Graham Platner thinks Democratic voters will overlook his past to support a new type of candidate

ELLSWORTH, Maine (AP) — In another world, revelations of problematic social media posts, a tattoo closely resembling a Nazi symbol and a sudden turnover in campaign staffers would have been enough to sink any political candidate.

But Graham Platner, a Democrat looking to flip a Maine U.S. Senate seat in a key 2026 contest, isn’t stepping aside.

A plain-speaking oyster farmer and combat veteran, Platner has been open about mistakes he says he made in the past and his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. He believes voters want to see new Democratic faces who will fight for them, and he’s betting that the old rules of politics — with highly vetted candidates and an emphasis on propriety — no longer apply.

There’s reason to believe he may be right. Republican Donald Trump was elected president last year as a convicted felon. And last week, Virginia voters supported Jay Jones for attorney general even after text messages the Democrat sent calling for violence against political rivals became public.

Platner is convinced his brand of gruff populism and calls for economic equality are what’s needed to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a five-term incumbent whose seat may be critical to Democrats’ hopes to take back the Senate in 2026. First he would need to win the Democratic nomination — no easy task with Gov. Janet Mills also running.

“I’m not doing this because I want power, I want influence, or I want money,” Platner told The Associated Press in an interview. “I’m doing it because we need a better politics, and I’m committed to that project.”

Roots in Maine, years abroad

Platner, 41, grew up in Sullivan, a tiny town about 170 miles up the coast from Portland, the son of a lawyer father and a restaurant owner mother who divorced when he was a child.

“We raised our children with strong values and beliefs. And I believe that Graham still has these,” his mother, Leslie Harlow, said in a speech on her son’s behalf. “I know that Graham has always been the kid, the young man and the man who paved his own way.”

He attended Hotchkiss School, a pricey Connecticut prep school, and said he was swiftly thrown out his freshman year after behavioral problems and trouble adjusting.

Platner eventually graduated from a Bangor Catholic high school before joining the military, where he served three tours in Iraq and another in Afghanistan.

When he returned, Platner says, he struggled with reintegration to civilian life, but stresses his tale of redemption was made possible by a stable home and work life. He and his wife, Amy, married last year, and they live in his hometown with their dogs. One, Zevon, is named after one of his sources of inspiration, singer Warren Zevon.

The home, not far from a boat launch near his oyster farm, is adorned with pictures of himself and Amy. The yard contains oyster cages, boat motors and buoys spread across the grass and a pile of oyster shells stretching near shoulder level.

This is the life Platner has battled demons to be able to live. But he’s willing to disrupt it if it means a seat in the Senate.

“I’m here because I’m seeing a political system utterly fail my community, and it fell to me to do so,” Platner said.

The past emerges on the campaign trail

When he returned home from service, Platner says he was disillusioned, struggling with PTSD and overwhelmed seeing his neighbors crushed by the costs of housing and health care.

He turned to the online forum Reddit, getting in online fights and leaving a wide range of inflammatory comments. Platner deleted them but they have since resurfaced, showing him endorsing political violence, dismissing rape in the military and criticizing police officers and rural America.

He has apologized for the comments posted between 2013 and 2021, but says he’s not ashamed of who he was back then.

Yet more old Reddit posts emerged after the initial wave in October, some of which used derogatory terms for women and people with disabilities. The second wave of posts retained the rough style, but displayed a strong opposition to racism and sexism and what he saw as a rising tide of fascism.

In an early November online meeting with supporters, he said, “If you believe in transformational politics, which I do, you also have to believe in the power of people to transform.”

There’s also the tattoo.

Roughly 20 years ago, while on leave, Platner says he got drunk with some fellow Marines and got a skull and crossbones tattoo on his chest.

That image would later be identified as a Totenkopf, a symbol of Hitler’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, which was responsible for the systematic murders of millions of Jews and others in Europe during World War II.

Like he did with the Reddit posts, Platner has been forthcoming about why and how he got the tattoo and has not wavered from his explanation that he didn’t know what the image meant until someone pointed it out on the campaign.

A hard fight for nomination

Democrats are currently scrambling to find a way to take back control of the U.S. Senate next year. That has meant turning attention to Maine, home of the only Republican senator left in New England — Collins.

Yet it’s still unclear who will become the Democratic nominee to lead that fight in the state known as “Vacationland.”

Gov. Janet Mills — a 77-year-old longtime state politician — entered the race with the warm embrace of Washington, D.C., elite Democratic leaders and advocacy groups. Platner maintains he’s the candidate that’s the new face of the Democratic Party.

A representative for Collins declined to comment about Platner’s campaign. The Mills campaign said in a statement that Mills “will be a relentless champion for Maine people in the U.S. Senate — and that’s why Maine people will send her there next year.” Collins and Mills have both criticized Platner’s past actions.

Democratic National Chair Ken Martin recently told Fox News Sunday that it’s up to the voters to decide and “then we’ll fight like hell for whoever they send us.”

Platner was a political unknown prior to this run, but it has earmarks of a professional campaign. It has also experienced high turnover, with political director and former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald among those to leave. McDonald cited the Reddit posts as a reason for departing.

“These statements were not known to me when I agreed to join the campaign, and they are not words or values I can stand behind in a candidate for the United States Senate,” McDonald said in a letter she made public.

The campaign is requiring staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements, which Platner defended as standard for high-stakes campaigns. However, the practice comes as other staffers have left the campaign, including his treasurer and finance director. Separately, his campaign manager left just four days after accepting the position after learning his wife was pregnant.

Platner has dismissed concerns about staff turnover as part of the campaign growing pains. Instead, he says his background, his evolution and even his mistakes are what voters are seeking.

“Here in Maine, people are angry,” he said. “They’re frustrated. They are disillusioned. They see a political apparatus that has not served their interests.”

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Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.