Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is casting himself on the campaign trail as a “working class Mainer,” received a $200,000 loan from his father, a prominent local attorney, to finance his home, property records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. Platner has since said he couldn’t have made the purchase without the “support of the VA,” though he did not take advantage of the government-backed mortgages available to service members, according to the records.
Platner’s mortgage record, dated June 30, 2017, shows that he secured “payment of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000)” from his father, Bronson Platner, to finance the property. It likely covered the entire purchase price of the four-bedroom house near the water in the Maine town of Sullivan, which sits at the gateway to Acadia National Park. The home’s tax assessed value in 2017 was $164,000, records show.
The mortgage record refers to a “promissory note,” a written legal agreement in which a borrower agrees to repay a lender within a certain timeframe, between Platner and his father. It also includes an attached document describing the house—where Platner still resides—and listing the sellers, who transferred the home to Platner through a deed that was recorded on the same day, documents show. A county assessor told the Free Beacon that the property referenced on that deed matches Platner’s address. In a brief interview, the house’s sellers also confirmed that Platner’s father funded the mortgage.
The records contradict Platner’s description of his home purchase. In September, Platner said, “I bought my house in 2017. If I hadn’t bought then, if I hadn’t had the support of the VA, my wife and I would now be priced out of the town I grew up in, like the millions of Americans being exiled from their towns and cities.”
Platner’s mortgage record, however, does not list a Veterans Affairs loan, or a loan from any bank. Private lenders, like Platner’s father, are not subject to the same disclosure requirements as federally regulated banks, meaning the agreement between Platner and his father is not public and the terms of the loan—including whether he is paying any interest at all—are unknown. If he had received a VA loan, the terms would have been included in the mortgage record. There are no other mortgage records listing Platner as a party in Hancock County, where Platner resides, a Free Beacon review found.
The Free Beacon sent the Platner campaign detailed questions about the mortgage records, the terms of the loan from Platner’s father, and what support Platner received from the VA to buy the home, if any. A campaign spokesman did not answer those questions, instead saying in a statement that “the healthcare and disability benefits Graham receives from the VA has given him the flexibility that let him build a life in his hometown.”
Property records show that the assessed value of the home stayed stagnant for years before rising to $214,500 in 2024, meaning it is unlikely that Platner would be “priced out” had he waited to purchase the home. VA home loans, which allow for zero percent down, are attractive to working-class service members seeking to buy a home. But buyers of means can get better terms from private lenders and avoid fees that come with a VA loan.
The revelation that Platner’s father loaned him $200,000 undercuts the everyman image Platner has presented on the campaign trail.
Platner attended an elite Connecticut boarding school, the Hotchkiss School, that costs upwards of $75,000 a year. Its alumni include Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart and former CIA director Porter Goss. Last year, it was named America’s number one boarding school. Platner was “essentially” kicked out of Hotchkiss after refusing to go to class, he told Politico, and he graduated from John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, another private school. In an October interview with Jen Psaki, Platner claimed he has “never been close to money and power.”
His father, Bronson Platner, a Dartmouth College alumnus, served as an assistant district attorney in Maine and ran for state senate. Platner’s grandfather, Warren Platner, was a world-famous, Cornell-educated architect known for creating “a furniture collection that has proved to be an enduring icon of 1960’s Modernism” and for designing “several prominent interiors in New York, including offices for the Ford Foundation building and the original Windows on the World restaurant,” as the New York Times put it in his 2006 obituary.
In a campaign launch video filmed from his house, Platner described himself as a “working class Mainer who’s seen this state become unlivable for working people.” He has also suggested that he would not be able to afford his mortgage without disability benefits from the VA.
“I was lucky enough to do four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and get blown up enough that the VA says that I deserve health care and a little bit of money every month that helps me pay my mortgage,” Platner told Politico in December, repeating a line he has used in campaign stump speeches. “If it wasn’t for that, I would not have been able to move back to Sullivan, Maine. If it wasn’t for that, I would not have been able to start a business.”
It’s not clear why Platner obtained a loan from his father rather than a VA loan, which comes with a lower interest rate than a conventional loan and does not require a down payment. It’s entirely possible his father is charging him no interest at all. Platner may have lacked the income necessary to qualify for a VA loan before purchasing the home with his father’s help. He was living with his mother after attending private George Washington University in Washington, D.C. But insufficient funds likely would have been a short-lived problem. In 2018, the year after Platner bought the home, he worked for the private military contractor Constellis, which includes the company formerly known as Blackwater, in Afghanistan, where he “padded the bank account,” according to a comment he posted to Reddit.
Platner has said he receives about $4,800 a month in VA disability benefits, roughly triple the monthly payment on an average 30-year fixed mortgage of $200,000. Platner does serve as president of a small business, Waukeag Neck Oyster Company, though he did not found it. It was founded by a friend, Jock Crothers, who made Platner an offer to take it over when he returned from overseas.
Platner’s candidate financial disclosure says the company, which is listed as Frenchman Bay Oyster Company, the name Platner adopted when he took it over but one that it generally does not use online, holds equipment worth up to $100,000 but does not pay him a salary. Platner could take a salary or “owner’s draw” from the company but opted not to “so as not to affect his disability benefits,” the Maine Wire reported, citing a “campaign spokesperson.” The disclosure states that Platner’s wife received salary payments from the oyster company and the campaign.
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