“F*ck ICE. Free Palestine. Up the hearts.”
With those winsome words, Graham Platner surrendered his Senate nomination on Friday, after weeks of detachment and defiance in the face of accusations of sexual misconduct, infidelity, misogyny, a Nazi homage, and. . . I can’t even list it all here.
“People are desperate for change,” Platner wrote in his withdrawal letter to the Maine secretary of state. “For this broken system to be righted. For the American experiment to be furthered. Over the past eleven months, thousands and thousands of Mainers poured their hearts, time, and talent into a movement to deliver that vision. I will be forever grateful to them.”
Indeed, Platner’s woeful character deficiencies were not actually the most important element of his aborted campaign. Rather, it was the overwhelming support Maine Democrats showed for his policy aspirations.
There is a bright, undeniable through line from the issues raised in Platner’s now-forgotten viral announcement video and the 72 percent of the vote he earned in a landslide primary victory last month. He sustained that support throughout all of the controversy—among voters, left-leaning members of the mainstream media, and even reluctant party leaders.
