KITTERY, Maine (AP) — There are lots of questions about Graham Platner, a first-time Democratic candidate running for U.S. Senate in Maine. Now they are also part of a trivia game.
“What was the nature of the controversy of Graham’s tattoo he received while in the Marines?” an emcee recently asked at a local community center.
The answer? “It was claimed to be a Neo-Nazi tattoo (totenkopf).”
This was not a new way of delivering opposition research, but
an official campaign event for Platner's supporters. And it showed how the 41-year-old oyster farmer and military veteran has capitalized on voters' willingness to forgive past transgressions and embrace a populist message.
Platner is facing Gov. Janet Mills, 78, in the June 9 primary, with the winner taking on five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins, 73, in a race that could help determine Senate control.
“Graham Platner’s campaign gave me a place to put my energy in a positive way,” said Beth Knight, a 63-year-old teacher who attended the trivia night in Kittery, a small seaside town on the border with New Hampshire. “I believe he has a true redemption story.”
Participants drank soda and ate cookies while listening to Dropkick Murphys, a Boston punk band that Platner likes. Some seemed to know a lot about a candidate who was practically unknown just last year, from his dog's name to the name of a bar where he once worked in the nation's capital.
Among the questions was “what characteristics make Graham the best candidate to beat Susan Collins?” One of the options was “he is handsome and has a deep voice,” but the correct answer in the game was "he has grown as an individual and is honest.”
Mills, now in her second term, is backed by the party leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer of New York, and other Democrats who say it is too risky to support an untested candidate such as Platner. Maine has one of the oldest voting populations in the country, and voters often elect politicians with a reputation for being moderate.
But Platner has excited some supporters with an antiestablishment message that his campaign believes could carry him to victory.
“What specific group did Graham identify as the primary enemy in his campaign launch video?” the emcee asked at trivia night. The answer was "the oligarchy and the billionaires.”
Platner has centered his campaign on affordability issues such as housing and health care, but much of the news coverage has focused on his past behavior. He has been dogged by questions about the skull-and-crossbones tattoo reminiscent of a Nazi symbol that he said he got during a night of drinking while on military leave in Croatia.
Platner has maintained that he was unaware at the time that the image had been associated with Nazis, and he has since covered the tattoo with a different design. But there also have been lingering questions about inflammatory comments he made in old online postings, which he has since disavowed. More recently, he has been questioned for being a guest on a podcast hosted by Nate Cornacchia, a retired Green Beret who has been accused of antisemitism.
All the while, Platner keeps filling theaters, meeting halls and rallies. From his August campaign announcement to the end of March, Platner had hosted 50 town halls throughout Maine. His campaign accused Mills and Collins of holding none.
The events include traditional canvassing and phone-banking training, as well as happy hours at breweries and poster-making before No Kings protests. That wide footprint has increased Platner's visibility. For example, on the same night that the campaign hosted the recent trivia game in Kittery, Platner was more than 350 miles away at a town hall in Fort Kent, in the state's far north.
“He’s bringing an energy of wanting to create something in this race, win or lose. He wants to create a lasting connection in communities where people can get together and can actually talk to their neighbors face to face again,” said Megan Smith, a community organizer with the Maine People’s Alliance, an advocacy group that has endorsed Platner.
The Mills and Collins campaigns both rejected the idea that Platner is more accessible to voters, and both cited their candidate’s busy workload as an elected official.
“As the only Democrat to have won statewide in 20 years, voters trust Janet Mills, they know she is the only candidate who has delivered progress for Maine people, and they see her leading our state every single day,” Mills campaign spokesperson Tommy Garcia said.
Collins spokesperson Blake Kernen said that “town halls are often organized by partisan or dark money groups."
“She prefers smaller group meetings, rather than holding town halls where very few people get to speak, and the level of civility is often not that high,” she said.
To date, Platner has significantly outspent Mills on advertising since jumping into the race in August, $4.8 million compared with Mills’ $1.5 million according to a recent analysis by AdImpact.
The spending comes as the campaign intensifies as the primary nears. Mills recently released a video in which women read some of Platner’s old social media posts that were dismissive of sexual assault.
Platner's defenders do not appear worried about that increased attention, arguing that Democrats are more willing to elect candidates who are honest about past mistakes as long as they make an effort to show how they have changed.
“In this environment, you know, where we have people like Donald Trump in public office who have done terrible things, there is more appetite in the Democratic Party to have people that are not just purely polished and have been on an election track their whole lives,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat who has endorsed Platner.
Smith, the community organizer, said some voters bristle at the assumption that outsiders such as Schumer know better than Mainers.
“Mainers are kind of stubborn and we don’t like to be told what to do,” she said. “They’re not thrilled to have D.C. Democrats weighing in on our primaries.”
Still, Platner will have to overcome historical precedent to beat Mills.
“Historically, there’s been an inclination of Democratic primary voters in Maine to pick the known candidate,” said Michael Franz, a government professor with Bowdoin College. “Oftentimes, that is an older candidate who’s been in office for a while.”
Franz described Platner as “a high-risk, high-reward type of candidate.”
“He might end up being the new national figure that captures everyone’s attention if he’s elected to the Senate," he said. "Or he might just be the candidate that everyone thought could come out of nowhere but ended up only getting 42% of the vote.”
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Kruesi reported from Providence, R.I. Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed to this report.
