The Democrat Party’s Senate hopes in Maine just got a lot more complicated.
Their own members are turning on the man they need to beat Susan Collins.
And one Democrat lawmaker went on CNN and said something about Graham Platner that Chuck Schumer probably wishes he could take back.
Gottheimer Calls for Platner to Walk
Representative Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey, told CNN’s “News Central” that he believes Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner will be pulled from the ballot even if he wins the primary.
Gottheimer didn’t mince words about it either.
“What I would suggest is that Graham Platner get off if he wins today, which I assume he will, because there’s no one actively campaigning against him, that he get off the ballot and let another Democrat step in, that the Maine Democratic Party puts somebody else in,” Gottheimer said.
Gottheimer, who has criticized Platner for his scandals in the past, called support for far-left candidates like him a “major concern” for the Democrat Party and encouraged people not to support him during the primaries.
And just in case anyone thought he was being polite about it, Gottheimer spelled out exactly what he thinks Platner deserves.
He added, “I mean, if this were in Jersey and you had a candidate who abused women, obviously has a Nazi tattoo…it’s clear that he knew [it] was a Nazi tattoo, not to mention many of his other lies and his comments and extremist comments, pro-Hamas, a terrorist organization, and other things of that nature, he should get off the ballot. New Jersey would throw him off the ballot or bury him under the Meadowlands.”
That’s a sitting Democrat congressman talking about his own party’s Senate candidate.
A Scandal That Keeps Growing
Platner has been engulfed by several scandals since his campaign began, including his controversial Nazi-linked tattoo, extreme Reddit posts, and reports of concerning behavior towards ex-girlfriends.
In one Reddit thread from 2019, Platner weighed in on a conversation about the “Totenkopf” — the skull-and-crossbones emblem worn by Nazi SS units that his own tattoo would later draw scrutiny for resembling — to note that many U.S. service members had adopted similar imagery.
But Platner’s public explanation kept shifting. Platner said in an interview he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007 when he was in his 20s and in the Marine Corps during a night of drinking while on leave in Croatia, adding he was unaware until recently that the image has been associated with Nazis.
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner said he could not explain why a former girlfriend was describing his controversial chest tattoo as a Nazi symbol months before he said he learned of its meaning. Appearing on MSNBC, Platner was asked about text messages reviewed by CNN and The New York Times showing that his former girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, told friends in August 2025 that Platner “has a Nazi tattoo on his chest” and that “it’s a Totenkopf.”
Fifield told CNN that Platner referred to it years earlier as “my Totenkopf,” recalling that he used what she said was a foreign-sounding accent when he said it — a detail she said made the comment particularly memorable.
Platner denied it. But the denials raised more questions than they answered.
“Well, she certainly didn’t send that text to me,” Platner said. “So whoever she sent it to and was talking to, that’s — I can’t say why, but I will say that I certainly didn’t know. And the text messages she’s sending to friends who may have recognized it, that’s — they didn’t tell me that, so.”
The tattoo was only part of it. Platner’s campaign has been in choppy waters recently, with Democrats questioning whether he is becoming a liability in a key race for potential Senate control. Within the last few weeks, he confronted revelations surrounding sexually explicit messages he sent to women during his marriage.
Gottheimer pointed to the latest round of reporting when he spoke on CNN.
“I don’t think that’s going to be the choice, so I’m not going to do that hypothetical. I think that he’s going to get off the ballot soon. I mean, you saw today reporting from his ex-political director saying that he lied about all this stuff, the concerns that she had. I mean, the issues are just going to keep piling up. And The New York Times piece was just one of the first piece of many issues that I think will continue to come out about him,” Gottheimer said.
Schumer Backed Him Anyway
None of this stopped Chuck Schumer from throwing his weight behind Platner after the primary results came in.
“In November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority,” Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Worth noting: Schumer had initially backed Mills. He shifted only after his preferred candidate dropped out and Platner became the last man standing.
But Gottheimer made clear he wasn’t buying the party-unity act. While he stopped short of supporting Platner’s presumptive Republican opponent, Senator Susan Collins, Gottheimer told CNN’s “News Central” that he would call for Platner to step down regardless of how the race goes.
And Gottheimer wasn’t alone. Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, recently criticized Platner in harsh language, telling CNN, “When I was growing up, if someone had a clear Nazi tattoo on them, you probably could conclude that they’re a Nazi sympathizer.”
Fetterman is a reliable Democrat vote who supports abortion-on-demand, gun control, amnesty for illegal aliens, and transgender surgeries for kids. He’s pretending to be a moderate because he’s up for re-election in a red state in 2028. But even he couldn’t stomach Platner.
Platner fired back at Fetterman, saying he had “become a stooge for AIPAC and the Republican party.” That’s the kind of language that plays well in certain corners of the Democrat base — and nowhere else.
What Winning the Primary Actually Means
Oysterman Graham Platner overcame a series of scandals to secure the Democratic nomination to take on five-term incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins in November. The political newcomer clinched the win with 74.6%, after the Associated Press called the race with 11% of unofficial results counted.
But winning a primary nobody seriously contested isn’t exactly a mandate. Losing a quarter or more of the vote isn’t ideal, given Platner has been the presumptive nominee for a while. A University of New Hampshire poll that showed Platner at 76% was conducted before recent revelations about the candidate sexting with women who weren’t his wife and a New York Times investigation in which former girlfriends alleged toxic and even physically threatening behavior.
Platner, who has advocated for government-funded healthcare, free education, and a wealth tax, has won the Maine Democratic primary for the United States Senate. That platform puts him well to the left of most Maine voters, which is exactly the kind of problem Gottheimer has been warning about for months.
The Democrat Party is now stuck. They need Maine to flip the Senate. But their candidate carries enough baggage to fill a cargo ship. And the members of their own caucus who are most vocal about it can’t even bring themselves to say Susan Collins would be worse.
Gottheimer said he thinks the issues “are just going to keep piling up.” He said it before Platner won. He said it knowing Platner would win. And he said it anyway.
That tells you something about where this race is actually headed.
Sources: Fox News, The Hill, Maine Morning Star, CNN, JNS, Mediaite