Overview
- Graham Platner is the presumptive Democratic Senate nominee in Maine after Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign, and a University of New Hampshire poll shows him ahead of Sen. Susan Collins by nine points.
- Reporting identified the chest tattoo as a Totenkopf, a skull-and-crossbones tied to Nazi imagery, and Platner says he did not know its meaning, has covered it and plans to remove it.
- Journalists uncovered since-deleted Reddit posts with offensive content that Platner has apologized for, and those posts have intensified scrutiny from Democrats and Republican attack groups.
- Rep. Jake Auchincloss called the tattoo and related commentary "personally disqualifying," then clarified he was not endorsing Collins, a stance that drew sharp criticism from progressive allies including Saikat Chakrabarti.
- The dispute has nationalized the race with party leaders, the NRSC, high-profile endorsements and large ad buys involved, creating a test of whether Democrats will defend a troubled nominee to try to flip a key Senate seat.