Last year, we discussed Graham Platner, who was then running for the Democratic nomination for Maine’s Senate race. Even from the earliest days of his campaign, Platner seemed divisive and astroturfed by alleged progressives and the pod bros. Then, last October, people learned about his Nazi tattoo. Excuses were made, moral high grounds were abandoned and Platner weathered the storm. Platner ended up as the Democratic nominee in the senate race, even though it was clear that the GOP had a thick oppo file on the guy. Democrats should have done the same research on him, but they didn’t. Too many people were too busy normalizing Nazi tattoos, flimsy backstories and his disgraceful, sketchy and criminal behavior with women.
Then, this week, a Maine woman came forward to say that Platner raped her five years ago. The woman, Jenny Racicot, went on the record and gave details of the sexual assault. Politico checked out her story in detail – go here to read. Platner denied it. Then on Wednesday, he finally dropped out of the race.
Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner said in a video statement Wednesday he was suspending his campaign, taking aim at the Democratic establishment while clearing the way for the party to select a new candidate to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins in one of the most important contests of November’s midterm elections.
Platner’s decision comes after a woman told CNN and Politico he raped her while he was heavily intoxicated nearly five years ago when they were in a casual dating relationship – an allegation Platner denies.
“We believe that for the movement to continue it can’t be me — and for that reason we are suspending campaign operations,” Platner said in an 11-minute video posted on X, adding that he intends to file paperwork to withdraw.
Platner spent a large portion of the video railing against the Democratic Party establishment that he claimed is using the allegations of sexual assault and dating violence, which he vigorously denied, to undermine him and his movement.
“It’s not the false allegations though that have brought us to where we are. It’s the fact that they are being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure on us. We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is a system built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish,” Platner said.
He added the “brutal political reality” is that those in power are using the allegations as “an excuse to take away all of the things that we need to run a campaign,” including the ability to fundraise and access voter data.
“We were asking for real democracy, and we did it the right way, and we won, but now the ball is in the court of the Democratic establishment. My name might be on the ballot right now, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine, and on November 3, it needs to belong to the people of Maine, and the next Democratic senator for Maine needs to belong to the people of Maine,” he said.
While Jenny Racicot is the only one accusing him of rape, several women went on the record about his toxic, unfaithful, misogynistic and sleazy behavior. I believe all of them. I hope this is a lesson for voters and self-proclaimed political operatives, especially in the currently fragmented Democratic party. Do the oppo research on your own people too, and believe women. As soon as you find out that your guy has a Nazi tattoo, he shouldn’t be your guy anymore.
Photos courtesy of Graham Platner’s Instagram.
I had some complicated feelings about this (that I won’t get into) until I saw his ten minute rant video. Definitely seemed like all his advisors flew the coop because holy shit was it bad.
Like, jaw-droppingly so.
No accountability at all, no apologies to the victims, his wife, or all the Maine voters he let down. Nothing conciliatory or bridge-building towards the next Maine candidate who will take his place. Nothing about the importance of beating Susan Collins or a promise that he’ll do everything he can to make sure she looses. It was just an insane rant about how Dems and the media are to blame, he’s a victim, and everyone has treated him like shit. It was appalling and I think even his ride-or-die supporters will be disgusted.
And I say that as someone who is very much tired of the Dem establishment and dirty tricks from Republican ops, but MY GOD dude–this is not that. You did this TO YOURSELF FFS. I just cannot get over the utter lack of self-reflection…..
I have to agree with your points on this. His interviews even before this left me with an unsavory taste in my mouth, in part because of his seeming inability to take actual responsibility for his actions. He always mentioned mitigating factors- “I didn’t know“ (about the fascist symbolism), “we didn’t deal with PTSD back then” (in 2011!)— and really came across as an ignorant and angry white man.
That said, shame on those who didn’t vet him and both accepted and normalized violence towards women.
YES. He was almost child-like in his inability to take responsibility. Problem is that he’s a grown-ass f*cking man.
His whole campaign was bashing Democrats and the establishment. Do they deserve criticism? Sure, but if that’s your whole schtick, you might not be a good Democratic candidate.
IDK I don’t think it’s a terrible strategy to run to the left of the establishment, given how unpopular the Democratic Party currently is. After all, the anti-establishment messaging, in part, got him the nomination in a competitive state. Until he blew it all up.
