Platner addresses social media comments at Brooksville fundraiser
Political director from Stonington resigns as comments roil U.S. Senate campaign
Graham Platner, an oyster farmer from Sullivan and candidate for U.S. Senate, addresses the crowd at a Brooksville fundraiser on Oct. 17. Photo by John Epstein.
By John Epstein
BROOKSVILLE—Some 250 people filled the Brooksville Community Center for a Graham Platner fundraiser on Oct. 17. The event–spearheaded by local business owner, Kate Tomkins–featured food from nearby provisioners, including shucked oysters. It was a chance for folks from the Blue Hill Peninsula to hear the oyster farmer from Sullivan tell why he’s running to be the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.
The event came as the statewide and national media reported on disparaging comments on social media Platner made a decade ago. Within hours of his Brooksville event, his campaign’s political director, a former state representative from Stonington, had resigned. His comments, first reported by CNN, included calling police “bastards,” and casting white, rural Americans as racist.
Platner posted an apology in a lengthy video on X, formerly Twitter, saying his social media posts do not represent who is today.
“This is a time in my life when I was struggling deeply,” he said in the video, adding that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from military deployment in Afghanistan. He added that, "like a lot of people, I went on the Internet to post stupid things and get in fights, and find some form of community in some way, some outlet for my feelings, for my rage, for my isolation.”
Platner’s campaign to take the seat held by Susan Collins since 1997 has drawn national attention, attracting large crowds across the state, and building a small army of enthusiastic volunteers who are gripped by his call for universal health care, higher taxation of the wealthy, and economic opportunity for the working class. But the week had been a challenging one for the 41-year-old Marine and Army National Guard veteran.
A primary challenger and damaging social media posts
On Tuesday, October 14, Governor Janet Mills jumped into the race for the Democratic Senate nomination, and reportedly raised $1 million within 24 hours.
“I welcome her in the race,” Platner said in a brief interview before addressing the crowd. “Primaries are a good thing and people will get to hear that we have different policies. They’ll get a good opportunity to make a decision.” Platner also said that some in his party don’t want him in the race. “They told me not to run -- that ‘it wasn’t my turn,’ but I did it anyway.”
Although Platner’s campaign raised $500,000 the day after Mills entered the race, troubling news followed the day before his visit to Brooksville. CNN, The Washington Post, and Politico all published excerpts from social media posts written by Platner between 2013 and 2021, which contained derogatory remarks about women, police, people with disabilities, and rural white Americans.
There were a number of people at the Brooksville event who wanted Platner to address those reports. “I want him to apologize,” said Kathy Bonk, a member of the local Democratic Committee and long-time women’s rights activist.
“There’s been huge enthusiasm for his campaign,” said Brooksville’s Kate Dyer, “but there’s been so much misogyny in this world, I need to hear for myself what he has to say.”
A stump speech
Platner stepped up to the microphone in Brooksville, dressed in his customary attire: jeans, ballcap, and dark sweatshirt with sleeves rolled up above his tattooed forearms.
Platner talked of joining the Marines upon graduation from John Bapst Memorial High School, serving as an infantryman in Iraq for four years. He then described periodic stints in Afghanistan as a member of the National Guard, while also attending George Washington University on the GI Bill and working as a bartender in DC.
“I served drinks and talked to a lot of Senators,” he said, “and I’m 16 credits shy of a history degree.”
“It was in war zones where I felt comfortable,” Platner said. But that experience led to post traumatic stress for which he received treatment through the Veterans Administration health care system in 2016, he said. After working as a military contractor in Afghanistan in 2018, Platner said he became completely disillusioned with America’s mission, quit the military and returned to Sullivan, Maine.
“I bought a boat to become an oyster farmer, found community and a sense of place, and a connection to nature,” Platner said, adding that he fell in love with Amy Gertner, a teacher, who is now his wife.
But Platner, who is Sullivan’s harbor master and chair of the town planning committee, said he sees a changing Maine that offends his sense of fairness.
“I see too many people taking two jobs to support their families, when one job used to be enough,” he said.
“There are less hospitals, less schools, less child care, less ability to buy houses. It needs to stop,” Platner shouted to cheers from the audience. He went on to describe himself as a New Deal Democrat who wants a Democratic party for working people. “Now it’s for the upper echelons, the elite class, the hedge funds, financial institutions, private equity. Corporate power has taken over,” he said.
In the face of what he calls “the largest transfer of wealth in U.S. history,” Platner wants his party to reconnect with its legacy – movements for fair labor, civil rights, disability rights, and gay rights. His prescription: organize and work.
“We didn’t get a forty-hour work week by writing a nice letter to our congressman,” he said. “People worked for it. Power is for those willing to organize and take it,” he added.
Platner decried a social security system that favors the wealthy by ending their contributions into the program from the portion of their income that exceeds $167,000. “I talked to my Trump buddies about that. They said ‘that doesn’t seem fair.’”
“Now we’re not going to get every Trump voter, but the days of Democrats voting for Susan Collins are over,” he said.
The elephant in the room
Platner stepped away from his speech to take questions from the audience, including the one many had anticipated. It came from a man who asked: “How are you dealing with the reports about the comments that you may have made on social media?”
“I said them,” Platner responded. “Many have seen the reports. What I said embarrasses and disgusts me,” he added. He attributed those remarks to his extended time in the military. “It was a toxically masculine space…I had crude language and dark humor.”
Platner, who saw combat during the Iraq War in Ramadi and Fallujah, went on to discuss his extended treatment for PTSD for which he had self-medicated during a lonely, depressed period in his life. “My dark life pushed me to make changes, tackle the root causes,” he said. “And the best thing that happened – I came back to Maine. So, I’m embarrassed, but not ashamed because without the journey that I had, I would not be who I am.” People stood and clapped.
Then Platner talked about money. “We’ve raised about $5 million with average donations between $29 and $30,” he said. “But now that the Governor is in the race, we’ll need $15 million. They will have more money. We will win with people.”
Platner said he has 10,000 volunteers, who he plans to mobilize before the coming November 5 election to urge voters to vote “no” on Ballot Question 1 “because we need to save absentee voting; it’s not just good for Democrats, it’s important for every Mainer.”
At 7 p.m., it was time to go. “I’ve had a couple of stressful days, and I need to go home and get some sleep,” he said..
Before the candidate hit the pillow that night, his campaign’s political director, Genevieve McDonald, a former state representative from Stonington, had resigned. She stated in an October 17, 2025 letter her concern about his remarks on social media, “many of which were made as an adult, not as a young man.”
Platner at the Oct. 17 fundraiser in Brooksville. Photo by John Epstein.
