Graham Platner Wins Maine Democratic Senate Primary With 72% of the Vote, Setting Up November Race Against Susan Collins

Since this story broke earlier in the week, the Maine Senate race has moved from primary drama to a defined November matchup with national stakes.

Graham Platner won the Democratic primary on Tuesday night with 72% of the vote, according to early results reported by Reuters and projected by CBS News. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who had suspended her campaign in April but remained on the ballot, finished second. David Costello placed third. Collins ran unopposed on the Republican side.

Platner is 41, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer from Blue Hill, Maine. He has never held elected office. He beat an incumbent governor who was recruited into the race by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and backed by the Democratic establishment.

The Allegations

The final stretch of the primary was dominated by serious personal allegations. Days before Tuesday's vote, The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner's own wife told his campaign he had sent sexually explicit text messages to other women shortly after the couple married in 2023. Then The New York Times reported on allegations of "unsettling" behavior toward women Platner had previously dated, including one claim of physical abuse.

Platner denied being physically abusive and characterized the allegations as politically motivated, according to CBS News. Hunter Biden, who came to Platner's defense publicly, told reporters he is "99.9% certain" Platner is not a Nazi, referencing a separate controversy over a tattoo. That endorsement was noted sardonically by Fox News commentator Kat Timpf, who called Platner's scandals "uniquely bizarre."

Despite all of it, Maine Democratic voters handed him a landslide.

The Case FOR Platner, Stated Fairly

Platner's supporters have a coherent argument, and it is worth stating plainly. Democrats in Maine looked at the allegations and made a deliberate choice. The charges are allegations, not convictions. Platner denied the physical abuse claim. His supporters argued that economic anxiety and opposition to Donald Trump outweighed unproven personal misconduct claims, and that the timing of the allegations, arriving after Mills had already exited, left primary voters with no credible alternative anyway. His victory speech leaned directly into working-class and anti-establishment themes.

"The truth is, Susan Collins doesn't serve us. She serves Donald Trump," Platner said Tuesday night, according to The Guardian. "She serves the Epstein class. She serves her corporate donors in the corrupt political system that has rigged the economy against us."

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts both backed Platner, according to CBS News. He raised more money than Mills and consistently led in polling after she entered the race.

The Case AGAINST His Nomination

Senate Republicans' campaign arm circulated a memo Wednesday slamming Democrats for "propping up" Platner after the allegations surfaced, according to CBS News. That is not a neutral source, but the underlying concern is real: Democratic leadership, most visibly Schumer, declined to withdraw support from Platner even as the abuse allegations became public. Schumer's public response when pressed on the allegations was to say, "We're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate," per CBS News.

Bill Maher, who supported Platner's candidacy, acknowledged on his program that the candidate has "scary" issues, according to Fox News. That is a meaningful admission from someone actively boosting him.

Jonathan Turley wrote in Fox News that the media coverage represents a double standard. Allegations of this nature would receive far more sustained coverage if the candidate were a Republican. That argument has merit as a process critique regardless of where one stands on Platner himself.

Collins and the General Election

Susan Collins, 73, is running for a sixth six-year term. She has served in the Senate since 1997 and currently chairs the Appropriations Committee, according to CBS News. She is one of the most independent-minded Republicans in the chamber by vote record, having broken with her party on multiple high-profile votes.

Collins fired back directly. In an exclusive interview reported by Fox News, she contrasted what she described as a record built in Maine against Platner's "angry rhetoric" — a reference to Platner calling her "spineless and corrupt."

The race matters structurally. Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority, according to The Guardian. Maine is one of a small number of states where Democrats have a realistic path to flipping a Republican seat.

What Remains Unresolved

The allegations against Platner are unproven. No criminal charges have been filed and no investigation has been announced. But they are also not going away. The Republican Party will have until November to make them the centerpiece of the general election. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times stories exist in the record.

The question that will define the next five months: whether Maine's general-election voters, who are more moderate than the Democratic primary electorate, reach the same forgiveness calculus that primary voters did on Tuesday, or whether Collins, who has survived multiple serious reelection fights since 1997, turns those unanswered questions into a sixth term.