{"id":538683,"date":"2026-03-22T14:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/538683\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:07:11","slug":"janet-mills-targets-graham-platners-online-past-in-bid-to-sway-women-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/538683\/","title":{"rendered":"Janet Mills targets Graham Platner\u2019s online past in bid to sway women voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \u201cIt\u2019s disgusting,\u201d says one woman in the ad. \u201cDisqualifying,\u201d says another.\n <\/p>\n

\n They\u2019re shown reacting to old social media posts from Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic Senate candidate who\u2019s been endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, in a new ad from his rival, Maine Gov. Janet Mills.\n <\/p>\n

\n The now-deleted posts surfaced last fall, after CNN\u2019s KFile<\/a> and then the Washington Post<\/a> reported on online commentary from Platner stretching back years. Mills\u2019 new ad features 2013 comments from Platner downplaying incidents of sexual assault in the military by suggesting victims avoid getting drunk \u201caround people you aren\u2019t comfortable with.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Hours after the ad was released, Platner addressed the media and appeared with women who support his campaign. Then his campaign launched its own TV ad directly responding to Mills\u2019 attack.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf I saw these ads, I\u2019d have questions,\u201d Platner says, appearing on camera. \u201cSo, Maine, I\u2019m asking you not to judge me for the worst thing I said on the internet on my worst day 14 years ago, but who I am today.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Mills and her allies are counting on a gender gap to narrow Platner\u2019s wide lead ahead of the June 9 primary to decide who will face incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. They are betting that the unfiltered style that has brought Platner widespread attention as someone who could help Democrats reach young men will backfire with women.\n <\/p>\n

\"Gov.<\/p>\n

\n In 2020 \u2014 the last year with available exit poll data \u2014 the state\u2019s electorate was 59% female. A February survey<\/a> from the University of New Hampshire, which found Platner substantially ahead among voters of both genders, showed his lead is broader among men than women.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was really on board for him up until, you know, the controversy that happened a few months ago, is when I kind of started questioning,\u201d said Emma Bagby, a substance abuse therapist from Scarborough, Maine. \u201cMaking the comments about women being sexually assaulted, and that they need to take responsibility for themselves in that aspect, you know, that kind of rhetoric, just is scary right now.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Speaking to CNN\u2019s Manu Raju, Platner said, \u201cI\u2019ve gone all over the state of Maine and allowed people to ask me about it all directly for months now.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think, for a lot of folks in the state to see this get kind of dragged back up months and months after we\u2019d already talked about it \u2014 I will just say the feedback we have received statewide is that people find all of this to be everything they hate about politics,\u201d Platner said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Platner\u2019s campaign launch last August was greeted by a burst of Democratic enthusiasm about the oyster farmer<\/a> and Marine veteran. Soon after Mills joined the race<\/a> in October, reports began emerging that sparked a series of controversies. Stories about the Reddit posts were followed by the revelation that Platner had a tattoo<\/a> on his chest of an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, which he has since had covered. Platner attributes his missteps to youthful ignorance.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI as a person have transformed over time and changed, which actually I think a lot of folks can identify with,\u201d he told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\"Graham<\/p>\n

\n Sanders endorsed Platner last August, shortly after he launched his campaign, imparting his progressive, anti-establishment mantle. And in recent weeks Platner has rolled out a steady stream of other prominent endorsers, including Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.\n <\/p>\n

\n Platner has established a fundraising lead; according to end-of-year FEC reports, he raised about $4.6 million in the fourth quarter and had amassed $3.7 million cash on hand, compared with Mills raising $2.7 million in the period and reporting $1.3 million in cash on hand.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mills was recruited to run by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as a more conventional candidate against Collins, widely seen as one of the toughest Republican incumbents and someone Democrats almost certainly will need to defeat to retake Senate control this fall. But Mills also faces questions about her age. At 77, she would become the oldest first-term senator in history and promised not to seek a second term if she wins.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cElectability is the key in this race,\u201d Mills told<\/a> journalist Chris Cillizza this month. \u201cBecause if we want to unseat Susan Collins, we have to put up a candidate who can win and in the past, we put up good people to run against her, but they\u2019ve all been untested.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Mills has also joked<\/a> on social media: \u201cFor what it\u2019s worth, I don\u2019t have any tattoos.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Platner\u2019s supporters want Democrats to embrace a candidate who they think offers an answer to problems the party has faced with rural voters, young men and alternative media, which observers think contributed to their losses in 2024.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe\u2019s still attracting 600, 700 people like he was before, which, having been in Maine politics for nearly 25 years now, I have never seen that in any primary election,\u201d said Toby McGrath, a veteran Maine Democratic campaign consultant. \u201cI think Graham Platner has a lot more upside in the general election, potentially more downside. And I think that, you know, we\u2019re in the margins when it\u2019s the governor and the senator.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Gov.<\/p>\n

\n \ufeffLabor is also rallying to Platner\u2019s campaign, which is backed by several labor unions including the United Auto Workers, the Maine State Nurses Association, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.\n <\/p>\n

\n In late February, Michael Monahan, vice president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 2nd district \u2013 which covers Maine \u2013\u2013 wrote a letter to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to \u201cexpress our deep concern regarding the DSCC\u2019s ongoing involvement in the 2026 Maine Democratic Senate Primary.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cGraham Platner is the only candidate in this race who stands with working people, respects organized labor and has earned labor\u2019s trust. We strongly urge the DSCC to refrain from intervening further in this primary,\u201d Monahan wrote, criticizing Mills\u2019 record on labor issues.\n <\/p>\n

\n Megan Smith, with the Maine People\u2019s Alliance, a progressive community action organization that has endorsed Platner, said that \u201cI have not seen the momentum at all slowing for Graham.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe consensus amongst a lot of people is that we need to allow people to change and to grow and to become different people,\u201d Smith said.\n <\/p>\n

\n And she also cautioned national Democrats against trying to influence the outcome.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think people in Maine don\u2019t like to be told what to do from outside. I also think that the Democratic Party at the national level does not have a very high approval rating, so I\u2019m not sure how much establishment Democrats coming into Maine saying this is our candidate, is going to be helpful for either candidate,\u201d Smith said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bagby, meanwhile, is still making up her mind.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think Janet Mills feels safe, because we know what she stands for. We know what she\u2019s done, versus Graham Platner, he\u2019s new, and now all these things are coming out,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, I think it\u2019s just gonna be kind of a game-time decision based on what he says these next couple of months.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s disgusting,\u201d says one woman in the ad. \u201cDisqualifying,\u201d says another. They\u2019re shown reacting to old social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-538683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}