Graham Platner’s national finance director has resigned.
The departure of Ronald Holmes III comes on the heels of the resignations of his campaign director Kevin Brown and political director Genevieve McDonald earlier this month.
In a Friday morning post on the networking site LinkedIn, Holmes said that he feels his “professional standards” are “no longer fully aligned with those” of Platner’s campaign.
“I joined this campaign because I believed in building something different — a campaign of fresh energy, integrity, and reform-minded thinking in a political system that often resists exactly those things, said Holmes, who said his resignation as national finance director was “effective immediately.”
Platner’s campaign downplayed Holmes’ departure Friday, with a spokesperson pointing to the campaign’s small-dollar donations.
“Ron helped the campaign reach out to big dollar donors, and we appreciated his efforts. But the reality is our campaign’s fundraising success has come largely from small dollar donors. Nearly 90% of what we’ve raised has come from small dollar donations and online donors, which has been and is continued to be run by our digital fundraising director,” the spokesperson said in an email to the Bangor Daily News.
It’s just the latest turbulence to hit the insurgent Democrat’s bid to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in 2026.
Last week, a video of Platner surfaced showing him with a tattoo depicting a skull superimposed over crossbones, similar to the Totenkopf symbol adopted by the Nazi SS during World War II.
Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer from Sullivan, denies knowing that his tattoo was a Nazi symbol. He has said 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.
Platner has further denied allegations from Genevieve McDonald, a former state representative, that he knew the tattoo was problematic weeks ago. He told The Associated Press that he is getting the tattoo covered.
Before that, his campaign was contending with the fallout from numerous deleted Reddit posts in which Platner asked why Black people “don’t tip” and suggesting that women concerned about rape not drink around certain people, among others.
Then, on Oct. 22, Platner confirmed to The Advocate that he was the author of a number of Reddit posts featuring homophobic slurs, anti-LGBTQ+ jokes and sexually explicit stories denigrating gay men.
He called the posts “indefensible,” according to The Advocate.
In a bid to tamp down on the harmful revelations, Platner’s campaign has begun circulating non-disclosure agreements to staffers and hired the firm Spruce Street Consulting, which Politico reports has connections to Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdami.
Non-disclosure agreements, common in the corporate world, are becoming a fixture as well in politics, according to a 2021 article published in New York University’s Journal of Legislation and Public Policy. That article noted that non-disclosure agreements have been used in presidential campaigns and heavily during President Donald Trump’s first term in office in a bid to stem the flow of information to the press.
Platner, who has support from unions and an endorsement from independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, made waves in August when he announced that he would challenge Collins in the 2026 November election. Sanders confirmed last week he is still supporting Platner.
In announcing his resignation Tuesday, Brown did not refer to the recent controversies but said that he learned late last week he has a baby on the way.
Holmes said Friday that he’s “proud” of those who worked on and supported the campaign.
“I wish the campaign and the voters in Maine well as they continue forward with selecting a nominee who they believe is best suited to meet the moment and flip this critical must win seat for us to take back the U.S. Senate in 2026,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
Even before these recent revelations, he already faced 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 also has to contend with a primary fight against Gov. Janet Mills, who launched her campaign earlier this month with the support of national Democrats, and former End Citizens United Vice President Jordan Wood, who has called on Platner to drop out of the race.
Nonetheless, Platner — for now — maintains a wide lead in the polls among likely Democratic voters. In a recent University of New Hampshire, he had the support of 58% of likely primary voters, compared with just 24% for Mills.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.
