The hits kept coming over more than a week for Graham Platner, giving Gov. Janet Mills and her allies an early opening to make their case that she is the only Democrat who can unseat U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in 2026.
Then the governor was hit Thursday by a University of New Hampshire poll showing Platner with a 34-point lead in the primary. The survey opened one day after the first of numerous stories appeared on Platner’s controversial past Reddit posts and closed the same day he acknowledged a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol that he later covered up.
Seven months from the primary, the race between the 77-year-old governor and Platner, 41, a Sullivan oyster farmer who is new to politics, is becoming a battle over the future of the party. It may remain an open question with voters and insiders debating Platner’s upside and judgment while weighing Mills’ more centrist ideology and record in the era of President Donald Trump.
“This thing has many, many more innings left to play out, and we’re in like the second inning right now,” state Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, said.
Platner’s rise from nowhere after entering the race in August is unprecedented in Maine political history. He has seen strong fundraising and touted more than 11,000 volunteers with a campaign backed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and featuring a team of talented operatives with prominent national elections on their resumes.
Mills entered the race earlier this month. Platner’s campaign hit immediate turbulence with the unearthing of old Reddit posts, including those calling rural Americans racist, questioning the amount that Black people tip and using antigay slurs. His political director resigned and questioned the candidate’s assertion that he only recently learned of his tattoo’s meaning.
Allies of Mills, who is backed by national Democrats and has clashed with more progressive lawmakers since winning the Blaine House in 2018, went on the offensive after the recent revelations about Platner, a progressive who served military tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“If Graham Platner was a Republican, so many of us would be protesting in the streets for his resignation,” former State Treasurer Henry Beck wrote after sharing a post from House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, that contained a list of the flurry of disclosures regarding Platner.
Those kinds of Democrats are making an electability argument. Jill Barkley Roy, a former domestic violence victim advocate and political operative from South Portland, praised Mills’ record on LGBTQ+ issues and her ability to win statewide. Collins, a fifth-term Republican, has low approval ratings but has beaten past challengers by comfortable margins.
Barkley Roy said any of Platner’s past comments on LGBTQ+ individuals, white Americans or rape victims “reveal poor judgment and bias.” Platner has repeatedly said he is embarrassed by many of his comments, and they don’t reflect the person he has become.
“But when you put all of those comments together, I think they show a pattern of beliefs of someone who really struggles to see the dignity of others,” Barkley Roy said.
Platner’s campaign is still ticking. At his Wednesday town hall-style rally that saw 500 people inside Ogunquit’s Leavitt Theatre, Brenda Sullivan said the negative attention around the candidate “sucks” but won’t affect Platner nor her support for the candidate whom she first learned about thanks to her daughter who lives in Switzerland.
“He has a strong presence,” said Sullivan, who lives in Ogunquit and said she was in her 60s. “It’s about time we had someone young.”
Voters outside Platner’s Ogunquit event credited Mills for her accomplishments in the Blaine House. But some of them shared frustration with her decision to enter the race with backing from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after months of consideration and on the heels of Platner’s rise.
“I really wish she wouldn’t have done that,” Sharon Orr, a 62-year-old Eliot resident, said. “I think it just convolutes everything, and I think it just causes more problems than not.”
Several Democratic voters said the debate over Platner or Mills is less about party division and more about fatigue with the status quo. That is why Platner is exciting and a sign Mainers are “tired of being managed,” said state Rep. Amy Roeder, D-Bangor.
“They want to be heard,” Roeder said of voters. “I don’t know if [Platner] can weather the storm around him, but candidates for Collins’ seat ignore that kind of momentum at their peril.”
