Insurgent U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner has picked up an endorsement from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
It’s the latest endorsement for the 41-year-old oyster farmer from Sullivan, who has support from unions and independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. He’s also been endorsed by Democratic U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich of Mexico and Ruben Gallego of Arizona.
“Graham Platner is going to flip Maine and then actually deliver change for working people in the Senate,” Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who boasts deep progressive bona fides, said in a Thursday morning statement. “He’s a combat veteran, an oyster farmer, and has inspired people with his populist agenda for a government on the side of working families––not the billionaires and giant corporations. Graham will fight every single day to make life better for the people of Maine in the United States Senate. I’m proud to endorse him.”
Platner, who is running to the left of Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary, called it an “honor” to get an endorsement from Warren, who he called an “inspiration” for her career “fighting those who use power and wealth to take advantage of working families.”
“She’s been an inspiration and I look forward to working by her side in the Senate to take on Wall Street, monopolies, and the corruption in Washington,” Platner said in a statement.
Platner currently has about 46% support among likely Democratic primary voters, compared with 39% for Mills, according to a March poll from Portland-based Pan Atlantic Research. It was a tighter margin than the University of New Hampshire’s latest Pine Tree State Poll, released in late February, which gave him a 38-point lead over the term-limited governor. That poll found Platner commands a strong lead over progressive and socialist-leaning voters.
His gains in the polls came despite a barrage of bad press last fall.
Platner’s campaign was beset with controversy over unearthed inflammatory internet posts and a chest tattoo depicting a skull superimposed over crossbones, resembling the Totenkopf symbol adopted by the Nazi SS during World War II.
Platner denied knowing that his tattoo was a Nazi symbol. He got the tattoo in 2007 while deployed abroad with the U.S. Marines. While on leave, Platner and other Marines went to Croatia, where they got “very inebriated” and decided to get tattoos. He said that they all picked “terrifying” designs off the wall.
He has since gotten it covered.
At the same time, his campaign saw a number of high-level departures, including his national financial director, treasurer, campaign manager and political director.
Despite the barrage of negative headlines, Platner vowed to stay in the race.
His internet posts recently garnered renewed attention after the Mills campaign featured them in an attack ad. Mills has said that Republicans would make “mincemeat” of Platner if he emerges as the party’s standard-bearer for the November election.
Democrats already face an uphill battle to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who officially announced her historic bid for a sixth term in February. She has handily beaten back challengers, including in 2020 when she defied polls and expectations to secure a fifth term in the Senate. But Collins, once ranked the country’s most bipartisan senator, has seen her popularity slump since Republican President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.
Republicans are largely aligned with Collins, who commands 67% support among likely voters in the Republican primary, according to that February Pine Tree State Poll.
The Senate race is shaping up to be an expensive one, with the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, pledging last month to spend at least $42 million to help Collins defend her seat. If Collins is successful in winning a sixth term, she would be Maine’s longest-serving U.S. senator.
