Progressive Democrats are tired of the “safe” candidates. They’re ready to gamble on Graham Platner, flaws and all.
Tuesday’s Maine Democratic Senate primary has emerged as an ideological proxy battle over the party’s future, with Platner’s string of escalating controversies at the center. Some Democrats are fearful he has become far too risky for a must-win Senate race. But many on the insurgent left are tired of being asked to fall in line behind candidates who ultimately disappoint them, and they’re ready to keep backing the progressive oysterman — even if its risks costing Democrats the race in November.
“If we’re convinced you walk the walk on policy, we’ll overlook personal issues,” said Kyle Kulinski, the popular progressive host of Secular Talk and one of Platner’s fiercest defenders. “The days of weak apologetic Dems are over. Our tea party is here.”
Still, the latest allegations over Platner’s past aggressive treatment of ex-girlfriends is putting the onus on his progressive allies to prove candidates like him, even with their significant baggage, can succeed where establishment Democrats have previously failed in defeating battle-tested GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
“What’s my risk with going with Graham Platner? My risk is, oh, maybe we’re wrong,” said Cenk Uygur, co-creator of the longrunning progressive online show The Young Turks. “But if we go with an establishment candidate, there’s a 100 percent chance we’re wrong.”
Uygur is also the founder of Rebellion PAC, which is backing Platner and other populist candidates in primaries, and has raised non-corporate funds and run messaging campaigns for candidates.
The risks for progressives standing by Platner amid growing controversy extend well beyond Maine and even 2026. A loss would likely only deepen doubts about candidates in his mold, especially as the party looks toward what kind of Democrat can win the presidency in 2028.
The left has notched a series of wins in recent years that have strengthened its hand against the party’s establishment wing, a fight dating back to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 primary against Hillary Clinton and continuing through his 2020 run against Joe Biden. That includes New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s meteoric rise last fall from little-known state lawmaker to one of the party’s most recognizable and well-liked new faces — a win powered by many of the same strategists now working for Platner.
But that hard-fought momentum — and arguments that it’s worth taking a chance on more untested political outsiders over people with long political track records — is on the line with Platner. If he has a lackluster performance on Tuesday or, more importantly, goes on to lose the critical Senate race in the general election, establishment Democrats will amp up their “I told you so’s.”
Progressives have circled the wagons hard around Platner, a stark contrast to other Democrats who’ve faced personal scandals in recent years.
On the eve of Tuesday’s primary, Sanders said at the National Press Club that “there are no saints in the United States’ Senate” and that he was “going to do everything I can to make sure that Graham Platner is the next senator from the state of Maine.”
“Republican super PACS have already lined up some $99 million just on TV ads to defeat him. Why is that?” Sanders asked. “Think they’re worried about what his relationship to women has been? I don’t think so. What they are worried about is that he is going to be a strong voice against oligarchy.”
Left-leaning Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota also threw her support behind Platner on Monday, writing in a post that he would win “because he has connected with Mainers on what they really care about" and “because he’s not part of the Washington establishment.”
The aggressive support for Platner, and at times vicious pushback from the left against establishment calls for him to drop out, comes as many Democrats have grown frustrated with what they see as a party too quick to abandon candidates under pressure — all while Republicans in the Trump era have played by a different set of rules. Just look at Texas Senate GOP nominee Ken Paxton, and the president’s own trajectory.
Democrats in the past have folded in the face of party pressure, including Smith, who replaced former Sen. Al Franken after he resigned amid misconduct allegations. But the party is entering a different era now — and some Democrats have even said they regretted pushing Franken out.
Yet, even some sympathetic voices on the left acknowledge that Platner’s candidacy only works if he wins.
“The only reason why Platner is worth the trouble is if he’s able to win over these independent or more conservative-leaning voters,” said Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation, founding editor of the socialist magazine Jacobin, and longtime adviser to Sanders and other progressive candidates. “To me, that’s a test.”
For progressives, the uncertainty and risk around candidates like Platner may be baked into the model. They argue Democrats need more outsiders who can separate themselves from a party brand that polls show has become badly damaged, especially in working-class and rural areas.
“Platner, I think, is particularly flawed,” Sunkara said, noting that other left-populist candidates like Nebraska’s Dan Osborne have not carried the same baggage. “But the primary challenge facing the Democratic Party is that the brand is toxic. If you want an outsider and you want a new fresh face, you’re going to have less of a knowledge base about who they are, what’s going to come out. That’s true of any sort of insurgent candidate.”
Once Platner wins Tuesday’s primary, he may still face pressure from establishment Democrats to step down before the Maine Democratic Party’s July deadline to replace its nominee — especially if more allegations surface. Some in the party are bracing until after Tuesday to mount a more serious pressure campaign.
But that could only further fracture the Democratic coalition.
“I will personally go up to Maine and punch him in the face if he drops out,” Uygur said. “He’s not dropping out. Under no circumstances.”
In many ways, Platner’s campaign has also become a preview of the fight Democrats are likely to have heading into 2028, as the party continues to argue over whether its future lies with more conventional candidates or with populist outsiders willing to run against the party establishment.
Uygur cast the fight over Platner as an early skirmish in that larger battle, arguing that moderate Democrats will target whoever emerges in 2028 from the left in the same way.
“I’ll see them in ’26 and I will most certainly see them in 2028,” Uygur said. “Starting in the beginning of ’27 they’ll start howling … ‘No, no, not a real person — not a populist!’”
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