Despite a damaging weekend of headlines about Graham Platner’s alleged infidelity, his Senate Democratic allies are sticking by their presumptive candidate to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins in the critical Maine battleground.
Democrats dismissed reporting by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal that Platner’s wife flagged to the campaign that she’d discovered sexual texts that Platner sent to multiple women during their marriage.
Platner’s endorsers have already stuck by the Democrat after a storm of negative news cycles surrounding Platner’s Totenkopf tattoo and offensive Reddit posts. Their support isn’t waning, even with the prospect of more revelations to come.
“We all know that he’s lived a very, you know, real experience,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said of Platner. “The voters of Maine are going to decide what they’re going to do, but at this point, this man can still win the race, and as long as he continues, I think we’ll all be there.”
But there’s an even bigger reason Democrats are standing by Platner: They have no path to the Senate majority without defeating Collins, a Republican they’ve long failed to topple.
Platner is scheduled to meet with a group of Democratic senators in D.C. this afternoon ahead of some fundraisers. The meeting was scheduled long before the recent sexting revelations.
A common theme we heard from Democrats was that Platner’s marriage didn’t deserve to be litigated on the campaign trail.
“That’s between Graham and Amy,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) asserted, referring to Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she was concerned about the price of gasoline, not Platner’s texts.
“Maybe as a nation we focus on issues more important than the Platner marriage,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said.
The DSCC and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer initially backed Maine Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary. But after Mills failed to gain traction, she suspended her Senate bid a month ago. However, Mills noted on Monday that “I am still on the ballot” for next week’s primary.
