Reddit Revelations Challenge Platner as Mills Joins Maine Senate Showdown

But don’t fixate on social media posts. Campaign strategy and infrastructure will also affect who faces Susan Collins.

A supporter holds a Graham Platner sign at a town hall event at Food and Medicine in Brewer on Oct. 9. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN

In Maine’s 2026 Senate Democratic primary, a bombshell Reddit controversy put Graham Platner into an uncomfortably bright spotlight.

Meanwhile, Platner’s campaign has some high highs and low lows. While the campaign’s failures in self-opposition research and internal communications is a negative, they’re off to a super start in involving Mainers.

The Reddit archive opens

Just a few days after Gov. Janet Mills announced she’s running for the Senate seat held by Sen. Susan Collins, news emerged about some disturbing content by populist phenom Graham Platner.

Reddit posts from 2013 to 2021, written under the handle “P-Hustle,” showed Platner making inflammatory and offensive remarks. He called police “bastards,” described many rural white Americans as “racist” and “stupid,” questioned why Black people don’t tip, and downplayed concerns about sexual assault. He also described himself as a communist and mused about armed resistance.

In an apology video, Platner called the posts a product of a “dark period” after returning from military deployments and a stint with Blackwater. He asked voters to judge him by who he is now, not by “the dumbest thing I ever wrote on the internet.”

How much do the Reddit revelations matter?

We don’t have any real data to say. I think they do matter for some voters but not for everyone.

Platner’s core backers don’t care. Some praised his transparency and emphasized personal growth. Others, somewhat contradictorily, framed the posts as smears, even as they commended him for owning up to them. And I’ve seen plenty say that, with all that Trump and MAGA figures get away with saying, no one should be bothered by what Platner wrote.

But further troubling posts are emerging.¹ Because Platner posted prolifically for years, surely more will will follow.

If primary voters are thinking about who can best beat Susan Collins, they’re surely aware that she’s a survivor whose campaign would pound Platner if he’s the nominee.

Now, that might not dissuade many Platner backers because they think Collins is more vulnerable today than in 2020 and indeed she probably is. Under this thinking, Sen. Collins is so unpopular (and Platner so appealing otherwise), the posts won’t matter.

But Platner has only recently arrived to the political arena and doesn’t have a track record. Among Democrats who aren’t already committed to Platner, the posts loom larger in how they judge him. And these voters may think that if Platner’s the nominee, his past comments on sexual assault in the military, the “fun” of “small wars,” the stupidity and racism of rural voters and more, would lead others to stick with Collins.

Based on what Platner’s said, it looked like he and his campaign believed his populist rhetoric and background could attract some Trump voters. I have to say that I think, whether that’s fair or unfair, his Reddit remarks make that a lot harder.

Ultimately primary voters will decide who they’ll vote for based on how they see the candidates’ positions, characteristics and potential to win the general election.

At the same time, nothing’s really changed in what Mainers know about Janet Mills and she’s stressing her record in standing up to Trump.

Other candidates are running but are less prominent.

All this is unfolding in the context of a Democratic electorate which has been very critical of its party leadership for its perceived inadequate resistance and thus is eager for new, younger leaders. The populist Platner fits that bill.

As I wrote last week, a competitive primary in this race is a good thing. Voters are learning more about the candidates and seeing how they react.

Campaigns have organizational strengths and weaknesses that help and hurt them navigate risk. Platner’s has focused on attracting and organizing volunteers.

Platner’s emphasis on movement building is strong

These revelations are serious and they’ve already caused internal fallout.

But it’s also true that Platner’s campaign has built an impressive grassroots organizing effort.

Most candidates focus on the big goal: winning their race. Doing so involves messaging, fundraising and turning out supporters, among other things.

One tool is to organize volunteers to talk to other voters, so they spread the candidate’s message and garner their votes.

And so it’s striking that Platner has a stunning 11,000 volunteers who are already out there, calling Mainers and knocking on their doors. Campaign offices are already opening. This is an extraordinary effort that’s ramped up quickly.

As the Bangor Daily News reported:

Platner’s volunteer operation is built on a “neighborhood team model” that comes from Obama’s 2008 and 2012 races. The Platner campaign invites new volunteers to an orientation and then to an in-person organizing meeting in their area… After that, they can get leadership roles on a regional team, with each one being asked to host town halls with Platner.

In December, Platner’s volunteer leaders will attend a “Graham Camp” featuring preparations for the start of January, when they hope to collect the 5,000 petition signatures to qualify Platner for the ballot as fast as possible.

And, in addition to winning the nomination and beating Collins, Platner’s got other goals.

As he told a crowd in Caribou, “This race, for me, is not just about beating Susan Collins. It is not just about flipping the Senate back to a Democratic side. It is about building in the state of Maine an organized working class power that we have not seen in generations.”

Whether and how well Platner can do that is an open question, but it’s also exciting that he’s working on movement building. And that gives Platner a path forward, even if that path likely just got steeper.

Platner’s candidacy and approach also raises a strategic question that goes beyond this race: In this political moment, are candidates like Platner bold assets or dangerous risks?