I can see how it could be a tougher road in some states–especially at the senate level–but running to the left is proving to be pretty successful in some smaller state and local seats.
Complete agreement. I listened to his whole video and he took no responsibility for his behavior and instead just blamed “them”.
WHO IS “THEM”?? I feel like “them” and “they” are just everyone else except Graham Platner. Also, I don’t like how he kept bringing up his wife Amy. “Amy and I” this and “Amy and I” that. It felt like he was trying to use his wife as cover.
All along I was asking where this guy came from and who funded him. There have been strong rumors that he was not only the bartender at a DC dive bar, but a coke dealer who sold to many of the dirtbag left dudes who pushed his nom. And now there’s a Wall Street Journal interview where the guy who allegedly vetted him admitted they were in a hurry to announce his candidacy so the vetting wasn’t really a vetting. Didn’t do the normal intensive questionnaire, didn’t find out about the tattoo or the many allegations about him. Feels like they knew and didn’t want to know. And this guy who recruited Platner? He was kicked out a Pennsylvania DSA chapter for inappropriate sexual behavior.
Everyone involved in recruiting this guy needs to be permabanned from working in Dem politics again. It’s also clear that they called their bullshit weekend couple of pages report a “full vetting” which is normally weeks to months of work and over 100 pages. Too many people fell for that when endorsing Platner.
Daniel Maroff is the consultant’s name and here’s the interview. Please don’t watch unless you want to be very, very angry. https://www.wsj.com/video/the-strategist-behind-platners-rise-explains-his-vetting-process/C886C53B-0CD2-43A7-884F-01CC3CEFD8DD
Yeah, they knew but wanted plausible deniability. We know they knew by the way they went after anyone expressing doubts about the candidate. And his wife told them about the sexting.
The fact that he lied about his background, the fact that he lied about his Nazi tattoo, the fact that he said racist and sexist things, the face he was a merc with Blackwater all should have disqualified him from even winning that primary. The crap that came out about his relationships right before the primary and now this shows that no one was listening to people who were screaming that this man was not it and was going to lose. And I am sick of people blaming the establishment dems for this, go yell at Bernie Sanders who scolded people after the tattoo mess and the wife cheating crap and the texts that they just wanted to ruin a good man. Ugh.
Bernie not helping since 2015.
I think this Platner mess shows that Democrats – and independents – are so desperate for a new kind of progressive candidate, that they were willing to look past, or explain-away, the red flags. To a point. Should Platner have gotten this far with his problematic back story and all the allegations? No. Are people desperate for articulate, charismatic, candidates who will stand up in the face of insurmountable odds and fight the oligarchy? Yes. I’m hoping this debacle will inspire other progressives to act, to run for office themselves. The message was good, the messenger was the problem.
Yes I think this is exactly right.
One thing to realize is that the two US political parties are both “big tents” containing internal coalitions.
The Dem faction supporting Platner is a combo of the Bros (Bernie Bros, Podcast Bros) and the Dirtbag Left. They want lefty things, universal healthcare, affordable housing, end to the war in Gaza, dealing with student loan debt. But they come at it from “the only war is class war” attitude and will fight viciously and nastily against women and minorities (especially Black women) who they see as ruining the purity of their perfect politics. It’s not that they are racist or misogynist, you see it’s just that “the only war is class war” and “HR ladies” just harsh the buzz.
They are insufferable assholes and I hope this debacle reveals how they really care about nothing but propping up their own fragile masculinity at the cost of everyone else in the Dem coalition.
Madamni, AOC, Greg Cesar, Ilhan Omar, Maxwell Frost, etc. There are tons of progressives in Congress and across government. Platner was not a progressive and his entire schtick was grievance politics for white men.
💯
You hit the nail on the head. We need more white men running on a progressive platform, to appeal to other white people who have been taken in by MAGA. The great thing about Platner – to me – was that he could say to middle-income white people, I work with my hands too, I run a small business too, I see the challenges you face, and all the Republicans do it make it harder for me and my neighbors to earn a living wage, to get health care. It is grievance politics – which Trump has made the norm – but it’s also reality. And sometimes we have to meet people where they are.
