine.

A number of senior Democrats across the country are standing by Platner, an oyster farmer who gained significant momentum early in the race, and the party's only chance of taking on Republican Susan Collins.

"We got a housing crisis. People can’t afford healthcare, they can’t afford groceries, they can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks," Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters Monday on Capitol Hill. "I think it’s important for us to focus on the issues facing working families a little bit more than Graham Platner’s marriage.”

Sanders had rallied with Platner in Portland on Memorial Day, promising to bring a "political revolution" to America. This week he said, "We should be focusing on the crises facing the working class and electing people of the guts to stand up to the oligarchs who control our country."

A spokesperson for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told WBUR that she, too, continues to support Platner, despite the latest controversy.

The senators' statements of support followed reports by The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal that the progressive Democrat and military veteran sent sexually explicit texts to at least six women early in his 2023 marriage to his wife, Amy Gertner.

“Amy and I went through something hard — because of me,” Platner said in a statement. “We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day. I’ve learned throughout this campaign that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids."

In a recorded statement posted on X, Gertner expressed support for her husband, calling it "shameful behavior to spend time and energy and resources on negative ads and negative stories on Graham when all he's trying to do do is to improve the lives of people who work for a living.”

“People don’t care about gossip," Gertner said.

The recent revelations followed earlier controversies about unearthed Reddit posts and a tattoo on Platner's chest that resembled a Nazi symbol. Responding to criticism over those issues and old social media posts, Platner said he'd struggled with PTSD after multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he's now a different man.

"The ability to change is just kind of a normal, human trait," Platner told NPR this week in an interview before the texts were publicized, expressing confidence that voters in Maine know who he is, "warts and all."

But the sexting revelations have brought new turmoil for Platner's campaign. For Democrats, it's hard to overstate the importance of this race. Their most viable route to retake the Senate in November begins in Maine, where Platner had ignited a wave of excitement in his bid to oust Collins. But he is clearly testing the tolerance for scandal among some Democrats — even in the age of Donald Trump.

Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey said on ABC this past weekend that he has "concerns" about Platner. And speaking to CNN last week, Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss went further, sticking to his view  that Platner's tattoo was "disqualifying."

"I hope Maine voters agree with me," Auchincloss said. "I think it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think Graham Platner's brand of the Democratic Party is what wins us durable majorities throughout this country."

Auchincloss, a fellow veteran, has since taken heat for his comments, insisting he's not de facto endorsing Collins. He said he would support “someone else,” but the only other Democrat in the race is David Costello, who’s polling in the single digits, well behind Platner. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, seen as one of the Democrats' top recruits, dropped out of the race in April, citing a lack of campaign funds.

Among Platner's defenders is another prominent Democrat, Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona.

“We know that Graham has lived not your typical political experience," Gallego told reporters on Monday. "He’s been very clear and open with his wife, and they worked through whatever they worked through.”

“He’s winning the polls, he’s willing to accept that he has grown as a person, and I think we should accept that," he continued.

Bill Curry, a veteran Democrat and policy advisor to President Bill Clinton, who survived his own sexual scandals, said Platner's struggles show what can happen when the party embraces a political outsider who hasn't been thoroughly vetted. Curry stopped short of saying that Platner should exit the race, but he believes the drip, drip, drip of scandal is putting at risk a pivotal contest that Democrats need to win.

"I'm not judging the man, only the risk," Curry said, adding that Platner needs "to get before the cameras and assure the voters of Maine that there are no more revelations coming."

"And if there are, then I think there's a real problem," he said.

Despite the challenges, Platner has continued to build support with voters like Hank Goorhuis, a retired doctor from Auburn, Maine, who attended the Memorial Day rally in Portland. Goorhius said he admires the way Platner, who clearly suffered trauma from his time in combat, has done the work to heal himself.

“Instead of someone who was at high risk of failure and going down a rabbit hole of anger and hate, it turns out he found help and got out of that," Goorhius said. "It's a picture of growth."

But Collins, Platner's opponent, takes a different view. She's been attacking his past Reddit posts, and casting Platner as "too radical" for Maine. Time will tell how Maine voters feel about the controversies. But for the near term, political observers say, Collins has new material to make her case.