Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate hopeful and oyster farmer from Maine, has been dealt another blow after his campaign manager quit after less than a week on the job.
The 41-year-old Platner, who announced his run for the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine in a widely viewed August video, has since faced various controversies and seen several staffers leave his campaign, the latest being his friend and campaign manager, Kevin Brown.
In a statement to Axios, Brown called Platner “a dear friend” but said he stepped down after less than a week on the job upon learning he would be having a baby.
“Graham deserves someone who is 100% in on his race, and we want to lean into this new experience as a family,” Brown said, adding that it was best to step back “so Graham can get the manager he deserves.”
Platner’s political director, Genevieve McDonald, also departed earlier in October after the Senate hopeful’s controversial social media and Reddit posts resurfaced.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment, but received no immediate response.
In several deleted posts revealed by CNN, Platner wrote that he owns guns because he doesn’t “trust the fascists to act politely,” called police “b—–ds,” and responded to a Reddit post claiming “White people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks” by writing, “I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.”
“That was very much me f–king around on the internet,” Platner told CNN, explaining that the posts came during a darker time in his life.
Platner was scouted this summer by millennial Democrats who coordinated with Maine labor leaders, community activists, and volunteers to find a candidate who could unseat the longest-serving Republican senator, Susan Collins.
In a state with a population of 1.4 million and roughly equal numbers of registered Democratic and Republican voters, Platner’s military background and working-class demeanor helped his campaign get off to a strong start. The New Yorker reported on a user describing Platner as a “guy [who] looks like a progressive mind in [a] MAGA body.”
Yet, a few weeks into his campaign, public attention turned to Platner’s skull-and-crossbones tattoo, which appeared to resemble a Nazi symbol. Platner said he would have it removed and claimed he was unaware of the symbolism, adding that he got it on a drunken night out when he was younger.
A post shared by Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine)
“When I tell people around here that I’m running for Senate, sometimes the initial reaction is, ‘What the f–k?’” Platner said in his first campaign video, before hitting on key themes of his race: billionaires and corrupt politicians are destroying the environment, driving families into poverty, and crushing the middle class.
Platner has claimed that the Democratic Party is trying to “destroy” his life by dragging his name “through the mud” now that Maine Gov. Janet Mills entered the Senate primary earlier this month.
However, he continues to be endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders.
“He went through a dark period in his life. I suspect that Graham Platner is not the only American to have gone through a dark period,” Sanders told The Axios Show last week.
“I think what we have got to do as a nation is not focus on a tattoo,” Sanders told Alex Thompson. “We’ve got to focus on a system which in many ways is collapsing,” he added.
A Saturday poll shows Platner losing his lead against Mills, who is backed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Mills pulled 41 percent to Platner’s 36 percent.
“What I’m not gonna do is purposely change my personality, or put on some kind of adaptation to try to appeal to folks,” Platner told The New Yorker when asked whether he would change himself if he won his Senate race. “As I get accused of being things that I am not and never have been, I have to remind myself that I have no right to quit. I have no right to give up.”
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