{"id":1110,"date":"2026-07-14T15:41:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:41:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:41:53","slug":"this-was-a-black-eye-progressives-face-reckoning-over-graham-platner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1110","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This Was a Black Eye\u2019: Progressives Face Reckoning Over Graham Platner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The collapse of Graham Platner\u2019s Maine Senate campaign has sparked a painful reckoning for Democrats, raising questions about candidate vetting and the party\u2019s embrace of unconventional outsiders.<\/p>\n

Read more Kathy Hochul Signs First Statewide Moratorium on Data Centers<\/a><\/p>\n

Top progressives defended Platner for months amid a series of controversies, from a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol to his online posts blaming survivors of sexual assault. Many of them initially dismissed allegations from Platner\u2019s ex-girlfriends describing a pattern of emotional abuse, taking his word that no more incriminating information was coming. They finally pulled their support earlier this month after Platner was accused of sexual assault, an allegation he continues to deny.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say I got that call wrong,\u201d Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), a potential 2028 presidential contender who strongly backed Platner, said Sunday on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u201cAnd if there\u2019s some self-reflection, it is that we all need to see the signs earlier of people who may engage in domestic violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I wasn\u2019t the only one,\u201d Khanna added. \u201cYou had Planned Parenthood. You had Senator Warren. You had the entire Democratic Party. But I did get that call wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khanna is the only Platner endorser in Congress to publicly express regret over his decision, however.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Platner\u2019s highest-profile backer, declined to comment when asked whether he has second thoughts about supporting his campaign.<\/p>\n

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), another top Platner endorser who said at an April rally that Platner is, \u201cMy kind of man,\u201d dodged repeatedly this week when asked if she regretted her support for him. She wanted to look forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need leaders in Washington who represent our values,\u201d Warren said. \u201cI asked Platner to withdraw from the race. He has withdrawn. Now it\u2019s time for us to get a candidate in Maine and to take back the majority here in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platner captured the enthusiasm of many Democrats with his populist, working-class platform and his promise to shake up the status quo in Washington. He drew huge rallies across Maine, giving his party hope for unseating Republican Sen. Susan Collins and helping flip control of the Senate in November.<\/p>\n

But holes quickly appeared<\/u><\/span> in his oyster farmer narrative that masked a privileged upbringing, adding to questions about the lax vetting he received before he entered the race last summer, even before the assault allegations emerged.<\/p>\n

Asked if Platner ought to have received more rigorous vetting, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), who had earlier dismissed<\/u><\/span> allegations against the candidate, told NOTUS, \u201cSeems like it, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d He declined to answer further questions about his decision to endorse him.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota), another Democrat who backed Platner, said that candidate vetting \u201cis not my responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the thing: Graham Platner was a compelling and really exciting candidate because he was talking about the issues that matter to people, and he was capturing how fed up people are with a system that is not working for them,\u201d Smith told NOTUS. \u201cAnd now he\u2019s not the candidate anymore. And we have to figure out, Maine has to figure out who their next candidate is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progressives now appear to be rallying behind former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson to replace Platner in the Senate race.<\/p>\n

Sanders said Monday he\u2019s not supporting a new candidate yet. But progressive groups, including Our Revolution, which was founded by the Vermont senator, have endorsed Jackson, a logger from a rural area of the state who unsuccessfully ran for governor last month.<\/p>\n

Jackson said Platner had deceived him about his past.<\/p>\n

\u201cGraham told me point-blank that there was nothing in his past that I had to worry about. And he lied to me. And he lied to a lot of us,\u201d Jackson said<\/u><\/span> in an interview with MS NOW.<\/p>\n

Read more The Bizarre Court Battle Trapping Trump\u2019s Voter Database<\/a><\/p>\n

Democrats are aiming to replace Platner at a nominating convention later this month. They don\u2019t have much time, facing a July 27 state deadline to replace him on the ballot and several candidates vying for the nomination.<\/p>\n

Some of Platner\u2019s top critics aren\u2019t so eager to move on, demanding introspection and a change in tactics by progressives across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cBernie Sanders needs to apologize to the voters of Maine and to everyone that donated to that train wreck of a campaign,\u201d Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) told<\/u><\/span> Fox News. \u201cMore than anyone, he pushed Platner into the election \u2026 There\u2019s plenty of those people that have to humble themselves \u2014 humble yourself, and stop pushing these kinds of people on people in my party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pennsylvania), who faced criticism after she told CNN in June that Platner had \u201cdisqualified himself\u201d following allegations of emotional abuse by his ex-girlfriends, said her party ought to speak with moral clarity and not fall into the same defensive crouch often exhibited by the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a tough call, and for folks to contort themselves around that makes no sense,\u201d Dean told NOTUS in a phone interview. \u201c We stand for certain values. We should speak our mind and not hide behind \u2018Oh gosh, we have to win this race.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Shannon Watts, an author and political activist who opposed Platner\u2019s campaign, told NOTUS that \u201cthere\u2019s just no way to say you didn\u2019t know that this guy lacked character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can say you didn\u2019t realize that he was going to be accused of sexual assault, but the writing was on the wall. I do think it\u2019s Trumpian to not apologize and to not say that going forward you\u2019re going to do things differently,\u201d Watts added.<\/p>\n

Democratic groups that opposed Platner in the primary race piled on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s one lesson Democrats need to take from this, it\u2019s to stop betting on vibe-based candidates with glaring red flags,\u201d said Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILYs List, which endorsed Maine Gov. Janet Mills in the Senate race.<\/p>\n

Some progressives argue that Platner\u2019s faults as a candidate shouldn\u2019t obscure the popularity of his populist message.<\/p>\n

Adam Carlson, a progressive strategist and pollster, admitted<\/u><\/span> he ignored \u201can insane amount of obvious red flags for months on end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGraham tapped into some very real anger in the electorate. He did inspire people. That shouldn\u2019t be lost on all of this,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cWe need to figure out \u2014 as a party, not just a progressive-left anti-establishment faction \u2014 a way to harness that without compromising our values as human beings and Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Platner was just one misfire among a crop of other promising progressive candidates, including Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Nebraska independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is being proven across the country that bold economic populists can win, but certainly this was a black eye, and it\u2019s very good that he got out of the race,\u201d Green told CNN last week.<\/p>\n

Smith also argued that Platner\u2019s collapse shouldn\u2019t hold back the progressive movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened to him was a flaw in that campaign and in the candidate, but it is not a flaw in the progressive movement, and it\u2019s not a flaw in the message that progressives are winning on all over the country,\u201d the senator told NOTUS. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s important to distinguish those two things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Mike Johnson Is Plotting a Narrow, Fast Reconciliation Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former backers say the candidate, not the message, was the problem in the Maine race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018This Was a Black Eye\u2019: Progressives Face Reckoning Over Graham Platner - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1110\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018This Was a Black Eye\u2019: Progressives Face Reckoning Over Graham Platner - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former backers say the candidate, not the message, was the problem in the Maine race.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1110\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-14T15:41:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018This Was a Black Eye\u2019: Progressives Face Reckoning Over Graham Platner\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-14T15:41:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110\"},\"wordCount\":1266,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/f14ef2ba41ec097a4faaca1476ade086-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Congress\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110\",\"name\":\"\u2018This Was a Black Eye\u2019: Progressives Face Reckoning Over Graham Platner - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/f14ef2ba41ec097a4faaca1476ade086-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-14T15:41:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1110#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/f14ef2ba41ec097a4faaca1476ade086-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/f14ef2ba41ec097a4faaca1476ade086-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"FILE - Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, and Sen. 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