“It’s disgusting,” says one girl in the advert. “Disqualifying,” says one other.
They’re proven reacting to previous social media posts from Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic Senate candidate who’s been endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, in a brand new advert from his rival, Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
The now-deleted posts surfaced final fall, after CNN’s KFile after which the Washington Post reported on online commentary from Platner stretching again years. Mills’ new advert options 2013 feedback from Platner downplaying incidents of sexual assault in the navy by suggesting victims keep away from getting drunk “around people you aren’t comfortable with.”
Hours after the advert was launched, Platner addressed the media and appeared with women who assist his marketing campaign. Then his marketing campaign launched its personal TV advert instantly responding to Mills’ assault.
“If I saw these ads, I’d have questions,” Platner says, showing on digital camera. “So, Maine, I’m asking you not to judge me for the worst thing I said on the internet on my worst day 14 years ago, but who I am today.”
Mills and her allies are relying on a gender hole to slender Platner’s large lead forward of the June 9 main to determine who will face incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. They are betting that the unfiltered type that has introduced Platner widespread consideration as somebody who might assist Democrats attain younger males will backfire with women.
In 2020 — the final yr with out there exit ballot information — the state’s citizens was 59% feminine. A February survey from the University of New Hampshire, which discovered Platner considerably forward amongst voters of each genders, confirmed his lead is broader amongst males than women.
“I was really on board for him up until, you know, the controversy that happened a few months ago, is when I kind of started questioning,” mentioned Emma Bagby, a substance abuse therapist from Scarborough, Maine. “Making the comments about women being sexually assaulted, and that they need to take responsibility for themselves in that aspect, you know, that kind of rhetoric, just is scary right now.”
Speaking to CNN’s Manu Raju, Platner mentioned, “I’ve gone all over the state of Maine and allowed people to ask me about it all directly for months now.”
“I think, for a lot of folks in the state to see this get kind of dragged back up months and months after we’d already talked about it — I will just say the feedback we have received statewide is that people find all of this to be everything they hate about politics,” Platner mentioned.
Platner’s marketing campaign launch final August was greeted by a burst of Democratic enthusiasm concerning the oyster farmer and Marine veteran. Soon after Mills joined the race in October, stories started rising that sparked a collection of controversies. Stories concerning the Reddit posts have been adopted by the revelation that Platner had a tattoo on his chest of a picture well known as a Nazi image, which he has since had lined. Platner attributes his missteps to youthful ignorance.
“I as a person have transformed over time and changed, which actually I think a lot of folks can identify with,” he instructed CNN.
Sanders endorsed Platner final August, shortly after he launched his marketing campaign, imparting his progressive, anti-establishment mantle. And in current weeks Platner has rolled out a gentle stream of different outstanding endorsers, together with Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Platner has established a fundraising lead; in accordance to end-of-year FEC stories, he raised about $4.6 million in the fourth quarter and had amassed $3.7 million money available, in contrast with Mills elevating $2.7 million in the interval and reporting $1.3 million in money available.
Mills was recruited to run by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as a extra standard candidate towards Collins, extensively seen as one of many hardest Republican incumbents and somebody Democrats nearly definitely will want to defeat to retake Senate management this fall. But Mills additionally faces questions on her age. At 77, she would develop into the oldest first-term senator in historical past and promised not to search a second time period if she wins.
“Electability is the key in this race,” Mills told journalist Chris Cillizza this month. “Because if we want to unseat Susan Collins, we have to put up a candidate who can win and in the past, we put up good people to run against her, but they’ve all been untested.”
Mills has additionally joked on social media: “For what it’s worth, I don’t have any tattoos.”
Platner’s supporters need Democrats to embrace a candidate who they suppose gives a solution to issues the get together has confronted with rural voters, younger males and various media, which observers suppose contributed to their losses in 2024.
“He’s still attracting 600, 700 people like he was before, which, having been in Maine politics for nearly 25 years now, I have never seen that in any primary election,” mentioned Toby McGrath, a veteran Maine Democratic marketing campaign marketing consultant. “I think Graham Platner has a lot more upside in the general election, potentially more downside. And I think that, you know, we’re in the margins when it’s the governor and the senator.”
Labor can be rallying to Platner’s marketing campaign, which is backed by a number of labor unions together with the United Auto Workers, the Maine State Nurses Association, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
In late February, Michael Monahan, vp of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 2nd district – which covers Maine –– wrote a letter to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to “express our deep concern regarding the DSCC’s ongoing involvement in the 2026 Maine Democratic Senate Primary.”
“Graham Platner is the only candidate in this race who stands with working people, respects organized labor and has earned labor’s trust. We strongly urge the DSCC to refrain from intervening further in this primary,” Monahan wrote, criticizing Mills’ document on labor points.
Megan Smith, with the Maine People’s Alliance, a progressive group motion group that has endorsed Platner, mentioned that “I have not seen the momentum at all slowing for Graham.”
“The consensus amongst a lot of people is that we need to allow people to change and to grow and to become different people,” Smith mentioned.
And she additionally cautioned nationwide Democrats towards making an attempt to affect the end result.
“I think people in Maine don’t like to be told what to do from outside. I also think that the Democratic Party at the national level does not have a very high approval rating, so I’m not sure how much establishment Democrats coming into Maine saying this is our candidate, is going to be helpful for either candidate,” Smith mentioned.
Bagby, in the meantime, continues to be making up her thoughts.
“I think Janet Mills feels safe, because we know what she stands for. We know what she’s done, versus Graham Platner, he’s new, and now all these things are coming out,” she mentioned. “So, I think it’s just gonna be kind of a game-time decision based on what he says these next couple of months.”