I’m from Maine and Platner is a complete embarrassment. I cannot understand the people, especially women, who have and continue to stand behind him (I see you Stephen King 😒). He is a rageaholic and most likely the alcohol breed of holics. He and his backers wasted our time and have destroyed our chances of ousting Senator Collins. Beyond discouraging.
He’s also a classic narcissist.
Absolutely. His video last night was bonkers.
Call me over optimistic but I believe Susan Collins can still be defeated.
It’s the norm for Democratic campaigns to do oppo research on their own candidates. It’s not the job of national Dems or the DNC to vet each individual candidate. That would be impossible. But they knew Platner was trouble which is why they recruited the current governor who had run and won statewide. By that time, the Democratic voters in Maine were Platner-pilled. So she never got off the ground with voters.
That brings me to my main point. This campaign was a fraud. It was a deception built on a mountain of lies. The higher ups, including Morris Katz, knew about all these problems with Platner and chose to cover them up. When Genevieve MacDonald left after he lied about the totenkopf, they attacked her and tried to get her to sign an NDA. So these people are responsible, along with Platner, for blowing up a totally winnable Senate seat. They perpetrated a fraud on the voters of Maine. And they bullied and defamed any women who stepped up to tell the truth. None of the top brain trust of this mess should ever work in Democratic politics again.
I just want to add that these campaign operatives are also responsible for forcing SA and domestic abuse survivors to out themselves to reveal the fraud. For that alone, these strategists should be ostracized.
What you said. The Pods Hate America bros also backed him up and lied about things and claimed anyone coming at him wanted to make it that the Dems lost. It was a hot mess.
Earlier this week, the Pod Bros said that if a candidate lies during vetting, welp, that’s that. There’s no way to find out about any problems. Come on, now.
Wait, what? He has a nazi tattoo?! 🤦🏻♀️ oh FFS.
Canadian here, and I listened to his announcement while driving last night. Couldn’t believe the hubris. The absolute lack of self-awareness. For Christ’s sake, Bernie Sanders had been in his corner till the end. The Democratic establishment did not take him down – he took himself down.
Believe women.
He’s so self-important and grandiose. That video is indeed insane.
AND the fact that after ALL these allegations he thought he was in a position to demand who his successor will be. Bro, NO that is not how this works!
Hubris, indeed.
AOC didn’t endorse him for a reason. As a former bartender, she probably can spot this kind of narcissistic abuser from a mile away.
When ppl tell you who they are believe them. When celebrities invite owners of detention centers where human rights violations are occurring to their weddings, and or Trump is using their music for gross propaganda videos and they say NOTHING-believe who they are as humans.
I have tuned this out because the backbiting, willingness to ignore the awfullness and willingness to believe conspiracy theories infuriated me. I don’t understand why so many people went down the rabbithole to support this creeper. Believe the women and believe the N@zi ink. The Democrats will not improve their status by enabling bigly, narcissists just because they are white men. Having our own bigly bad white men equally awful as the bigly bad magat white men won’t make things better and turns off voters.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Collins is sitting on even worse information about this guy. He was always a deliberately constructed facade saying all the right things and looking like the blue collar white guy that Bernie Bros have been dreaming about for years. His most fervent supporters didn’t want to hear it, and now here we are.
There was never any indication in his behavior that he had taken accountability for his mistakes or was truly sorry. Even people on the left will bend over backwards to believe the words of straight white men, and collectively, we need to stop it. It was appalling how quickly his supporters (esp influencers and social media) churned out all of the standard rape culture victim blaming.
I would like to return to electing people who care about public service and have actions that show they care.
He had too many red flags even before these allegations came out. Susan Collins is still likely to win even though she should retire.
Please don’t yell at me, but… a lot of people in Maine voted for him *after* the Nazi tattoo and most of the misogynistic stuff was known. I can sit way over here and say he’s a dirtbag who never should have made it on a ballot, but the people of Maine have the right to vote for who they want, just like the people in Georgia had the right to elect MTG after the space lasers thing or the people in Pennsylvania had the right to elect Fetterman after a debilitating stroke. What I’m reading online though is that “suspending” a campaign is not the same as withdrawing and he still needs to officially withdraw before Monday or Mainers will indeed be stuck with his candidacy.
Me Too was a powerful time of sharing our pretty much universal experience and I remain grateful for that, but my god it did not go far enough.
His campaign should have ended with the Nazi tattoo.