Graham Platner’s Maine Senate campaign continues to face a barrage of scandals, and Republicans have a golden opportunity to capitalize on it to keep Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in office, but some Democrats might be hoping for a swap out.
The left-wing populist has faced scrutiny for months over past Reddit posts and a Nazi symbol tattoo, and he’s now facing questions over sending sexually explicit messages to women besides his wife, the Wall Street Journal reported. Even after the tattoo and social media controversies, Platner continued to poll strongly, leading Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) to drop out ahead of the June 9 primary. However, the latest wave of negative headlines could mark a turning point in the race.
A national Republican strategist explained to Townhall on background that Republicans will likely keep pushing to see whether or not Senate Democrats will support or condemn him.
“I do think you’ll see more of us trying to get Democrats to answer on where they stand on him. Like, obviously, Cory Booker over the weekend said some stuff about how Platner needs to answer for his past comments,” the strategist said.
“But I think you’ll see more of us just trying to get Democrats who’ve already endorsed him to see if they still stand by him. Like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, all of those people should answer if they still endorse him or if they maybe want to retract their endorsement,” the strategist added.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) has been vocally critical of Platner, whereas others, such as Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) stopped short of asking him to exit the race when asked about him over the weekend, Townhall reported.
However, the strategist noted that Republicans do not see the possibility of him exiting the race as part of the “calculation right now, just because he’s the only one left in the race.”
“If Janet Mills was still in, I think there would maybe be a bigger chance of him dropping out, but I don’t even know who they would replace him with,” the individual continued, noting that outgoing Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) would have potentially been a possibility, but he expressed serious displeasure with the current political climate when announcing his retirement from Congress last year.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested on a Monday episode of the “Verdict” podcast that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer could be behind the recent barrage of bad news to get a different candidate. A Maine law could potentially allow for the Maine Democratic Party to install a new nominee if Platner wins the primary but drops out on or before July 13, Fox News reported.
“It would not surprise me at all if this is Chuck Schumer and Chuck Schumer's minions planting these stories, because he wanted a different candidate, and I think they see blood in the water, and they're going after Platner,” Cruz said.
“I will say this entire episode has revealed how utterly and completely morally bankrupt the Democrat party is, because as every one of these stories broke, no Democrats [sic] senator abandoned him,” he continued. The only one who did was John Fetterman, and Fetterman, to his credit, did the right thing, but that makes the other 46 look all the more hypocritical.”
As for Platner, he spent the weekend playing defense.
“It’s no surprise to me the establishment media outlets are just gonna run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race which are the material realities Mainers are working with," he said in a clip that circulated over the weekend, despite NBC News reporting that the Platner campaign confirmed that the messages sent to the women were real. "These people are gonna try to make this race about anything but what’s it’s supposed to be about which is policy. Amy and I have a very loving and very happy marriage. They would very much like to try to rip that apart."
Graham Platner's campaign confirmed the authenticity of the messages reported by WSJ/NYT, exchanged between his wife and former aide. @NBCNews
— Julie Tsirkin (@news_jul) May 31, 2026
An official close to the campaign says Platner wasn't denying them here, he was referring to the NYT not having the texts themselves. https://t.co/I4l7wRserM
The race continues to be one of the most competitive in the country, as the general election race is rated as a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report. Other races, including ones in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, and North Carolina, will be deciding factors in who controls the upper chamber for the latter half of President Donald Trump’s second term.
