Overview
- Janet Mills suspended her campaign, leaving first-time candidate Graham Platner the likely Democratic challenger to Sen. Susan Collins in a marquee Maine race.
- Collins said voters will conclude Platner is too far left, as a pro-Collins group launched an ad highlighting his old Reddit comments about women and a chest tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol.
- Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, apologized for the decade-old posts and said he covered the tattoo after learning last year that it echoed the SS Totenkopf emblem.
- Progressive senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are backing Platner, reflecting a shift toward an economic populist message that targets corporate power and appeals to working voters.
- The Bulwark’s focus group found many Maine Democrats willing to overlook Platner’s baggage for his outsider style, while Fox News spotlights GOP efforts to define him as extreme in a contest that could shape Senate control.