Opinion | Democrats and the Platner Standard
The Maine Democrat is the left’s equivalent of Republican Ken Paxton.

She's standing by her man -- and getting paid for it.
The Maine Democrat is the left’s equivalent of Republican Ken Paxton.
For a week I've watched the commentators and the party line up to tell me Graham Platner is too compromised for the United States Senate. Last night the Democrats of Maine answered them. He's on track to win his primary with about 72 percent of the vote, carrying nearly every county in the state. This is not the outcome of a candidate distrusted by the voters, it's in fact the opposite. It's a landslide.
"There are allegations from former girlfriends that are not — the way my colleagues reported them were not like classic abuse allegations,” Jodi Kantor said.
Elections across the country this week have delivered no shortage of political drama, but two stories in particular are turning heads.In Maine, several ex-girlfriends of Senate hopeful Graham Platner have hurled accusations of disturbing patterns of behavior at the Democrat — and his response hasn’t been promising.Platner is also being accused of exchanging sexual text messages with women after he was married in 2023.“So, Graham Platner, looking to move on from a week of controversy after telling supporters that his past had been weaponized,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere tells co-host Dave Landau. “That’s what happens, Dave. When you do something horrible and people catch you, that means they’re weaponizing what you’ve done.” “Well, of course, it’s not being held accountable for the things you’ve done in your past. It’s just weaponizing the things you’ve done against you,” Dave jokes.“When you’re a Democrat and you’re in one of these controversies, you’re able to live like this. No one asks any questions. You don’t address it, and no one follows up. What a wonderful way to be,” Stu says.But it’s not just the Maine Senate election that is mired in controversy.The Los Angeles mayoral race has shifted significantly over the weekend, as candidate Nithya Raman has passed Spencer Pratt for second place and will now go to the runoff against mayor Karen Bass.“So we will have Democrat versus Democrat at the end of all of this,” Stu says.“Are you saying that a system designed to lock out Republicans is locking out a Republican?” Dave asks.Stu points out that there’s clearly a “tiny bit of skepticism by most people on the right that this is actually real and not just out-and-out fraud.”“Well, I think it’s also because the way that it seems that the voting system works is you have the maybe some older conservatives come in early, you see the numbers, and then at the last minute, like a big giant bag of letters to Santa in a courtroom, all of a sudden they all just appear for one person,” Dave jokes.“And they’re not even for Karen Bass. They’re just for this other person to then beat Spencer Pratt to then push Karen Bass forward,” he adds.Want more from Stu and Dave?To enjoy more of Stu and Dave's lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
The NRSC warns Republicans that scandal-plagued Democrat Graham Platner remains a credible threat to Sen. Susan Collins in Maine's pivotal Senate race.
Even as progressives and party leaders rally around the Maine Democrat, senators like Catherine Cortez Masto and Mark Kelly are wary.
President Trump ripped into Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner on Wednesday, calling him a “low-level thug.” “He’s worse than any human being that’s ever run for office probably,” the president said. Platner, a progressive oyster farmer, easily won the Democratic primary on Tuesday to become the party’s candidate to face incumbent Republican Susan Collins.…
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who has been recently dealing with concerns around his past behavior toward women, said in a new ad that the political establishment has a “love of Jeffrey Epstein and a hatred of me.” “Some of the most powerful Democrats and Republicans in the country were on Epstein Island. It…