Graham Platner in Houlton, Maine, October 4, 2025. Photo: The County.

Are risky candidates truly risky?

Part of what’s happening nationally and in Maine is a debate over election strategy.

Often a governor or another statewide elected official makes a lot of sense for a Senate candidate, given their experience in governing and electoral success. Yet these times are anything but typical. Given that, maybe taking bold risks on outsiders isn’t such a risk.

That’s what Dan Pfeiffer, the prominent Democratic strategist who was Obama’s communications director, contends about Platner v Mills. Pfeiffer warned that sticking with the status quo risks repeating the mistakes that cost Democrats in 2024. Pfeiffer contends that beating a tough incumbent like Susan Collins requires fresh energy and bold ideas. Pfeiffer puts it plainly: “To beat someone like Collins, Democrats need to take risks and think outside the box.”

Indeed, back in 2008, a lot of people thought Barack Obama was a risk. Obama described himself as “a skinny kid with a funny name” but his intense organizing and inspiring oratory attracted voters and he won.²

Sometimes a risky candidate is actually less risky than a purportedly safe one.

At the same time, we have to recognize that various candidates present different degrees of and potential for risk.

No one knew about Platner’s Reddit account until recently and, given how long he posted, there’s surely a lot more in that archive.

The emergence of these posts months after he announced his run raises another concern. It suggests Platner’s campaign organization has some real weaknesses.

Was there no self-opposition research?

Any high level campaign doesn’t just expect that other campaigns will do intense research on their candidate.

They do it themselves, on themselves. This prepares the campaign and candidate for what could be discovered. Sometimes candidates may decide not to run.

Platner was recruited by local unions and he has DC- based consultants who worked with New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and VT Sen. Bernie Sanders. All of those people should have asked Platner whether he did anything wrong or even embarrassing.

What happened was political malpractice, plain and simple.

We don’t know much about what Platner’s campaign did in its early days, but we do know that it didn’t tell someone important about the Reddit posts: his political director Genevieve McDonald. And so McDonald resigned.

In a letter explaining why she was leaving the Platner campaign, McDonald said “the past statements “were not known to me when I agreed to join the campaign, and they are not words or values I can stand behind in a candidate.”

A former Maine legislator and lobster boat captain, McDonald noted that a lot of Reddit comments were made when Platner was an adult. McDonald also mentioned her two daughters, and referred to “the relationships [she] built and “the trust others placed in her.”

Top staffers who knew but didn’t share this information when their political director was hired showed bad judgment and a lack of integrity.

It not only put McDonald in a bad place, but if the initial staff and those who recruited him didn’t have a hard conversation with Platner about his past, they also treated their candidate poorly. Particularly, his out of state professionals put him in a bad position, although we don’t know if they never vetted him properly or didn’t deal with it adequately.

Some may wonder why this organizational failure is so serious. Well, it means the actual riskiness of this candidacy is higher than outside analysts likely thought.

It suggests there may be other internal problems with the campaign’s internal workings.

One key issue is meshing outside consultants — who often create fairly generic messaging, as Platner’s populist take has been — with local staff who have a deep understanding of Maine’s political culture and issues.

So how is the Maine Democratic Senate race going?

The answer, like most things in politics, is complicated.

Graham Platner built an extraordinary grassroots operation but he and his team failed the most basic test of political preparation.

If Platner wants to prove he’s ready to take on Susan Collins, he’ll need to say more about his journey and show that he’s changed. His campaign must demonstrate they can learn and adjust. They will get tested as additional Reddit posts are publicized.

It’s possible that, with the Reddit revelations, new endorsements for Platner will be slower to materialize and fundraising from donors will decline. His strongest backers look like they’re sticking with him but other potential supporters may be more wary.

Janet Mills has shown she can win statewide. Her 2018 gubernatorial victory was the first majority win for a non-incumbent in Maine in 40 years. Then in 2022 she beat LePage by 13 percentage points and a 90,000 vote margin.

But that doesn’t mean Mills is home free. There’s a lot of unhappiness among Democratic rank and file about some of her positions. Mills has a great platform as governor to show additional leadership. But if voters are most concerned about her age, there is nothing Mills can do about that.

Ultimately Democratic primaries have a lot to weigh and this news may reshape the race, even giving other candidates an opening to become the nominee. So keep tuned.

1. For instance, in answering a question about what American wars he would have volunteered to fight in, Platner answered those would include “the Indian Wars, the Philippines, Haiti and Nicaragua in the 1920s, Vietnam, Nicaragua and El Salvador again in the 80’s” and others because big wars “take the fun out of fighting” while “small wars are pretty enjoyable.”

2. However, a comparison between Platner and Obama only goes so far. The Obama presidential campaign’s biggest surprise involved the tapes of his pastor’s sermons, but those weren’t Obama’s words and he gave a brilliant speech in response. Also before he was president, Obama served as an Illinois state senator for seven years and was a U.S. senator for three years. Platner’s Reddit revelations involve his own posts and comments and he never served in political office other than a local position in a small town.