Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner knew his tattoo’s Nazi association was problematic at least a month ago, according to a former top campaign staffer.
In a Tuesday interview with the Bangor Daily News, former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald, who resigned Friday from serving as Platner’s political director, said the campaign has been aware since she joined the campaign in August the candidate has a tattoo that could be problematic. She discussed it with Platner himself roughly a month ago, she said.
The campaign denied that, calling it “a lie from a disgruntled former employee.” Platner said he didn’t know until “last week” that his tattoo had a Nazi affiliation in any way.
The contrasting statements about the tattoo Platner got decades ago when drunk is the latest hurdle his campaign has faced. It comes on the heels of the resurfacing of deleted Reddit posts that have upended the progressive’s campaign to win his party’s nomination to take on U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in 2026.
He also said claims published by Jewish Insider that he told an acquaintance back in 2012 he knew his tattoo was a Nazi symbol are not true, and he only ever associated it with his time in the military. It was not until it recently came up in opposition research that he found out his tattoo carried more significance, Platner said.
The tattoo came to light in a video from his brother’s wedding about a decade ago, where Platner is shown dancing shirtless. He gave it to a liberal podcast in an effort to get ahead of research into his background.
“If I thought that I had a very obvious Nazi tattoo, I would not have taken my shirt off and serenaded my Jewish sister-in-law in front of her extended family at my brother’s [wedding],” In Platner said in a separate BDN interview.
Platner still has the tattoo but said he is planning to get it covered up. He said he got the tattoo in 2007 during his third deployment as a Marine. While on short-term leave, he and other Marines went to Croatia, where they got “very inebriated” and decided to get tattoos, picking a “terrifying” design off the wall.
The tattoo shown in the video depicts a skull laid over crossbones. The orientation of the symbol is a unique one known as a “Totenkopf.” It was adopted by the Schutzstaffel, known as the SS, a Nazi paramilitary organization tasked with guarding concentration camps during World War II, according to the Anti-Defamation League. It became known as a hate symbol after the war.
An ADL spokesperson called the tattoo “troubling” for a political candidate, saying anybody who got one without understanding the history behind it “should be asked whether they repudiate its hateful meaning.” Platner said repeatedly in an appearance Monday on “Pod Save America,” a podcast hosted by Democratic operatives, that he is not a “secret Nazi.”
“If you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general,” Platner said.
The scrutiny of his tattoo comes on the heels of deleted social media posts which resurfaced last week, including those from 2013 in which he asked why Black people “don’t tip” and suggested people concerned about being raped should not be inebriated around people they do not feel comfortable with, among other comments.
Platner’s highest-profile endorser, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, told Capitol Hill reporters Tuesday that he’s still supporting the Maine veteran. Sanders, who is Jewish, appeared with Platner at a Labor Day rally in Portland after endorsing his campaign.
“I personally think he is an excellent candidate,” Sanders said. “I’m going to support him and look forward to him becoming the next senator in the state of Maine.”
McDonald said she believes that none of the turbulence should come as a surprise to Platner but also said the campaign never had a call or a discussion about anything in his past that could be problematic. Before CNN first reported on Platner’s Reddit posts last week, McDonald said she was only provided a brief sampling of the posts just before the story broke.
“I think that Graham is unelectable in the general election,” she said.
BDN writers Billy Kobin and Michael Shepherd contributed reporting.
