Since I imagine most of you don’t follow politics as closely as I do, you may not have heard about the primary campaign currently taking place in Maine. Sen. Susan Collins, a so-called moderate who always votes for the Trump agenda–despite publicly expressing concern–was the deciding vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. She installed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and voted to advance Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, which strips almost a trillion dollars from Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. With Collins being the only Republican senator representing a state that Kamala Harris won in 2024 combined with Collins’ underwater approval rating, it should come as no surprise that an eventful Democratic primary is already underway to replace her.
Four candidates are running, while two more have already dropped out. However, the two clear frontrunners are incumbent Gov. Janet Mills and Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and former Marine veteran. Mills, who is currently 77, would be 84 at the end of her term and would be the oldest freshman senator ever elected. She is running on her experience as governor and defending Maine from Trump. Platner, at age 41, is running against “a government of, by, and for billionaires, who are building a ‘billionaire economy’ that none of us can afford” and advocating for Medicare for All and a Billionaire Minimum Tax.
If this sounds like a regular Democratic primary, I can assure you that it’s not. Immediately after Mills launched her campaign, Platner, who is supported by Bernie Sanders, was plagued by multiple scandals at once. Media outlets uncovered several Reddit posts that Platner made after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In one post, he said that he’s “pretty much stopped believing in the patriotic nonsense that got me there.” He responded to another user’s claim that voters were not as racist as Trump thought by saying that “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.” He responded to a thread asking users “what is one question you have always wanted to ask someone of another race?” by asking “Why don’t black people tip?” He also responded to a post about preventing sexual assault by saying that people should “take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f—ked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to?” Just four days after the story about his posting history, Platner posted a video of himself dancing shirtless. Now, it’s 2025, so this wouldn’t be a problem, except for the fact that it made his tattoo visible. The tattoo was a Totenkopf, a skull symbol used by the Nazi SS as its insignia. Platner claimed that he thought the tattoo was of a skull and crossbones and announced that after learning its meaning, he immediately had it covered up.
Mills is not free from significant political baggage herself, although none of her scandals come close to the same level as Platner’s. In 1990, when she was a District Attorney, Mills was investigated by state and federal authorities for using cocaine, although no charges were ever filed. She sued the reporter who broke the story, despite admitting that there was an investigation, which she called “politically motivated.” When she was Maine’s attorney general, she was sued by the state’s governor for abuses of power after she refused to defend lawsuits against state policies that she disagreed with. In the wake of a school shooting, Mills also campaigned against red flag laws for gun control, which Maine voters approved via a ballot initiative earlier this month. She also vetoed a bill that would require public defenders for people accused of a crime.
If you thought that either of these histories would sink any hope of a person becoming a senator, especially in a swing state, I wouldn’t blame you. But you’ve got to remember who the president is. If Donald Trump can mock a disabled reporter, be found liable for both business fraud and sexual abuse, get convicted of 34 felonies and charged with dozens more, incite a riot at the U.S. Capitol, steal a bunch of classified documents and still be elected president, is there any behavior too outrageous for voters? If having a Nazi tattoo isn’t disqualifying to be secretary of defense, why should it be disqualifying to be senator? When the recently elected attorney general from Virginia can say that if he had a gun with two bullets and Hitler, Pol Pot and the Republican speaker of the state legislature were in front of him, he’d shoot the Republican, can we really expect voters to be offended by comments about how Black people tip? Why would writing an offensive comment about sexual assault be a problem when the President of the United States can be found by a jury to have committed sexual abuse, and multiple members of his cabinet have credible allegations against them?
This is the sad state of modern politics in the era of Trump, where almost any behavior can be excused by the right because they deny basic facts, and can be excused by the left because people on the right do even worse and still get elected. Behavior that would have killed a campaign in the past now lasts barely a week in the news cycle and doesn’t even have a noticeable impact on the polling. The only calls for Platner to drop out have come from Mills’ supporters, while nobody has called for Mills to drop out.
So to say that we’re stuck with two deeply flawed candidates would be an understatement. If you don’t make up your mind based on the scandals surrounding the candidates, particularly Platner, how do you make a decision in a race like this? Maybe you can decide based on their policies, which I briefly outlined at the beginning of this article. Maybe you can decide based on endorsements. Platner is supported by Bernie Sanders and the United Auto Workers. Mills is supported by Chuck Schumer.
Speaking of Chuck Schumer, I need to go on a little rant here. Schumer actively recruited Mills to run after Platner’s campaign had been gathering a significant amount of support. If he had recruited Mills after Platner’s scandals were public, that would have been understandable and even commendable, to try to prevent someone like Platner from having a cakewalk to the party’s nomination in one of the most important Senate races of the cycle. But he didn’t.
At the beginning of October, Platner was a well-funded grassroots candidate from a rural part of the state with a background outside of politics and strong support among low-propensity younger voters who rarely turn out in off-year elections. He appeared to be exactly what the party needed to take on a strong incumbent like Collins at a time when the Democratic Party’s popularity is the lowest it’s been since they started measuring party approvals. Instead, Schumer chose to back an unpopular septuagenarian who represents the epitome of the establishment and whose policies were rejected by the state’s voters. Chuck Schumer has outlasted his usefulness as leader of the Democratic Party. It’s time for him to retire and let the next generation of leaders actually lead.
Back to talking about Maine. Even in spite of his scandals, Platner still has a significant lead over Mills. In a UNH poll from Oct. 16 to 21, as the scandals surrounding Platner were breaking, 58% said they would support him compared to just 24% supporting Mills. However, with the primary almost a year away, there’s still plenty of time for this race to change dramatically. Normally, I’d end an article like this with an endorsement. However, I really don’t want to endorse either candidate in this race. All I can say is that I look forward to seeing how this race plays out.
