Credibility crisis: Graham Platner received glowing media coverage before dramatic exit from Senate race
Before Graham Platner's dramatic exit from the Maine Senate race last week, the Democratic hopeful received glowing coverage from the legacy media that pushed the narrative that he was a salt-of-the-earth oyster farmer who could win back male voters and unseat longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins.
Now out of the race after multiple scandals, including a rape allegation from a former girlfriend that he's denied, the friendly coverage he received is getting a second look.
The Guardian was among the first outlets to publish a profile on Platner, running a story last August headlined, "This Maine oysterman thinks Democrats are doing ‘jack’ about fascism. So he’s running for US Senate."
The outlet told readers how Platner doesn't present like a "stereotypical progressive," listing his titles as "a veteran, an oysterman and a competitive shooter," adding that he spends his weekends "at the local gunnery."
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"Platner believes the party needs an outsider. He believes that pedigreed, establishment Democratic candidates have failed repeatedly to appeal to working-class Americans, hastening the rise of MAGA," The Guardian wrote. "As he surveys the American political scene, Platner is enraged by a Democratic party he sees as more interested in raising money than helping people, a party willing to appease Maga, to meet it in the middle, instead of fighting it."
The New Yorker praised Platner's campaign launch video in its own profile, saying it portrayed him as a "rugged and likable working-class Democratic candidate" but that it "could just as easily have been the opener for a reality-TV show called 'Oyster Man.'"
"A macho pastiche with a Jeep-commercial soundtrack, it shows him diving in his wetsuit, chopping wood, hauling oyster cages, and doing kettlebell swings. There are closeups of his tattoos, along with shots of him holding hands with his wife," Lisa Wood Shapiro wrote in the New Yorker piece.
Shapiro hyped that he was "drawing support from both sides of the aisle," alleging "several [Donald] Trump supporters said that they would vote for him" despite his left-wing platform.
"I’ve had Platner’s number for years, and have picked up oyster orders from his boat. I’ve seen him shuck oysters at parties, fund-raisers... Soon, my friends were discussing over gin-and-tonics how they always knew he would be famous," Shapiro gushed.
The Washington Post put a spotlight on Platner in a September report called "Meet the Rugged Guys of the 2026 Midterms."
"They are scruffy, solidly built, middle-aged White military veterans who work with their hands and look like they’re way more comfortable in plaid flannel than pinstripe suits. And they are banking that the antiestablishment populism that Republicans have embraced during the Trump era can work the other way, too," the Post wrote about Platner and other Democratic hopefuls.
Journalist Ross Barkan authored a Platner profile for GQ in October titled, "Marine Turned Oysterman Graham Platner Is Ready to Fight Trump. Will MAGA Men Join Him?"
"In the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, Senate candidate Graham Platner might be the perfect soldier: The virile, earthy working man many male politicians wish they were, with the committed lefty beliefs many voters are now demanding," Barkan began the profile.
Barkan boasted Platner's "friendly growl" and how he's "deeply alluring" to progressive Democrats in their effort to win back men.
"The oysterman joins a roster of antiestablishment candidates across America: men—yes, they are mostly men—who’ve channeled the growing rage at the status quo," Barkan wrote. "Trump voters, Platner argues, can still return to the Democratic coalition. He has just handed me an oyster straight from the water. The taste is salty, and then sweet. If he does get elected, he’s unlikely to attend many DC soirees or campaign fundraisers in wine caves."
Liberal New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg penned multiple pieces praising Platner's candidacy and how it was able to weather controversies like his Nazi tattoo and his offensive Reddit posts, saying he's "nothing like the edgelord caricature I encountered online" when she flew out to Maine to meet him in October, stunned at the crowds he gathered she said many locals claim they haven't seen since Barack Obama. She also said Platner was "largely convincing" about his claim that he didn't know that his skull and crossbones tattoo was the Totenkopf symbol despite reports alleging he knew.
"Onstage, Platner is magnetic. Like Obama, he seems to promise a politics that is fundamentally progressive while going beyond debased partisan sniping. He shows his audience the respect of at least seeming to level with them," Goldberg wrote at the time. "A major difference with Obama, though, is that Platner is visibly angry... That anger resonates with a base that is both terrified and enraged."
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In a separate piece published in April, Goldberg recalled, "I could feel the charge in the air — that rare alchemy born when a politician is able to pull a crowd into a shared vision of the future," telling Times readers a voter she met linked him to Obama during his 2008 presidential bid and that he was a "natural on the stump."
"One lesson of the Democratic Senate primary in Maine is that no one should underestimate the white-hot fury of the party’s voters," Goldberg said. "Maine Democrats, many of whom saw Platner in person as he tirelessly barnstormed across the state, seemed ready to look past the negative stories."
Goldberg later said she "deeply" regretted being impressed by Platner after he was accused by his ex-girlfriend Jenny Racicot of sexual assault, something he firmly denied.
Just in May, Time Magazine featured him on its cover declaring him the "Party Crasher."
"Platner’s story feels a lot like a pat movie plot: With Democratic voters yearning for outsiders to shake up the system, along comes a rough-hewn, gravelly voiced Marine Corps veteran from Sullivan, Maine—pop. 1,300—as their new national star," Time wrote. "He barnstorms the state with a pugilistic brand of economic populism, building a following so quickly that he forces his central-casting opponent, the two-term Democratic governor, Janet Mills, out of the race before voters can cast a ballot. Even in this antiestablishment, unabashedly ageist political moment, Platner’s rise has been remarkable."
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Time marveled how voters "gravitated toward Platner" despite his various controversies, writing, "After decades of nominating buttoned-up technocrats with glittering résumés, many Democrats want candidates with flaws, faded ink, and redemption arcs that resemble their own. Platner’s past, in other words, may actually be his path."
"Platner swept a hand across his auburn beard and launched into his pitch: He doesn’t want to join the Senate to be part of a system. He wants to rip that system apart and build a better one. But that, he acknowledges, requires a leap of faith for voters to believe that he won’t betray their values and has truly transformed. 'There’s also an element of this,' Platner admits, 'Where I really have to say: ‘Just trust me, bro,'" the Time piece concluded.