Maine Democrats handed Republicans a huge gift by nominating Graham Platner as their nominee for Senate, and they don't even realize it. They're looking at polls showing Platner up, but they are ignoring the fact that Platner is completely unvetted, with so much baggage that he's the GOP's dream candidate. Republicans know exactly what they have. They're just not showing their hand yet.
Platner’s victory on Tuesday, while expected, immediately triggered a civil war inside the Democrat Party. Behind closed doors, party operatives are debating whether to pressure Platner to withdraw before Maine's mid-July filing deadline. Some are threatening to cut off his general election funding. Others are leaking negative internal polling to reporters, trying to build a public case against him.
Platner has denied the physical abuse allegations and says he isn't going anywhere. "The Democrats of Maine have made clear who their choice is, and the rest of the party should honor that choice,” his campaign adviser, Rebecca Katz, said.
While he’s denied some accusations, he’s admitted to others and tried to downplay their significance.
"The whole 'what else is coming?' — it's essentially been the same thing the whole time, which is that I've been very open about the fact that I struggled, very open about the fact that I had a long litany of failed relationships for years, because I myself was not in a good place," Platner said. "And then every now and again, we will have a media outlet or politically motivated attack to try to drag it all up. But it's all very much within the exact same story that I've told this entire time."
That’s what he wants his supporters to believe. It’s just not the truth.
Here's where it gets interesting. Buried in the NBC News report on Wednesday was this little nugget:
One Republican strategist involved in Senate campaigns told NBC News that the party will hold back its opposition research file on Platner until the deadline passes out of fear that Democrats will “Biden him” — referring to then-President Joe Biden’s withdrawal in the middle of the campaign from the 2024 election under pressure from members of his own party.
So the GOP is sitting on some incredibly damaging opposition research and deliberately holding it back. That makes sense and aligns with prior reporting.
Last month, during a discussion on 2WAY, Mark Halperin revealed that an NRSC spokesperson told him that the party is going to go so negative on Platner that "he'll have to leave the state. He won't just lose the race."
Townhall’s own Larry O’Connor, who was part of the conversation, agreed. "I know things about this person that will come out," O'Connor said. "The RNC is not joking about this. And frankly, it goes beyond the Nazi tattoo. This is an indictment, frankly, of where Democrats are right now when this populist, radical base gets energized."
Halperin's working theory is that the RNC will drop the opposition research the afternoon of the first debate. Collins walks in ready. The moderator hits Platner with it on stage.
Democrats need Maine to win the Senate. Maine needs Platner to be a viable candidate. And Republicans are so sure that he won’t be that they’re waiting for the right moment to prove it so that Democrats can’t swap him out.
