{"id":241,"date":"2026-06-08T19:39:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=241"},"modified":"2026-06-08T19:39:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:39:46","slug":"graham-platner-is-about-to-find-out-whether-mainers-really-have-his-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=241","title":{"rendered":"Graham Platner Is About to Find Out Whether Mainers Really Have His Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

BAR HARBOR, MAINE<\/em> \u2014 Corinn Keblinsky surveyed the crowd of Graham Platner backers that had packed this town\u2019s historic Criterion Theatre on the Friday night before Maine Democratic primary voters will send the first tangible signal regarding the fate of Platner\u2019s US Senate candidacy.<\/p>\n

Read more Not Even Trump Can Ruin the Knicks\u2019 Moment<\/a><\/p>\n

Keblinsky, an accountant from Standish, Maine, said she was more interested in the verdict that will be rendered Tuesday by the people seated around her \u2014 and by voters across the state \u2014 than in the pronouncements from pundits and politicians in Washington.<\/p>\n

Like everyone who pays attention to politics in Maine, Keblinsky was well aware of an increasingly frenzied national debate about Platner, the 41-year-old Marine veteran and oyster farmer turned US Senate candidate whose controversial past has dominated\u00a0cable news shows and newspaper front pages in recent days.\u00a0And she was frustrated by the national coverage.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s out of control,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re all talking about Maine, but they don\u2019t know Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a common theme among Mainers I spoke with last week in Bar Harbor, Blue Hill, Bangor and other communities around the state. While Platner is facing a firestorm from national commentators \u2014 some who see reports on Platner\u2019s sexting, since covered up Totenkopf tattoo and \u201ctoxic\u201d relationships as \u201cdisqualifying,\u201d, and others who simply worry that a weakened Platner might fail to dislodge Republican US Sen. Susan Collins in November and upend Democratic prospects for retaking the Senate \u2014 the candidate maintains substantial support in the state, where his campaign literature declares: \u201cMaine First. Maine Always.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a weekend headline from Maine\u2019s largest newspaper, The Portland Press Herald<\/em>, explained, \u201cMaine Democrats largely stand by Graham Platner amid D.C. worries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why the dichotomy between the state and national discourse? Many voters said they have a sense of regional connection with Platner. \u201cHe\u2019s just Maine. He sounds like Maine,\u201d said Keith Tharp, a photographer from the town of Mount Desert. \u201cWhen he\u2019s talking, he comes across as a Mainer. So, we want to hear what he<\/em> has to say.\u201d What they\u2019ve heard, argues Erin Oberson, a co-president of the Maine State Nurses Association\/National Nurses United, which has endorsed Platner,\u00a0is \u201ca candidate who will represent the working class\u201d \u2014 a determined advocate for Medicare for All and saving rural hospitals, for strong unions and pay equity, for taxing the rich and standing up to oligarchy.<\/p>\n

And while so much of the coverage of the Senate race has focused on Platner\u2019s stormy personal life , his struggles after returning from four combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and on a string of divisive comments he left on online forums, much of the talk in Maine is about where he stands on the issues \u2014 and on a broader fight over economic inequality and whether working Mainers will be able to afford housing, healthcare and heating oil in winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been robbed of things in this world by the people who run it,\u201d said gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson, a veteran union activist and legislator whom Platner has backed for governor. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a campaign, this is a movement,\u201d declares Jackson, who, like Platner, has been endorsed by US Sen. Bernie Sanders and echoes the message of the two-time presidential contender who remains popular in Maine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not from the left. We\u2019re not from the right,\u201d declares Jackson. \u201cWe\u2019re from the bottom, and we\u2019re rising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Fire Bari Weiss!<\/a><\/p>\n

The extent to which this rising will benefit Platner remains to be seen. But if there was one sentiment that came through loud and clear after a week of unsettling reports on Platner\u2019s past, it was that Mainers want to have their say.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The controversy surrounding Platner has, unquestionably, heightened interest in Tuesday\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n

Platner became the presumptive Democratic nominee to take on Republican US Sen. Susan Collins in late April, when Maine Gov. Janet Mills\u2014a favorite of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic strategists in DC\u2014suspended her bid for the party\u2019s Senate nomination. Now, Mills is saying, \u201cPeople have the impression that I withdrew or dropped out, but I simply suspended active campaigning. I\u2019m still on the ballot.\u201d Mills yard signs have reappeared in some places, and newspaper columns have talked up the options of supporting her or another candidate, David Costello.<\/p>\n

What this means is that, on Tuesday, Maine Democrats have a chance to provide tangible evidence of their sentiments regarding Platner. While he is still seen as a very likely winner, a substantial primary vote for Mills and lesser-known contenders could be a blow to Platner\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if Maine Democrats and their allies give Platner a clear vote of confidence in the primary, he and his backers believe he will be in a strong position to beat Collins. On Friday night, there was no shortage of enthusiasm on the part of Platner\u2019s supporters, who greeted him with standing ovations. Platner responded in kind, telling the crowd, \u201cSince the beginning, Maine, you had my back. When hurtful things I said on the internet a decade ago came out into the public, as I shared my personal journey through PTSD and darkness, of recovery and accountability and growth, Maine had my back. Now, as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated and weaponized, you have my back. And when politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me, Maine, you have my back. The state of Maine raised me, and the state of Maine saved me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rallygoers also cheered for California US Rep. Ro Khanna, a Platner backer who said, \u201cNo one should make excuses for his past relationships, some of which were toxic and volatile. And no one on our side should attack the women who came forward. You know why? Because Democrats respect the equality and dignity of women, and we always will. And we reject, unequivocally, misogyny. We reject it. But you know who else rejects it? Graham Platner. He understood that those years [after he returned from military service] were not the best years of his life. He\u2019s ashamed of some of the things he said and did. And then, he, unlike others, took accountability for it. And he\u2019s worked to be a better man, a better human being. We need to have an honest conversation in this country. We broke thousands of young men by sending them into dumb wars and sending away their factory jobs. We did that as a country. That\u2019s not an excuse. That\u2019s the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first test of whether Maine voters share that view will come Tuesday, in a high-turnout primary that will send a powerful signal about whether Mainers really do have Platner\u2019s back. That\u2019s not guaranteed. But, if they do, Platner will mount a fall campaign that seeks to shift the debate away from his past and toward a Maine-focused critique of Collins \u2013 as he did in his final pre-primary campaign appearances. Cheered on by Portland supporters Sunday night, Platner said of Collins, \u201cShe has always been there to cast votes for the stupid foreign wars [the government] starts and sends young men like [Platner] to fight in. She\u2019s always there to support that. She\u2019s always there to make sure that the defense companies that donate money to her \u2013 or that her lobbyist husband represents \u2013 that there\u2019s always money for them. She is always there to make sure that when money gets appropriated at the federal level, [it] goes in the pockets of corporations long before it goes in the pockets of working Mainers. She\u2019s always there for that stuff, but she\u2019s never there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Marjane Satrapi\u2019s Rebellious Art<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nGraham Platner Is About to Find Out Whether Mainers Really Have His Back - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=241\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Graham Platner Is About to Find Out Whether Mainers Really Have His Back - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=241\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-08T19:39:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=241#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=241\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Graham Platner Is About to Find Out Whether Mainers Really Have His Back\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-08T19:39:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=241\"},\"wordCount\":1325,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=241#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/4e04ff8b7bb3112eb8363d768417bcb1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=241#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=241\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=241\",\"name\":\"Graham Platner Is About to Find Out Whether Mainers Really Have His Back - 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