Insurgent U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner is disavowing incendiary posts he made a few years ago on a social media platform.
In the now-deleted Reddit posts, Platner described himself as a “communist,” castigated rural white Americans as “racist” and “stupid,” and called all cops “bastards.”
While he disavowed those posts made on various left-wing subreddits around 2020-21, Platner still stands by another post telling conservative musician Ted Nugent to “suck a d*ck,” according to CNN, which first reported about the posts deleted ahead of his campaign launch.
“To be fair,” Platner told CNN. “I’m not really regretful of that one.”
Platner described himself as a “communist” in response to a thread in the subreddit r/Antiwork about people becoming more conservative as they get older, saying, “I got older and became a communist.”
In another post, Platner described himself as “a vegetable growing, psychedelics taking socialist these days. After the war, I’ve pretty much stopped believing in any of the patriotic nonsense that got me there in the first place, and am a firm believer that the best thing a person can do is help their neighbors and live a loving life.”
In an interview with CNN, Platner distanced himself from those and other sentiments he expressed during what he called a dark time in his life.
“I’m not a communist. I’m not a socialist. I own a small business. I’m a Marine Corps veteran,” he told CNN.
Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer from Sullivan who has support from unions and an endorsement from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, made waves in August when he announced that he would challenge U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, in the 2026 November election.
He faces an uphill battle against Collins, who plans to run for a historic sixth term next year. She has handily beaten back challengers, including in 2020 when she defied polls and expectations to eke out a fifth term in the Senate. Despite that, Collins, once ranked the country’s most bipartisan senator, has seen her popularity slump since Trump’s first term in the White House.
The oysterman will have to contend with a primary fight against Gov. Janet Mills, who launched her campaign Tuesday with the support of national Democrats, and former End Citizens United vice president Jordan Wood.
Platner served three tours in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps and another tour of duty in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard. He serves as Sullivan’s harbormaster and the chair of the Sullivan Planning Board.
In his posts, Platner also reflected on his time in the military and the disillusionment he felt on returning home.
“My time in America’s imperial wars definitely radicalized me further, and I’m significantly more left today than I was back then. It is difficult to see all that horror, as well as all the grift and corruption, and not find the entire thing utterly bankrupt,” Platner wrote in another deleted post. “I did used to love America, or at least the idea of it. These days I’m pretty disgusted by it all.”
While he told CNN that he no longer feels that deep disillusionment with the United States, Platner said he is still “very angry” about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He further disavowed his comments about rural white Americans and the police. He made those comments during a period of heightened national attention to police violence after the 2020 killing of George Floyd. Platner told CNN that many of his incendiary posts were made during online arguments and that he was being an “a**hole on the Internet.”
