Platner’s deeply flawed candidacy tests Democrats’ moral compass

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks during a primary election night watch party after winning the Democratic nomination Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Blue Hill, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) The moral compromise Maine Democratic voters baked into Graham Platner’s nomination for U.S. Senate shocks the sensibilities. Maine has traditionally been looked upon as a bellwether state. “As Maine goes, so goes the nation” was once an axiom of U.S. politics. But other than that shibboleth, Maine is an inconsequential state in America’s political constellation, with its relatively small population, two seats in the House of Representatives, four electoral votes and a backseat location in the far northeastern U.S. But this year, with Republicans holding a slender 53-47 Senate majority, as Maine goes so may the Senate. Often said to be a liberal Republican, five-term Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), age 73, is facing the fight of her life. Polls say Mainers are looking for a younger, more energetic candidate than the pro-choice Collins, who wears RINO (Republican in name only) drag but always seems to answer to MAGA’s call. Collins voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but later said she had been “misled” about his position on affirming Roe v. Wade. The apparent frontrunning Democratic challenger was Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D). Mills, if elected, would have been a freshman senator at age 79, the oldest in U.S. history. But who cares about age in politics nowadays, with President Trump at age 80 and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who recruited Mills to run for the Senate, at 75? Mills trounced Republican Paul LePage in 2022 for her current job, garnering nearly 56 percent of the votes cast. But what Mills and Schumer didn’t count on was the bearded combat veteran and Sullivan oyster farmer Graham Platner, 41, running in the Democratic primary on a progressive-populist platform. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was quick to endorse Platner, who raised over $3.2 million from grassroots donors in the first seven weeks of his campaign. Platner’s ultra-left candidacy won instant populist appeal, and Mills proved no match for his remarkable fundraising ability. Polls showed him leading Mills by as much as 66 points. She suspended her candidacy in April. Then, a succession of damning facts began emerging about Platner. A former girlfriend alleged that he was lying when he claimed he did not know the chest tattoo he had gotten during his military service strongly resembled an official insignia of the Nazi SS. He had once referred to it, she said, as “my Totenkopf” (translated Death’s Head), meaning he knew it was the symbol of the infamous Third SS Panzer Division. To a traumatized generation, symbols are important. The insignia of the Totenkopf is at least as terrifying to Jews as cross-burning is to Blacks.