Is There No Red Line That Would Make Democrats Abandon Graham Platner?

Is There No Red Line That Would Make Democrats Abandon Graham Platner?

Former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) must be kicking himself for resigning from the Senate in 2017 without putting up a fight. Caught up in the fervor of the #MeToo movement, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) led the charge against Franken after a series of allegations of sexual misconduct emerged. Once she called for his resignation, fellow Democrats rapidly fell into line. According to The Washington Post, party leadership, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), followed suit within hours, leaving Franken with little choice but to step down.

Years later, several Democrats suggested they may have acted too hastily. Notably, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Jeff Merkley, and others expressed varying degrees of regret, arguing that Franken should have been afforded more due process.

Less than a decade later, the Democratic Party has changed dramatically. Rather than risk forcing out a candidate too quickly, party leaders now seem determined to stand by their nominees almost no matter what. The contrast is especially striking in the case of Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. Despite a growing list of controversies that, in another era, might have ended the campaign of a candidate from either party, Democrats continue to stand by their man.

That leaves many of us to wonder whether there is any red line Platner could cross that would prompt Democrats to abandon him as their nominee.

From the Nazi tattoo on his chest and a trove of deleted social media posts featuring crude, offensive, and inflammatory remarks, to revelations last week he exchanged sexual messages with women after he was married, Platner’s past has produced one controversy after another, each seemingly pushing the limits of what would ordinarily be disqualifying in a candidate for public office.

We get it. Democrats are reluctant to withdraw their support from a candidate in one of this election cycle’s most important Senate races. Flipping Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ seat could determine control of the chamber. Even so, there ought to be limits to what a party is willing to tolerate in pursuit of power.

On Thursday, The New York Times published an article titled, “Several Women Who Dated Graham Platner Recall ‘Unsettling’ Behavior.” Some of the women told The Times Platner could be “charming and charismatic … but also demeaning to women and, in at least one case, even physically threatening. He drank heavily and was regularly unfaithful.”

The piece is based on interviews with over two dozen women, including six who had been romantically involved with Platner at various points in his life. The authors reported they “spoke with friends or acquaintances of several of the women, reviewed contemporaneous text and social media messages and saw some of Ms. Fifield’s diary entries.”

The Times interviewed Lyndsey Fifield, 40, a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning organizations and Republican campaigns and who dated Platner from 2013 to 2015. She described him as “cavalierly contemptuous of women’s emotions, of our ‘weakness.’” The offensive online posts that recently resurfaced, she said, “reminded me of just how much he hated women.”

Fifield said Platner’s assertion that he did not realize the tattoo was a Nazi symbol until it became a campaign controversy last fall was false. She recalled that years earlier he had taught her the term for the symbol and referred to it as “my Totenkopf.”

In a statement to The Times, Mr. Platner said he had “too often self medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend” during what he described as a “very dark period of my life.”

He continued, “I take responsibility for all of that, and wish I had been better. Any characterization beyond that is false, and I believe, politically motivated. I’m not proud of who I was then, but I am proud of the work I’ve done since, and the movement we are building in Maine.”

The newspaper also spoke with Jenny Racicot, 41, a Maine Democrat who dated Platner on and off between 2019 and 2021. Referring to the deleted posts, Racicot said they reinforced her long-held impression that “he did not respect women.” She added, “When I saw the old comments that he made online, I recognized a version of him that I had experiences with.”

According to the article:

The three described him in similar terms. Spending time with him could be exhilarating, they said. But they also recounted patterns of heavy drinking and womanizing. Asked to sum up how he treated her, the third woman said she felt like “collateral damage to the world that is his.”

Mr. Platner could be rough with her, Ms. Fifield said, particularly when they were drinking, leaving her shaken and sometimes afraid. In the interviews, Ms. Fifield grappled with how to process her experiences. She was quick to note that he “never hit me, he never punched me.”

But she said he regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks — and, on one occasion, yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car.

During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, telling her to remain there until she was “calm.” Eventually, Ms. Fifield said, she fell asleep and left the next morning.

“It hurt,” she said. But she added: “It didn’t cause an injury, it didn’t break my arm.”

…

Ms. Fifield also recalled that Mr. Platner’s displays of weaponry and discussions of violence sometimes left her uneasy.

“He said this a lot: If anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them. … “He was like, ‘I would rape them to show them that I’m dominant’ — in “a sexual way, not in a gay way.”

And on it went.

Responding to Fifield’s allegations, Platner’s campaign released a statement, “Let’s be very clear: This is a lifelong G.O.P. operative who’s dedicated her career to electing Republicans.”

Fifield told The Times, “I know it looks like a bitter ex-girlfriend Republican trying to take down a Democrat — it has nothing to do with that. If he was running as a Republican, I would be doing this exact same thing.”

Platner seems to forget that multiple Democratic women made similar allegations.

From the NY Times article on Graham Platner:

"regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks"

"yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car"

"he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a…

— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) June 4, 2026

Anyone who has ever extracted themselves from a relationship with a narcissistic abuser knows it isn’t clean or easy.

I cringe remembering how many times I tried to play the “cool girl” or fawn in response to what was clearly abusive, coercively controlling behavior by Graham.…

— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) June 5, 2026

It was reported on Friday that after reading The Times article, Fifield felt the outlet had “watered down” her account.

It’s difficult to understand why the paper of record would downplay allegations that go directly to the credibility of a major Democratic candidate, isn’t it? Not.

🚨 Platner accuser blasts NY Times for watering down bombshell abuse story as a “gift” to the Democrat.

Lyndsey Fifield, who dated Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, says the Times “methodically delayed and twisted” her account — spiking key details like sexual… https://t.co/1Wrbz8aV4Z pic.twitter.com/vPGy0tqBPh

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) June 5, 2026

At any rate, regardless of what new revelations emerge about this deeply flawed candidate, Democrats appear determined to stand by him. That alone marks a remarkable shift from the party that forced Al Franken from the Senate in a matter of days over allegations that, while serious, were far less extensive than the controversies now engulfing Platner.

Back then, Democrats argued that character mattered and that public officials should be held to a higher standard. Today, those principles seem negotiable when control of the Senate is at stake.

Perhaps there is a red line that would finally prompt party leaders to withdraw their support from Platner. If so, they have done an excellent job of concealing where it is.

Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.