Platner Cruises to Maine Senate General Election Despite Scandals

Graham Platner has won the Maine Democrat nomination for the U.S. Senate, officially clearing the field for the scandal-plagued oysterman to challenge Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins.

Platner won the nomination with little contest, as Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race in April. However, her name remained on the ballot.

With 88% of the vote tallied by Wednesday morning, The Associated Press called the race for Platner, who received 71.9% of the vote against Mills’ 19.4%.

In third place, with 8.3% of the vote, was David Costello, who ran in 2024 as the Democrat nominee against incumbent independent Sen. Angus King.

“You have built the most powerful grassroots movement in the history of this state,” Platner told his supporters after the victory. “And when we finally defeat Susan Collins that will be because of you, too.”

The race, whose final outcome the Cook Political Report rates a “toss up,” is critical for Democrats, as they need to net four additional seats to claim a majority in the Senate.

President Donald Trump said of Platner on Wednesday, “He’s a thug and they’re trying to make excuses for him. I mean, he is worse than any human being that has ever run for office, probably.”

Platner secured the nomination amid a negative media cycle, with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times having recently reported his wife had alerted campaign staff that he had sent sexual messages to multiple women early on in their marriage. 

Most recently, The New York Times interviewed multiple of Platner’s former girlfriends, turning up allegations of physical roughness and eccentric behavior, although some spoke of him positively.

But this is just the most recent wave of negative press for Platner.

Platner has come under fire for controversial online forum posts in which he said women should “act like an adult” to avoid rape and ridiculed rural white voters and black people. 

He has asked voters to look past his online history, saying, “I’m asking you not to judge me for the worst thing I said on the internet on my worst day 14 years ago.”

He has also faced criticism for having had a tattoo that resembled the German Totenkopf symbol associated with Nazi Germany. 

Platner has claimed to have been unaware of the tattoo’s historical associations and has since had it covered.

Detractors have also questioned Platner’s authenticity as a working-class voice, calling attention to the fact that his father was a successful lawyer, his grandfather was a famous architect and interior designer, and he attended the Hotchkiss School, a prestigious boarding school in Connecticut.

This baggage could be a problem as Platner faces off against a formidable political survivor in Collins, who won by over eight points in 2020 despite having trailed in every public poll.

Nevertheless, the political environment could present Platner with some advantages.

 For one, Maine favored Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris over Trump by a nearly seven-point margin in 2024. 

Platner is now seeking to take advantage of Democrat voters’ frustrations with Republicans in Washington to unseat the incumbent.

Historically, the party that controls the executive branch tends to suffer in the midterms, and Democrats have already shown high turnout in elections during Trump’s second term.

A member of a prominent political family, Collins has held onto her seat for nearly three decades in a state that has never voted for a Republican to become president during her tenure.

Collins is a moderate who has often defied Trump’s wishes, voting against the July 2025 budget reconciliation bill that prevented the expiration of tax cuts enacted in his first term.

There is a stark ideological contrast between the two candidates.

Platner, who is endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has accused Israel of committing a “genocide” and has called for policies such as “Medicare for All.” 

He has sought to hold Collins to task for the administration’s foreign policy and health care policy.

Meanwhile, Collins wields significant power in the Senate as the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee—the panel that determines the allocation of annual federal spending.

The Daily Signal contacted both campaigns for comment but received no reply in time for publication.

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