The withdrawal of the Democratic candidate in Maine over sexual assault accusations condenses all the party's ills

WashingtonThe rise and fall of Graham Platner as Maine's Democratic Senate candidate has exposed the seams of the party leadership. Platner withdrew his candidacy on Friday, after a woman he had dated accused him of sexual assault, complicating Democrats' chances of regaining the Senate this November. The crisis, however, goes deeper: the revelation of the case has brought to light that the party decided to disregard other information about Platner simply because he fit the working-class archetype they want to embrace.

Maine is one of the few competitive Senate races where Democrats had a chance to pick up the fourth seat they need to break the current Republican majority. When choosing who could be the face for the race, Democrats chose Platner, an Iraq veteran who had rebuilt his life with an oyster farm and was quite well-known. His profile met all the requirements for a working-class candidate who would represent the white, rural men Democrats wanted to attract. With his beard and flannel shirts, Platner had the dose of masculinity the party seeks to dispel accusations of "wokeness.

But, once again, Democrats have repeated the dynamics of 2024: they have overestimated the weight of symbols. Instead of building a candidacy based on proposals, Democrats in Maine built it around what Platner represented personally. The candidate's value was what voters saw in him, not so much what he proposed. The same happened in the last presidential election, when Kamala Harris's candidacy was marked by the prospect of having "the first Black woman" president. During the Democratic convention in Chicago to formalize her candidacy, a Black Uber driver said about Harris: "Let's just stick with the first woman president, don't say the Black part. It won't help us." She was not the only Black woman who made this comment during the campaign.

Maine's strategy is completely opposed to the one played by socialists in New York with Zohran Mamdani. Although the charisma of the current New York mayor cannot be denied in his victory, the socialist's campaign did not insist on whether he represented a specific group or if his narrative fit what the working class should be. Mamdani lived his identity naturally, without needing to constantly perform it.

Democrats saw in Platner a kind of class hero and expected an effect similar to the one Donald Trump achieved. The Republican convinced many of his voters because of what they wanted to see in him, a successful businessman – even though they were unaware that he inherited his father's fortune. Consequently, some sectors of the Democratic Party downplayed elements that could harm the narrative about the candidate. First of all, Platner was the son of a Dartmouth College graduate lawyer and the grandson of a notorious Connecticut architect. It was this environment that allowed him to graduate from a private high school and helped him financially, even though Democrats argue that Platner survived thanks to government subsidies.

Sexist comments

But these contradictions and omissions are merely a symptom of the dark dynamics that took place at the top. Following the complaint, first reported by Politico, the New York Times has revealed that long before this scandal, other questionable and misogynistic conduct by Platner had already surfaced, which the higher-ups decided to ignore. For example, Platner's current partner informed the campaign team that her husband had exchanged sexually suggestive messages with other women.

In October, American media found a series of posts by Platner from between 2009 and 2021 with derogatory comments about sexual assault in the military. Janet Mills, his main rival in the Democratic primaries, ran hard-hitting ads featuring these comments about women and rape, but their effect on the race's trajectory was very limited. The party, which in 2024 prided itself on being the most feminist, internally avoided taking action on this situation.

Similarly, the party that had raised a fuss over tattoos linked to white nationalism by the current Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, had tiptoed around a tattoo Platner had on his chest, which strongly resembled the SS's Totenkopf. The tattoo controversy, one of the first to erupt, was resolved with an excuse from Platner stating he was unaware of it and getting a tattoo over it to cover it up.

Now, four months before the elections, the contradictions have become too great to continue ignoring. Beyond the personal cost of this entire affair for Platner, the tragedy reflects that a portion of the party's strategists are still lost in the representation crisis that erupted with the 2024 defeat.