L’Affaire Platner
The real lessons of the Graham Platner debacle in Maine.
Graham Platner is stepping down from the Maine Senatorial campaign. The lessons seem pretty obvious to me, but he has left a lot of confusion and turmoil in his wake—and not just a few terrible takes. Like: 1) this proves Dems have their own problem with sexual assault (media); 2) Don’t rush to judgment yet! (desperate far-left trolls); and 3) The “political structure” has destroyed yet another progressive (Platner)!
In any population, you’re going to have bad people, and the question is, how do you handle them? Dems usually show they will hold their own accountable, though the media still tries to both-sides it. In cases like this, Platner, now exiled, is equivalent to Trump, a convicted sex offender who enjoys nearly uniform support of the Republican Party. We’ve also seen a certain figure emerge on the left who claims to be populist, but who turns out to be very tolerant of misogyny, corruption, and cruelty if the person in question is a White dude. If there’s a problem on the left, that’s it. (Stay tuned for a prediction at the end of the post.)
So what real lessons can we take away from all this? Let’s do this in lightning-round fashion:
Platner showed us who he was from the start. He just did. Those who didn’t see it need to take a look at the perils of motivated reasoning.
Even leaving aside the Nazi tattoo, Ds are way too forgiving of arrogant White men who explain away their transgressions with grievance rather than repentance. This is not “authenticity,” it’s entitlement, and it’s a red flag that big problems may be coming down the road when we select these candidates.
Choosing candidates who have no political experience and who have never run for office appeals to people who hate politics. If they were more attuned to the way politics really work, however, they would see it as a huge risk that often ends up in a politician with major flaws of character, competence, or both. Experience isn’t a bad thing and Graham Platner is a case in point.
Platner was a bad candidate. Maine is a pretty solidly blue state, voting for Harris by 7% in a terrible year. In 2026, Dems are overperforming somewhere around 8% above 2024, and yet Platner was barely ahead in the polls. Collins is a badass, which is why so few Ds ran against her, but Platner was losing Ds and persuadable indies to Collins.
Because Collins is a badass, the strong Ds ran for governor instead of Senate. That means Maine has a slate of very good candidates to replace Platner, including progressives. They should immediately begin polling better than Platner based solely on demographics and the political mood.
(One of them is Dan Kleban, a candidate who violates point 3, but who co-founded Maine Beer Co., and whom I’ve interviewed, and who seems like an awesome guy I’m irrationally excited about. He will not win.)
To conclude, Platner was a bad guy who ran in a favorable, anti-incumbent year against the 79-year-old incumbent Maine governor. He appeared popular because the competition was poor and there was no third candidate. Maine Dems who skipped the Senate race to run for governor didn’t cover themselves in glory, but here we are.
PS. I am actually surprised Platner stepped aside. He’s angry and filled with grievances against perceived enemies. Since his Democratic political career was over and he wasn’t going to win the election in any case, he could have screwed the party by staying in and losing. The grievance that animated his politics might well have made him dig in here—and it might have been a good career move. Losing sometimes is.
Either way, I would expect his post-election career to resemble the kind of tankie/regressive left White man (like Matt Taibbi) whose politics are sorta populist but are mainly a leftist version of White grievance and misogyny. This campaign certainly won’t reduce his sense of grievance. There’s a very good chance he could go through a complete Tulsi Gabbard conversion to Trumper. Maine really dodged a bullet. Credit to Politico for breaking their rape exclusive early enough for him to step down.