Maine Democrats vote Tuesday on whether Graham Platner becomes their Senate nominee after a week of damaging allegations about how he treats women. Support among Democrats is split: Rep. Ro Khanna defended Platner while calling his past misogynistic and shamef
By Sunday night, Maine Democrats weren’t just thinking about taxes, health care, or who could beat Republican Sen. Susan Collins. They were also thinking about what Graham Platner did, how he did it, and what it should mean as voters head to the polls Tuesday.
Platner has entered primary day as the favorite even after a week of damaging reports about his past treatment of women. The allegations have pushed Democrats—especially elected officials and party strategists—to address it publicly in the same final hours when the focus is supposed to be on choosing the nominee.
The pressure intensified after a New York Times report detailed accounts from former girlfriends. They described Platner as volatile and, at times, physically intimidating. Platner denies physically abusing anyone. His campaign has acknowledged past behavior he has described as shameful while disputing allegations of violence.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who campaigned with Platner in Maine on Friday, offered one of the sharpest public versions of the argument Democrats are trying to manage: condemning conduct without writing off the candidate.
“His actions were misogynistic, they were shameful, they were wrong,” Khanna said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Khanna said the voters he met understood there were serious problems in Platner’s past, but that those voters are still weighing them against the issues driving his campaign.
“The Maine voters that I met said they don’t like it,” Khanna said. “They are willing to extend him grace and redemption and they’re focused now on what he’s running for.”
Support, Khanna said, has limits. He broke with some of Platner’s defenders by saying he believed Lyndsey Fifield—one of the women whose allegations were detailed by The New York Times—and by urging Democrats to stop questioning her motives or political affiliations.
“I don’t think our side should be attacking her, and I appreciate her courage in coming forward,” he said.
Then he drew a line that many Democrats have been careful not to set too clearly.
“Obviously, look, if there was evidence of violence, I would not support him. If there was evidence of sexual assault, I’d have zero support for him,” Khanna said.
The Times reported that Fifield alleged Platner regularly grabbed her by the shoulders and, during one argument, twisted her arm behind her back before shoving her into a bedroom. Platner’s campaign denies allegations of physical violence.
Not every Democrat has responded with the same balance.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., called the allegations troubling during appearances on multiple Sunday programs, but said voters—not party leaders—should make the final decision.
“If these allegations are true, they’re very troubling,” Warner said on Fox News Sunday. “But I don’t know if they are true or not. I think, frankly, the people in Maine ought to decide that.”
Others worried that the controversy could land like a political drag on a race Democrats badly want to win.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., told The New York Times that both the allegations and Platner’s political positions were “unsettling.”
Still, some of the party’s most prominent progressives have continued to stand behind him. Sen. Bernie Sanders reiterated his support over the weekend, arguing Platner remains the strongest candidate to challenge Republican control of the Senate.
For Platner, the campaign has also been rooted in a biography voters already know well. His pitch includes military service in Iraq, struggles with PTSD, and later work as an oyster farmer in Maine.
The campaign has spent weeks answering questions beyond the recent allegations. It addressed sexually explicit messages sent to women outside his marriage, old online posts, and a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol. Platner apologized for the posts and later covered the tattoo.
Now the decision is set to move from party figures and Sunday-show debate to Maine voters themselves, who will decide Tuesday whether Platner becomes the Democratic nominee in one of the Senate’s most closely watched races.
If he wins, Platner is expected to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November in a contest that Democratic strategists view as among the most competitive in the country—one where the party can’t afford to lose momentum. and where the questions raised this week have become part of the math of whether voters trust him with power.
Maine Democrats Senate primary Graham Platner Susan Collins Ro Khanna Mark Warner Bernie Sanders Lyndsey Fifield New York Times allegations