The Maine Senate race between Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Democratic challenger Graham Platner is on, with Platner winning his primary with more than 70% of the vote despite numerous scandals.
Platner’s supporters have stuck by him after sexually explicit texts, reports of physically and emotionally abusive behavior toward ex-girlfriends, a since-covered Nazi tattoo, and a series of controversial Reddit posts.
While Democrats have made many arguments in defense of Platner, the case for excusing his behavior and electing him to the Senate really boils down to three.
President Donald Trump
Many Democrats have taken to arguing that since Trump has survived many scandals and been forgiven for past bad behavior, so should Platner.
Moreover, they argue Republicans and Trump supporters lack the moral authority to criticize any of Platner’s conduct.
They frequently invoke Trump’s lewd comment in the Access Hollywood tape that was released during the 2016 campaign.
It probably stiffened their resolve when Trump called the 41-year-old Platner a “pig” and a “thug.”
These Democrats also make an argument that was commonly heard among Republicans as the party transitioned from Mitt Romney’s leadership to Trump’s.
“I get really tired of Democrats being held to some lofty moral standard when Republicans are just ‘boys will be boys,’” Ann Leamon, co-chairwoman of the Waldoboro Democrats, told NOTUS in a story published on the day of the Maine primary.
Elsewhere in the piece, a Democrat explicitly compares Trump’s Access Hollywood comments to the scrutiny of Platner: “Trump never claimed to have changed. He never came out against misogyny after he said he wanted to grab a woman by the p****. Platner has said very clearly that he’s learned a lot, he’s grown a lot. His wife stands by him, and I don’t think we have any option but to trust that at this point.”
Trump did actually say the presidential campaign had changed him in his videotaped remarks apologizing for his “locker room talk.” He also invoked sexual misconduct allegations against former President Bill Clinton, the husband of Trump’s 2016 general election opponent.
The argument also cuts both ways, as the Collins campaign is likely to emphasize this fall.
“It doesn’t necessarily matter, the ten-plus years of arguments we’ve made about morals and ethics against Trump and Republicans who’ve empowered Trump, because we can win a seat,” Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton said on CNN. “It’s very Machiavellian in many ways. And to me, any argument that Democrats have framed against Trump, against Republicans is now null and void. They have revealed themselves to be nothing but hypocrites, nothing but liars.”
Nevertheless, there is no limit to what can be justified in 2026 with three simple words: Orange man bad.
PTSD
Another defense of Platner is that he may have gotten post-traumatic stress disorder while at war during his time in the Marine Corps and that he has since demonstrated personal growth in an attempt to improve his behavior.
“What it should tell us is we broke a lot of people in this country by sending people to Iraq,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a top Platner surrogate, told CBS News’s Face the Nation. “Susan Collins sent people to Iraq, and now on the 100th day of a war in Iran, we’re breaking more people.”
Platner has made a version of this argument himself. “This was a time in my life where I was struggling deeply,” he said in a video posted to social media late last year. “I got out of the Army in 2012, I had PTSD, I had depression, I had all of the things that come with serving in a war, two wars that I eventually began to not believe in at all.”
Some military veterans suffering from PTSD have pushed back against this as an explanation for Platner’s controversies, which include past comments about PTSD itself. Some of Platner’s tendencies also appear to predate his military service. And the sexting scandal is recent enough to call into question how much Platner has changed.
Nevertheless, this is an explanation many Maine voters may find satisfactory.
‘A Republican operative’
Democrats are discounting allegations made by a Platner ex-girlfriend who has worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation.
“I mean, the only one who had anything to say that seemed unsettling was a woman who works for right-wing political operations,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told a reporter after saying he was “not impressed” by the New York Times story about Platner’s past relationships.
“The person who accused him of physicality is a Republican operative … who helped write the speech Susan Collins gave on the floor to justify her vote for Brett Kavanaugh,” Maine state Rep. Valli Geiger told CNN. (The accuser, Lyndsey Fifield, never worked for Collins.)
FOUR SCANDALS MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE GRAHAM PLATNER IS FACING
This is probably the most dangerous line of defense for Democrats because it goes against the “believe all women” standard they have previously adhered to and appears to minimize the allegations against Platner.
All three defenses add up to one: Maine is important to the Democrats’ path to a Senate majority, and there isn’t yet sufficient polling evidence that the allegations against Platner prevent him from being a competitive candidate.