Democrats were counting on one scandal-plagued oyster farmer to flip the Senate. Now that farmer, Graham Platner, is in freefall.
The 41-year-old Maine Democrat—a Marine Corps veteran and working-class progressive who was supposed to be the Democrats' silver bullet against five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins—has been battered by damaging reporting in recent days. According to Rolling Stone, Platner sexted multiple women shortly after marrying his wife, Amy Gertner, and displayed aggressive and "unsettling" behavior with past girlfriends.
The reports are only the start.
Platner has faced months of mounting controversies: past online comments that minimize and mock sexual assault, and questions surrounding a Nazi tattoo he covered up in November. For a candidate whose brand rests on being a scrappy, principled outsider, the optics are brutal.
Here's the problem for Democrats: virtually every road to a Senate majority runs through Maine. Without Platner winning his primary on June 9 and then defeating Collins in November, the party's hopes of flipping the chamber fade.
The timing is particularly bad. Platner had been outpacing Collins in the polls and was running a "Fighting Oligarchy" tour across the state weeks ago. His only real primary opponent, Governor Janet Mills, effectively conceded the race weeks ago and stopped campaigning—meaning Platner was heading toward the general election uncontested.
Now he faces a choice: ride out the storm and hope voters forgive him by November, or admit defeat and hand Democrats' best shot at a Senate seat to the Republicans.
The Maine primary is in four days.
