Graham Platner was always a risk for the Democrats. The Maine Senate candidate’s supporters shrugged off the Nazi tattoo and the mountain of old incendiary Reddit posts, drawn to his charisma and ready to believe in his redemption arc. Putting real people in Washington, they argued, meant accepting the real-life baggage that came with it, even if it might get exposed in the gauntlet of the campaign.
But now the party is confronting the potential costs of that risk. In the last two weeks, revelations that Platner sexted women early in his marriage and accusations from an ex-girlfriend that he was physically threatening have disturbed national Democrats and raised questions about what other damaging revelations might drop between now and November.
On the eve of Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Maine, Democrats desperate to defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November face a conundrum. Platner is the party’s de facto nominee. He has denied acting violently toward an ex-girlfriend and says he won’t quit the race. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her Senate campaign in April as Platner rolled to a wide lead, put out a statement reminding voters she’s still on the ballot. But the 78-year-old has not formally relaunched her campaign The same party leaders who were powerless to stop Platner as he rose in the primary have no formal mechanism to force him to leave the race—or even consensus on whether that would be the smartest move.
“I think we all have this fantasy Mills shocks everyone,” says Adam Lee, a Mills supporter and Democratic fundraiser in Maine. “But Graham has such a huge lead. And here, the people that care about stuff he’s said still care, and the people that don’t care still don’t care.”
Read More: Inside Graham Platner’s Controversial Rise.
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