Maine Democrats are in the process of selecting their “second-best” choice to Graham Platner. Their exercise says a lot about Maine Democrats. It also says a lot about the state of the Democrat Party.
Sen. Susan Collins is up for reelection this November. She does a great job for Maine and has been doing so throughout her tenure. Yet for Democrats, she has a particular shortcoming: She has the temerity to be a Republican in a state and region now dominated by Democrats.
In Maine, Democrats have controlled the House of Representatives since 2012 (and all but two of the last 34 years); they have controlled the Senate since 2018 (and all but 10 of the last 34 years), giving them full control of the state legislature for eight years. Democrats have held the governorship since 2019. They currently hold a “trifecta” of Maine state governance; over the last 34 years, Democrats have held the trifecta for 16 years.
That Democrats’ dominance in Maine has not served the state well is irrelevant to them. According to Maine Wire, the state’s infrastructure received an F grade. Unleash Prosperity states that last year, its electricity rates jumped over 36 percent, America’s largest increase. Maine has America’s highest property tax burden, America’s fourth highest individual tax burden, ranks 46th for starting a business, ranks 41st for its education system, and ranks 43rd for its economy and overall freedom.
Yet rather than confront their own failings and Maine’s problems under their governance, state Democrats want to rid themselves of Susan Collins, who is a member of the party that hasn’t created Maine’s mounting problems. In their rush to do so, they stampeded toward Graham Platner as their first choice.
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Make no mistake, Platner was overwhelmingly Democrats’ first choice. He drove Janet Mills, Maine’s current Democrat governor, from the primary race in April. Over two months later, he won the June primary with 72 percent of Democrats’ votes. Platner’s Democrat support was not limited to Maine: National Democratic leaders supported him; so too many in the national establishment media.
However, despite being carried forward in a landslide of Democrat support, Platner was a landfill of a candidate. What’s more, he was a landfill of a candidate from the very beginning.
In September and October 2025, his past writings began coming to light. In deleted Reddit posts, he called himself a “communist,” castigated whites in rural America (“racist” and “stupid”), policemen (“bastards”), blacks (why they “don’t tip”), women (denigrating their fears of rape), and used homophobic slurs. Then came the Nazi tattoo and months of unconvincing explanations for it. In March 2026, a wounded soldier Platner had mocked called him an “entitled brat.” In May, it was revealed that he had sent sexually explicit messages to several women early in his marriage. In June, three former girlfriends alleged “toxic” behavior.
The significance of this list is that all these came out before he won the Senate Democrat primary. Nor is this list exhaustive of his questionable actions and positions. There is a litany of additional items: He was propped up by parents financially, he disrespected U.S. soldiers, he used his own service as an excuse for revelations about his behavior, there were numerous extreme positions (Medicare for All, ending military aid to Israel, “an end to the mass deportation machine,” accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza) And this litany was known before his former girlfriend accused him of raping her in 2021.
Up until the last, Democrats and Democrat leaders had fawned over Platner. They slapped down all the many, and growing number of waving red flags. He was theirs, sympatico, one of them.
Then came the sexual assault allegations. Suddenly, Democrats were forced to abandon their first choice because the majority of America’s women vote for Democrats. They faced a scandal that they could no longer politically ignore.
Now Democrats are faced with finding a replacement for their first, overwhelming choice: a philanderer, a nepo baby, an extremist, a Nazi, a disparager of America’s troops, an abuser of women. They are looking for second-best to all that.
This says a lot—everything—about today’s Democrat Party. They are willing to overlook anything in their search for extremism. They are willing to condone almost everything except being a Republican. They are willing to do anything to win an election. Anything. Only when forced from it by political necessity will they abandon their quest.
Without the sexual assault charges, Platner, their first choice before, would still be their choice now. Anyone they now pick will be their second choice: next-best, after Platner. It is unbelievable. It is also undeniable.
J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left from RealClear Publishing. Follow him on Substack.
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