Wash Post RePost - I know firsthand why Graham Platner shouldn’t be a U.S. senator

Originally seen on Citizens Free Press and directly linked below. IF you know anyone in Maine - please send them this CC post below:

I know firsthand why Graham Platner shouldn’t be a U.S. senator 

I quit the campaign last fall, disturbed by what I'd learned about the Maine Democratic Senate primary candidate.

Genevieve McDonald, a former Maine state representative, is the former political director of Graham Platner’s Democratic Senate primary campaign in Maine.
I became Graham Platner’s political director in August 2025 as he launched a bid for the Democratic Senate primary in Maine. Taking the job meant leaving a position as a senior policy adviser at a government relations firm in the state, but I thought that Platner and I shared the same goal: fighting for the working people of Maine.

I quit the campaign in October, disturbed by what I learned about the candidate and concerned about his potential impact on the Democratic Party’s prospects in my home state. As Tuesday’s primary arrives, I want to make clear what transpired since August and why my concerns have only grown. Advocating for the working people of Maine has driven me since my days as a commercial lobster boat captain and continued to drive me as a state legislator. I support my local community today by serving as the school board chair. Graham Platner is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.

If America wants a stronger democracy, elevating leaders with integrity is essential. Leaders with sound judgment and ethics. Leaders who embrace and live the ideals the nation stands for. Maine is a state that leads; it is the state motto — Dirigo.

Platner has shown us that he is not such a leader. He exhibits a pattern of dishonest behavior that is impossible to ignore. Despite being exposed by a series of scandals beginning last October, he kept assuring voters and the Democratic Party that there were no more skeletons in his closet. Then more emerged — the latest, in recent days, have involved former girlfriends’ serious accusations of physical mistreatment.

I was one of the Platner campaign’s first gaslighting casualties. In September, he told me that he had a tattoo that could be problematic, but assured me that it was just a military thing. I believed him. Then, I began receiving calls from Washington warning me he was not who he seemed: “Have you read his oppo file?” I had not. I trusted that his out-of-state consulting team had thoroughly vetted him.

The campaign marched into the fall, drawing crowds across the state. It was energizing and exciting. I shared a stage with him. I invited people who trusted me to meet with him. I sold his narrative of redemption, that he was a military veteran who, after enduring some troubled times, had moved home to Maine to live a simple life.

But at the same time, I shared my growing apprehension with my closest friends. When I raised concerns to anyone in the campaign, Platner would call me and convince me that everything was fine and that his intentions were noble.

I was willing to believe his explanations — I wanted to believe — until his flaws as a candidate became impossible to ignore.

Days before CNN broke a story about his archived Reddit posts, I was provided a document containing multiple inflammatory posts that were attributed to Platner posting as “P-Hustle.” When the story published, it noted that Platner had suggested online that rural White Americans are racist or stupid. I realized the campaign had not been honest with me. As someone from a real working-class background, I knew this would undermine his cross-party appeal.

Troubling posts kept surfacing. Politico ran a story with his online posts about political violence that were new to me. I started making calls, and someone sent me the full archive of his Reddit account. When his Reddit comments in 2013 downplaying sexual assault were revealed by The Post on Oct. 17, I submitted my resignation and made it public. I would no longer validate Platner.

As scrutiny of Platner continued to heat up after my departure, the campaign offered me $15,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement. I refused. Then his skull-and-crossbones tattoo, a symbol used by the Nazis, was revealed. His team’s cavalier response, and what I strongly suspected was his feigned ignorance about the significance, was appalling. I said so publicly.

Platner’s campaign attacked me instead of confronting his shortcomings. A Platner spokesperson told the press I was a disgruntled former employee. His campaign claimed to Politico that I was offered a severance package not contingent on an NDA.

Then, in late May, the Wall Street Journal contacted me, saying it had multiple sources confirming that Platner, who is married, had a history of sexting with other women. His wife, Amy Gertner, had made the campaign aware of the problem before Labor Day — an early sign, for me, that the candidate I had signed up with a few weeks earlier was not who he seemed.

I spoke with the Journal off the record, but I went on record with the New York Times. Platner and his campaign admitted the sexting occurred, but then he also denounced the reports as “journalistic malpractice” and “gossip from a former staffer” — me. He was upset, apparently, that I said he had sexted with as many as a dozen women when, his campaign clarified, it was only about half that many.

Over the past eight months, women have come to me with their own disturbing stories about Platner. Last week, revelations about his physical mistreatment of women erupted in the Times. I had never met or spoken with Lyndsey Fifield, who spoke to the Times, but I knew about her experience while dating him.

Yet many Democrats seem unconcerned. On CNN, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) offered a dismissive response about Platner’s behavior: “Is he a saint? I guess not. I don’t know too many saints here.”

His comment reflects one of the deepest problems in American politics today. We have learned to excuse what we should condemn. I want better for my daughters, and for the people of Maine. Democrats are being sold a narrative that Platner is the only choice for the race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Maine voters don’t have to accept that. There are two other named candidates on Tuesday’s ballot. If Platner wins the nomination but later withdraws, Maine Democrats can hold a convention and choose a different nominee.

The answer to a broken political culture is not to accept it. Demand better from those entrusted with power or seeking it. Enough is enough.

Again, seen on Citizens Free Press and directly linked below. IF you know anyone in Maine - please send them this CC post!