Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who had a Nazi tattoo and called white rural people racist and stupid, would lose a general election against incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins, according to a poll commissioned by the Democratic group EMILYs List.
Even though “the partisan environment in Maine favors a generic Democrat,” Platner trails Collins by 9 points after voters see both “a positive paragraph reflective of Platner’s bio and current campaign messaging, and a negative paragraph summarizing the recent news about him and reflecting likely Republican messaging in a general election,” according to an EMILYs List memo obtained by Politico. Once Mainers read “additional information, including quotes in his own words from his online posts and information about his Nazi tattoo,” Platner’s support plummets, with Collins beating him by a staggering 19 points in the blue-leaning state.
Maine is one of Democrats’ top Senate targets in next year’s elections.
Platner’s campaign has found itself torn apart by controversies since reports broke of the candidate’s old Reddit posts, in which—among other things—he said that “all” cops are bastards, called himself a communist, blamed victims of sexual assault for getting raped, and promoted violence against people he considers fascists.
In response to one post, titled “White people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks,” Platner wrote, “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.” He was presumably referring to Maine, where he has lived since 2018.
As the controversies mounted, Platner also confessed to having a tattoo of a Nazi symbol, which he has since covered up.
The Maine Democrat is facing an exodus of advisers amid the scandals. Late last month, his finance director publicly resigned, saying, “My professional standards as a campaign professional no longer fully aligned with those of the campaign.” Around the same time, his treasurer also announced her resignation. Platner’s second campaign manager, meanwhile, left after just three days on the job, while his political director resigned earlier last month, later telling Politico that she refused $15,000 from the campaign to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
While Platner has apologized for the posts, saying they’re not “indicative of who I am today,” Mainers are not buying those apologies, the EMILYs List poll found. “A lengthy response from Platner, constructed with his own language, does not change the deep deficit he faces,” according to the memo. “Collins remains well above 50% and still leads the race by a double-digit margin.”
Different polls for the Democratic primary have found drastically different results, with one survey last month giving Platner’s nearest rival, Gov. Janet Mills, a 5-point lead. A different poll released days later found Platner with a 34-point lead, though it was taken before news broke of the Nazi tattoo.
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