The downfall of Graham Platner, the former Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, exposes a troubling dynamic within the party: a desperate craving for working-class credibility that leads progressives to tolerate misogyny and bigotry in their candidates. Platner, an oyster farmer and veteran, embodied the rough-hewn, masculine ideal that many Democrats believe can win back alienated working-class voters.
Platner's Troubling Past and Initial Support
Despite numerous red flags, Platner enjoyed broad support from progressives and party leaders. He had a Nazi-adjacent tattoo, which he claimed not to understand. He used the word 'retarded' on social media and, in a Reddit comment about rape prevention, wrote: 'How about people just take some responsibility for themselves and not get so fucked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to?' Each time he was challenged, he apologized and vowed to improve.
Even after a woman named Jenny Racicot accused him of rape, feminist state representative Valli Geiger defended him, saying she believes 'Graham is a man becoming a better man and working hard on it.' The party's willingness to overlook these issues reflects a broader problem: the assumption that only a white, masculine 'regular guy' can connect with working-class voters.
The Breaking Point
On Monday, Politico published a detailed account of Racicot's experience, and she told CNN that Platner had 'absolutely' raped her. Most of his allies then abandoned him. On Wednesday night, Platner suspended his campaign in an 11-minute video, vehemently denying the accusation. He blamed 'the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power' rather than taking responsibility.
Platner's background contradicts the working-class image he projected: he is a private school graduate, son of a lawyer and a restaurateur, and grandson of a prominent architect. His main income is nearly $5,000 a month in veterans' benefits. Yet he was embraced as a 'man of the people.'
Broader Implications for Democrats
New York Times opinion writer Michelle Cottle noted that 'voters don’t want authentic; they want authentically charming and folksy and looking regular guy-y.' This logic, unacknowledged, equates 'regular' with white and 'guy-y' with masculine. The imagined working-class voter is assumed to care primarily about economic issues, not 'women's issues.'
Democrats have historically been squeamish about defending abortion rights, with some male pundits suggesting that focusing on abortion is an electoral liability. This leads to candidates like Platner, whose class politics are flawless but whose rough edges include bigotry and sexism.
A Call for Change
The author, Judith Levine, argues that progressives need to rethink the image of the working-class hero. She points to alternative models like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg, who are progressive populists without the toxic masculinity. 'I would gladly vote for any straight white male working-class feminist progressive populist man who is confident enough about himself and his politics that he need never flex his muscles or utter a disparaging word about women,' she writes.
