Graham Platner, the leading Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine, was supposed to participate in a debate with his chief rival, Janet Mills, last week. Mills was the party establishment’s favorite — she’s the state’s governor and was the pick of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Platner is the guy who seemingly came out of nowhere — a progressive 41-year-old military vet and oyster farmer pitching a working-class revolution.
The pitch really, really worked, at least with Maine’s Democratic base and with donors in-state and out, and before the debate could even happen, Mills dropped out. That makes Platner, who has never held elected office and has been a source of anxiety and debate among some in the party, the presumptive nominee, now running against the state’s longtime and heretofore unbeatable Republican senator, Susan Collins.
Democrats are now pinning their hopes on “a random guy,” as Platner self-deprecatingly called himself in our interview, to help win back the Senate in November. But Platner’s been dogged by controversy in his short time in the national spotlight, starting with the revelation of a tattoo on his chest that’s widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, and then with media reporting on his past offensive social media posts. So is he ready for prime time? I sat down with him to find out.
Graham Platner on His Controversies, Contradictions and Plans for Radical Change
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart
The test right now is if you can run in a general election. There have already been quite a few controversies, and we’re going to talk about that later. But the G.O.P. is going to dig up everything and more that they can. And probably lie at some point.