For nine months, Graham Platner’s supporters have insisted that Democrats should ignore the mounting evidence of his personal foibles and political vulnerabilities — and support his bid for the Senate in Maine. 

They argued that his Nazi “Totenkopf” tattoo was a youthful indiscretion and parroted his ludicrous argument that he didn’t know the origins of the Nazi insignia that was on his chest for 18 years before he covered it up with more ink. They waved away his dozens of racist, misogynistic and, frankly, creepy Reddit posts. They said his sexting with as many as a dozen women soon after his wedding was between him and his wife. They insisted that he was the best candidate to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, even as polling showed him badly underperforming other Maine Democrats. 

On Monday, they ran out of excuses and rationalizations.

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Politico published long-rumored allegations that Platner hadn’t merely mistreated past girlfriends — as was alleged last month — but sexually assaulted a woman he had dated. 

Jenny Racicot’s story of Platner’s alleged assault is stomach-turning, and while some Democrats will seemingly excuse antisemitism, a Nazi tattoo and persistently bad behavior toward women, sexual assault is the line the party won’t cross.

Within hours of the report, Platner’s former allies began abandoning him en masse. Now it’s merely a question of when, not if, Platner drops out of the race and is replaced by a less scandal-ridden Democrat.

But Democrats can’t so easily sweep this mess under the rug. There are painful but necessary lessons to be learned from Platner’s rise and fall.

The first lesson is don’t fall in love with an unvetted political outsider — or, for that matter, any politician. When he announced his candidacy, Platner told a compelling story. He was a political outsider with no experience in electoral politics, a Marine combat veteran and an oyster fisherman in a state where working on the water is a badge of honor. 

But as quickly as Platner emerged, so too did the stories of his past deeds — his controversial Reddit posts, his Nazi tattoo and an actual life story that didn’t quite match up with his campaign narrative.

Platner’s supporters claimed he’d grown and matured and that his bad behavior was the result of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered in Iraq. “Everyone has a right to grow and grow out of their stupidity,” said early endorsee, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. 

Redemption and maturity are certainly attributes to be celebrated, but perhaps it would have been better for Platner to work out his personal issues in private, not under the harsh klieg lights of one of the most competitive Senate races in the country. Once it became clear that Platner had a plethora of skeletons in his closet, Democrats should have abandoned his campaign in favor of a previously vetted candidate (and he should have stepped aside for the good of the party). Instead, many convinced themselves that none of these vulnerabilities mattered. They fetishized perceived authenticity and ignored virtue.

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Second, where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. 

With Platner, it wasn’t just one news cycle of bad stories. It was a constant drumbeat — and many of these allegations shared the same theme: Platner disassembling and distracting.

It turned out that, far from being a successful oyster fisherman, his biggest customer was his mother, who runs a restaurant. Platner’s claims of a hardscrabble youth were contradicted by stories of living off his parents’ generosity and stints at an elite private school.

It was obvious that Platner was allergic to the truth and would say anything to keep his candidacy alive.

When the New York Times published on-the-record accounts of him allegedly physically assaulting a former girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, Platner and his allies dismissed the claim by arguing that Fifield is a Republican and thus can’t be trusted. (Never mind that Fifield had damning evidence that Platner knew the meaning of his Tottenkopf tattoo well before he claimed to have discovered it.) Even Monday, Platner’s campaign claimed that Racicot’s allegations were “coached and coordinated by out of state establishment operatives.”

For someone who claimed to have grown, Platner had a persistent habit of falling back on the same set of excuses: He was young, he was self-medicating with alcohol, etc., while refusing to take responsibility for the most serious allegations levied against him.

It was obvious that Platner was allergic to the truth and would say anything to keep his candidacy alive. But it also couldn’t have been clearer that, despite Platner’s protestations, there were more shoes to drop. Yet again, plenty of Democrats ignored the clear warning signs and continued to support him.

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Third, the Democratic Party establishment is not so dumb when it comes to politics. Last Fall, when Platner was emerging as a candidate, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer recruited Maine’s two-term Democratic governor Janet Mills to challenge for the seat. And while Mills was a lackluster, ineffectual campaign, Schumer’s instinct was that a vetted, known quantity was a better bet to defeat Collins than an untested political neophyte.   

Over the past several weeks, the Democratic establishment has taken it on the chin from angry and frustrated Democratic voters. But the fact is, Democrats are in a prime position to potentially win the Senate next fall because Schumer and the establishment have put the right pieces in place. 

The most important lesson from Platner is not to surrender your integrity for partisan advantage.

He recruited former Gov. Roy Cooper, D-N.C., to run for his state’s open seat — and Cooper is currently leading in the polls. Schumer also signed up former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to run again for his old seat, former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, and tacitly backed state Sen. Josh Turek in Iowa and state Sen. James Talarico in Texas. All four of these races — in states Trump won comfortably in 2024 — are neck and-neck. 

Meanwhile, before this week’s allegations, Platner and Collins were more or less tied in Maine, even though the state’s voters favored Democrats on the generic congressional ballot by 11 percentage points. 

Finally, the most important lesson from Platner is not to surrender your integrity for partisan advantage. When Platner revealed in October that he had a Nazi tattoo for nearly 20 years and only discovered its true meaning, that should have been the end. Yet, once again, many Democrats compartmentalized that piece of information out of a misplaced devotion to Platner’s outsider candidacy — and wilfully ignored the genuine concerns raised by Jewish Democrats. When allegations of toxic behavior toward past girlfriends emerged, Platner’s supporters, who regularly condemn President Donald Trump for his predatory behavior and preach the mantra “believe women,” waved them away. 

In the end, Platner’s candidacy became a moral test — and many Democrats (including the Maine voters who gave him their votes) failed it. Platner needs to drop out of the Maine Senate race, but a great many Democrats need to ask themselves how they ever let it get this far.

Michael A. Cohen

Michael Cohen is the publisher of the newsletter Truth and Consequences and hosts the weekly podcast “That ‘70s Movie Podcast.”