Graham Platner made history on Tuesday, becoming the first vanity oysterman and Nazi-tattooed Hotchkiss attendee to win a major party's nomination for U.S. Senate while facing credible allegations of domestic abuse. Barring another unforeseen setback or two, Platner will square off against longtime Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) in the general election.
Viewed as the prohibitive favorite since his chief rival, Gov. Janet Mills (D., Maine), suspended her campaign in April, Platner was on track to receive a majority of the Democratic primary vote. The Associated Press called the race for Platner with 8 percent of the vote reported.
Platner's victory is sure to embolden his supporters, who have come to revere him as the embodiment of working-class authenticity. The grandson of a world-renowned architect, Platner derives most of his income from a military disability pension, lives in a house his dad paid for, and runs an oyster farm—on an island owned by his rich friend—whose principle client is his mom's restaurant at an "old world luxury" hotel. He attended and was ultimately expelled from the Hotchkiss School, an elite preparatory academy whose distinguished alumni include Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart and Morgan Stanley cofounder Harold Stanley.
At the same time, Platner's recent underwhelming polling numbers will do little to assuage concerns about his viability in a matchup with Collins, a wily moderate Democrats have spent the last three decades trying to defeat.
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