The Maine Senate race just got a lot more interesting — and a lot more embarrassing for the Democratic Party.
Gov. Janet Mills announced Thursday that she is suspending her campaign for the U.S. Senate, citing a lack of financial resources after falling further and further behind political newcomer Graham Platner in both polls and fundraising. Her exit leaves Democrats in an uncomfortable spot: their presumptive nominee is a self-described communist with a Nazi tattoo and a taste for racism and misogyny.
Mills had been the establishment’s golden ticket. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer recruited her personally, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee lined up behind her as the best shot to unseat incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins in one of the most-watched Senate races of the year.
But Platner had the cash and the momentum; she didn’t. Now Democrats are left holding the bag — and what a bag it is.
Platner has amassed a record so toxic that Republicans are practically giddy. The RNC wasted no time. “In November Susan Collins, a proven leader with an indisputable record of delivering for Maine, will face a Nazi sympathizing self-proclaimed communist with a record of hate-mongering and dishonesty,” RNC spokesperson Kristen Cianci said. “It’s safe to say we are confident going into Election Day.”
It’s hard to argue with that assessment.
Platner’s past comments are disqualifying by any reasonable standard. He said women who are raped deserve it. He endorsed the racist stereotype that black people don’t tip. He called white, rural Mainers stupid. He used slurs like “f*g” and used “gay” as a pejorative. He praised Hamas terrorists who murdered Jews, defended urinating on corpses, called all cops “bastards,” referred to Jesus as a “zombie” and the Virgin Mary as a “skank,” and openly argued that political violence is sometimes necessary. That’s not a candidate with baggage. That’s a candidate who is the baggage.
Chuck Schumer just coronated Graham Platner as the Democrat nominee in Maine.
Meet Graham Platner.
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) April 30, 2026
And the Democrats own him now.
And of course, there’s the tattoo — a totenkopf, the skull-and-crossbones emblem worn by Hitler’s SS and closely associated with Nazi death squads. Platner apparently called it “my totenkopf” for years. When the scrutiny finally landed, he scrambled to cover it rather than remove it, citing limited options in rural Maine. His explanation for why he got the tattoo in the first place was somehow even worse than the tattoo itself.
“When I left the military, I came out of a hyper-masculine, hyper-violent place. I did four tours in the infantry. We have a crude sense of humor in the infantry. We certainly have a, I would say, narrow view of a lot of topics, and that colored my opinions and my beliefs,” Platner asserted. Blaming the United States military — the institution that defeated Nazi Germany — for inspiring a Nazi tattoo takes a special kind of audacity.
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That’s not all. Platner lied about Washington, D.C., consultants running his campaign and reportedly trained an Antifa-style militia. He called himself an “Antifa supersoldier” — a distinction that stings a bit more now that the Trump administration has designated Antifa a domestic terrorist organization.
And yet here Democrats are. Mills notably did not endorse Platner on her way out the door. Who will?
Every Democrat who endorses Platner endorses his bigotry… his antisemitism… his misogyny… his homophobia.
Republicans couldn’t have drawn this up better if they tried. And when you consider everything that’s already surfaced about Graham Platner, the real question isn’t whether Democrats are screwed — it’s how much worse it gets before November.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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