Democratic anxiety mounted on Friday about the turbulent personal history of Graham Platner, the party’s leading Senate candidate in Maine, as politicians, officials and strategists wrestled with how to respond to new reporting on his past behavior.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that several women who dated Mr. Platner had recounted him acting in unsettling or intimidating ways. One woman recalled instances in which he had grabbed or yanked her, and also said that he knew when they were dating years ago that a tattoo he had on his chest was a Nazi symbol. (Several other women who dated Mr. Platner said they felt safe with him.) The revelations came after previous controversies over the tattoo, sexual messages Mr. Platner sent to women outside his marriage and offensive comments he made online.
The newly intense scrutiny of Mr. Platner, a progressive oyster farmer and political newcomer, fueled Democratic unease about the party’s likely nominee in its must-win race against Senator Susan Collins, a Republican. Many Democrats worried about the potential of additional damaging reports to come about Mr. Platner.
Some Democratic senators expressed concerns about the new reports, with Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire telling Punchbowl News they were “serious and deserve scrutiny,” while others dodged questions about Mr. Platner or tried to downplay the fears.
Mr. Platner, who has been widely expected to win the Democratic primary election on Tuesday in Maine, said on Thursday night that he would not drop out.
In an appearance on MS NOW, he acknowledged “not exactly acting with the best behavior” after his service in the military but denied physically harming his ex-girlfriend or knowing until recently that the tattoo, which he has since had covered up, resembled Nazi imagery.
Democrats must flip at least four Republican-held Senate seats in the midterm elections in November to win a majority. Maine is the only G.O.P.-held seat on the ballot in a state that Vice President Kamala Harris won in the 2024 election.
It is not yet clear how Maine voters will respond to the latest Platner reporting. A poll conducted this week for Mr. Platner’s campaign showed the general-election contest narrowing, while another done by a Republican super PAC backing Ms. Collins showed it tied.
Ms. Collins had not responded to the latest reporting on Mr. Platner on Friday afternoon, but her Republican allies were trying to stoke the Democratic angst.
As elected Democrats tiptoed around questions about Mr. Platner’s past, some of the party’s strategists described a situation similar to one they faced two years ago after President Joseph R. Biden Jr. melted down during his debate with Donald J. Trump.
With Maine’s Senate primary four days away and no current alternative to Mr. Platner, worried Democrats are bracing themselves for a host of undesirable possible outcomes. There is no mechanism to force Mr. Platner to end his campaign, and he has few relationships with party elders who might hope to influence him.
“This is a really tough situation,” said Amanda Litman, the president of Run for Something, a progressive group that recruits young candidates to run for office and has been supportive of Mr. Platner. “There’s not a good and clear answer and there’s not an obvious alternative and there are lots of people at fault, including Graham and the Democratic Party and our failure to prepare.”
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, an ally of Mr. Platner’s who introduced him at a Washington fund-raiser on Tuesday evening, dismissed the latest Times article on his history with women.
“Seems like a lot of nothing,” he told a NOTUS reporter on Thursday evening, noting that one of the women making allegations was a conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns.
Even Mr. Platner’s staunchest defenders on Friday suggested that he needed to do a better job explaining his past conduct and treatment of women.
Representative Ro Khanna of California, a progressive Democrat who is scheduled to appear with Mr. Platner at a campaign rally on Friday evening in Bar Harbor, called the candidate’s past relationships “toxic and volatile” and urged Mr. Platner’s supporters not to attack the women who have spoken up or the journalists who have chronicled their accounts.
“Platner must continue to accept responsibility for his past and speak to his redemption, which many Americans understand,” Mr. Khanna wrote in a text message to The Times on Friday morning.
In Maine, some Democratic officials defended Mr. Platner.
Mike Tipping, a progressive state senator who backs Mr. Platner, said Mainers had long known that the candidate had struggled with PTSD from his time in the military and criticized the news media for focusing on his personal history.
“The problems with his family that they’re dealing with, him and his wife, that’s obviously less important to me” than the impact of Republican policies on Maine, Mr. Tipping said.
Ben Chin, Mr. Platner’s campaign manager, said that “we have been and remain deeply humbled by the support and loyalty of this movement,” adding, “Mainers know Graham, they understand what he stands for, and they believe in what this campaign is fighting for.”
An aide to Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign against Mr. Platner in April and has not endorsed him, did not tamp down chatter that she might re-emerge as a Platner challenger, emphasizing that the governor remained on the ballot.
Mr. Platner’s 25-minute interview on MS NOW did not assuage some nervous Democrats.
“I’m sorry, Platner does not sound like someone who is comfortable being held accountable,” Symone Sanders Townsend, a former aide to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and to Mr. Biden, wrote on social media. “Voters in Maine may decide they don’t care about this, but whew.”
Rob Flaherty, a veteran Democratic strategist who served as a senior aide on the Biden campaigns and White House and is now a podcast host, said Democrats were likely to be stuck in an awkward position of defending Mr. Platner.
But Mr. Flaherty said it was up to Mr. Platner to deliver a believable account of his past actions, including what he knew about the tattoo with the Nazi symbol.
“There are plenty of people who would say, ‘I would like one person who is imperfect and honest more than 100 people who are imperfect and dishonest in the Senate,’” Mr. Flaherty said. “The trouble with that is you have to be honest.”
Democrats acknowledged that there was little chance Mr. Platner failed to advance from Tuesday’s primary. If he prevails, the only way he would not be the party’s Senate nominee would be if he chooses to end his campaign.
Tens of millions of dollars are expected to be spent persuading Maine voters on their Senate choice. The Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC backing Republican Senate candidates, announced in April that it would spend at least $42 million in the state. Its Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority PAC, is in for at least $24 million on television ads alone, plus more on digital advertising. Mr. Platner and Ms. Collins are both prodigious fund-raisers and other groups are likely to spend on the race as well.
Major Democratic donors in recent weeks have largely resigned themselves to Mr. Platner’s being the nominee, according to two people in touch with donors in recent days who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. That die has been cast ever since Mr. Schumer endorsed Mr. Platner after Ms. Mills, whom the Senate Democratic leader had endorsed, suspended her campaign.
“I think he should just keep doing exactly what he’s been doing, making sure every Mainer knows who he is and what he stands for,” said Amed Khan, a philanthropist and longtime Democratic fund-raiser who has given the legal maximum to Mr. Platner’s campaign.
Reporting was contributed by Tim Balk, Lisa Lerer, Nick Corasaniti and Theodore Schleifer.
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