The stage is now set for a blockbuster battle for a key U.S. Senate seat.
On Tuesday night, longtime Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and controversial Democrat Graham Platner won their respective primaries.
In a victory speech late on Tuesday night, Platner claimed that many of the allegations against him were “manufactured,” a tell to many that he’s already trying to run away from his scandal-plagued past.
He said that members of the political establishment “keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by.”
He added, “In trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us, about the far too many, working far too hard and struggling far too much.”
Platner also went after Collins and hinted that he supported Democrats’ plans to pack the U.S. Supreme Court with liberal justices.
He said Collins has failed to protect abortion rights.
“If you are an independent voice, why do you vote with Donald Trump 95 percent of the time?” he said, addressing his opponent directly.
“If you’re so bipartisan, why are you the deciding vote to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court?” Platner added.
Platner hopes to unseat the longtime Republican senator with the help of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California.
The race is one of a few that could decide whether the GOP maintains its narrow Senate majority in the midterm elections.
Among his many progressive policy stances, Platner, on his campaign website, urges “passing a constitutional amendment to ban billionaires buying elections!”
And he highlights that he’s “a strong supporter of a Medicare for All system” and that he “will support a path to citizenship and an end to the mass deportation machine.”
Numerous controversies have also embroiled Platner.
Platner has been dogged by revelations involving explicit texts to other women during his marriage, a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol, inflammatory old Reddit posts, and accusations from ex-girlfriends of demeaning and physically threatening conduct.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, whom he married in 2023, discovered sexually explicit text messages between her husband and several other women early in their marriage.
Platner has acknowledged sending the messages but faces ongoing scrutiny over the timing and extent of the communications, which reportedly involved as many as a dozen women.
A New York Times investigation detailed accounts from multiple ex-partners who described Platner’s behavior as “unsettling,” “reckless,” and “toxic.”
One former girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, alleged that during an argument years ago, Platner twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom, and held the door shut while telling her to “calm down.”
Other women recalled him being demeaning toward women, heavy drinking, and emotionally volatile relationships.
Platner has denied any physical violence, calling himself a “bad boyfriend” in the past while attributing issues to PTSD from his service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Further controversy surrounds a tattoo Platner got in 2007 during a night of drinking in Croatia.
It featured imagery resembling the Nazi Totenkopf skull, which he later covered up.
While Platner claims he was unaware of its Nazi associations until recently, some ex-girlfriends and former campaign aides insist he knew.
Old Reddit posts under the username “P-Hustle,” many now deleted, have also resurfaced.
In them, Platner allegedly downplayed sexual assault, suggesting victims “take some responsibility” by avoiding alcohol and “act like an adult.”
He reportedly called Maine voters he hopes to represent “racist” and “stupid,” used slurs, criticized police, and made other crude remarks.
