Maine Senate Race Heating Up

The United States Senate race in Maine has suddenly taken on national significance, and not in the way the Democratic Party establishment had hoped. With Governor Janet Mills suspending her campaign due to insufficient funds, Graham Platner has effectively secured the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins.

What was supposed to be a carefully orchestrated centrist challenge has instead delivered a gift to Republicans — an extreme radical candidate wrapped in the flag of military service and the folksiness of oyster farming. Platner presents himself as a battle-tested United States Marine veteran and a patriotic everyman from rural Maine. Yet his record reveals a platform so far left that it would make even the most progressive Democrats of a generation ago shudder. Platner is the new face of the Democratic Party, and it is not a pretty one.

Platner has never held elected office, but he has compiled quite the portfolio of controversial positions. He has repeatedly labeled Israeli military operations in Gaza as genocide and demanded an immediate end to United States military aid to the Jewish state. In resurfaced comments, he described the United States-Israel relationship as shameful and insisted that America must install leaders who refuse to tolerate what he calls the mass slaughter of children.

Even more damning, Platner did not condemn Hamas’ atrocities. An old Reddit posts shows him praising the military tactics of a 2014 Hamas raid that killed Israeli soldiers, calling it a well-executed small unit operation. He has shown pragmatic acceptance of killing combatants even when they are America’s allies.

For a candidate who wraps himself in the mantle of patriotism, his sympathy for a terrorist organization that has sworn to destroy Israel stands out as particularly grotesque. This is not the language of a mainstream Democrat. It is the rhetoric of the radical left-wing fringe that is now taking control of the Democratic Party apparatus.

The antisemitism that lurks beneath the surface became impossible to ignore when reports emerged of a tattoo Platner acquired in 2007 while serving in the Marines. The design on his chest bore a striking resemblance to the Totenkopf, the death’s-head symbol long associated with Nazi SS units responsible for the Holocaust. Platner kept that ink for nearly two decades until it became a campaign liability. Only then did he cover it up and claim youthful ignorance.

One does not sport a Nazi-linked symbol for eighteen years and then suddenly discover its meaning upon entering politics. Maine voters deserve better than a candidate who scrubs his past the moment the spotlight turns on.

Unless it is a very close race, antisemitism is not likely to be a major factor in the campaign. The Jewish population of Maine is approximately 19,000 – plus another 10,000 non-Jews in Jewish households. That is about 2.0 percent of the population in the Pine Tree State.

Platner’s extremism does not stop at foreign policy. His old social media posts reveal a pattern of condescension and outright contempt toward ordinary Americans. He once asked why Black people do not tip, as if the question itself were not steeped in stereotype. He suggested that women concerned about rape should avoid getting too intoxicated around people they do not trust, effectively shifting responsibility onto victims.

On the other hand, Platner dismissed rural white Mainers as racist and stupid. He called police officers bastards, “every last one of them”. He once identified himself as a communist and endorsed the idea that fighting fascism might require a semi-automatic rifle. These are not the musings of a thoughtful veteran processing combat experience. They are the utterances of an ideologue who holds much of the American public in contempt.

Even some Democrats have expressed quiet alarm. The party bosses who handpicked Mills clearly preferred a more moderate standard-bearer. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the establishment wing watched their preferred candidate collapse under the weight of progressive enthusiasm for Platner.

Jewish groups and moderate Democrats have voiced concern over his Israel fixation and his history. Yet the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing has prevailed once again. One can almost hear the sarcastic chuckle from the Democratic National Committee headquarters. After years of insisting they represent the broad center of American politics, they have nominated yet another candidate from the radical fringe. The party that once prided itself on working-class realism has been hijacked by coastal socialist elitists and academic revolutionaries who view patriotism as passé and Israel as the root of all evil.

This race could determine control of the United States Senate. Polls currently show Platner leading Collins by an average of eight points. Yet Susan Collins has made a career out of defying the pollsters. In her previous runs, she trailed in early surveys only to win decisively on Election Day. Her record of bipartisan pragmatism and constituent service stands in stark contrast to Platner’s ideological purity tests. The very extremism that excites the Democratic base may well prove to be the boost Collins needs in independent-minded Maine.

Platner’s ascension marks another chapter in the Democratic Party’s unfortunate transformation that now elevates candidates who traffic in antisemitic tropes, victim-blaming rhetoric, and anti-American foreign policy. Maine voters will decide whether they want a senator who defends the nation’s interests or one who apologizes for its allies while romanticizing its enemies. The choice could not be clearer, and the stakes could not be higher. If Platner represents the future of the Democratic Party, then the party has truly lost its way. Collins, battle-tested and resilient, may once again prove that common sense still has a home in Maine politics.

There is an old political saying, “As goes Maine, so goes the nation.” All Americans had better hope and pray that that is no longer the case.

So, there ‘tis.