Editorial: What Dems should learn from Platner debacle

Boston Herald editorial staff, Boston Herald on Jul 13, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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Democrats are scrambling in the wake of Graham Platner’s exit from the U.S. Senate race in Maine, but one of the questions the party should be asking itself is this: What have you learned from the fiasco?

Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer, was the darling of progressive leaders after Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race in late April. He was gruff, combative, and primary voters seemed to like that.

That’s all progressive leaders needed.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren gushed “He’s my kind of man,” a phrase that has aged like milk. Platner’s tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol? Pay no mind. After all, he covered it up.

But while there were reports of sexting while married, the bottom didn’t drop out until a Politico report this week that he allegedly forced a woman to have sex.

Platner denied the allegation, but the party was over.

Now all his high-profile supporters like Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are having a teachable moment. Whether they make use of it is up to them.

For starters, “will this candidate help win us control of the Senate” shouldn’t be the overarching goal. It should be “What does this candidate offer to voters that the others don’t?” You can’t cosplay values.

Then there’s due diligence.

In the business world, job candidates find their social media posts scrutinized, and many have found long-ago inflammatory posts come back to bite them. There were reports of old Reddit comments by Platner that appeared to endorse political violence, dismiss rape in the military, and use anti-gay slurs.

That was a huge red flag, especially with the tattoo controversy. But too many Dems decided the elephant in the room was merely decorative.

Now, of course, the party has to find a new candidate to rally behind, and even though it’s a high-profile, high-stress pick, leaders have to do what they did not with Platner: vet like nobody’s business. Because this isn’t just a Maine problem, or a Senate control problem. Platner’s backers, even though they washed their hands of him, took a serious hit to their credibility.

Who you endorse says a lot about you, about shared values, about what you do and do not consider important. The answer to dropping the ball on Platner can’t be “well, look at the guys across the aisle.” Voters deserve better.

Democrats want a turnaround in the midterms and the 2028 presidential election, and they’ve been criticized and called out for mistakes they’ve made in past campaigns.

Former President Barack Obama told Stephen Colbert in May that “What I’m more interested in for Democrats is, do you know how to just talk to regular people like we’re not in a college seminar? Can you talk in plain English to folks?”

As the Hill reported, in 2024, Republicans made significant gains with working-class voters — not just white voters, but Hispanic voters and some Black voters too.

That’s got to sting — and worry — Democrats, but supporting candidates who grow more controversial by the minute isn’t the way forward. For the party or America.

Graham Platner is a cautionary tale. Now let’s see if the lesson sticks.

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