Before Graham Platner’s dramatic exit from the Maine Senate race last week, the Democratic hopeful received glowing coverage from the that pushed the narrative that he was a salt-of-the-earth oyster farmer who could win back male voters and unseat longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins.
Now out of the race after multiple scandals, including a rape allegation from a former girlfriend that he’s denied, the friendly coverage he received is getting a second look.
The Guardian was among the first outlets to publish a profile on Platner, running a story last August headlined, “This Maine oysterman thinks Democrats are doing jack about fascism. So hes running for US Senate.”
The outlet told readers how Platner doesn’t present like a “stereotypical progressive,” listing his titles as “a veteran, an oysterman and a competitive shooter,” adding that he spends his weekends “at the local gunnery.”
GRAHAM PLATNER’S MOST PROMINENT PRESS ALLIES ABANDON HIM AS RAPE ALLEGATION ROCKS MAINE SENATE RACE
“Platner believes the party needs an outsider. He believes that pedigreed, establishment Democratic candidates have failed repeatedly to appeal to working-class Americans, hastening the rise of MAGA,” The Guardian wrote. “As he surveys the American political scene, Platner is enraged by a Democratic party he sees as more interested in raising money than helping people, a party willing to appease Maga, to meet it in the middle, instead of fighting it.”
The New Yorker praised Platner’s campaign launch video in its own profile, saying it portrayed him as a “rugged and likable working-class Democratic candidate” but that it “could just as easily have been the opener for a reality-TV show called ‘Oyster Man.'”
“A macho pastiche with a Jeep-commercial soundtrack, it shows him diving in his wetsuit, chopping wood, hauling oyster cages, and doing kettlebell swings. There are closeups of his tattoos, along with shots of him holding hands with his wife,” Lisa Wood Shapiro wrote in the New Yorker piece.
Shapiro hyped that he was “drawing support from both sides of the aisle,” alleging “several [Donald] Trump supporters said that they would vote for him” despite his left-wing platform.
“Ive had Platners number for years, and have picked up oyster orders from his boat. Ive seen him shuck oysters at parties, fund-raisers… Soon, my friends were discussing over gin-and-tonics how they always knew he would be famous,” Shapiro gushed.
The Washington Post put a spotlight on Platner in a September report called “Meet the Rugged Guys of the 2026 Midterms.”
“They are scruffy, solidly built, middle-aged White military veterans who work with their hands and look like theyre way more comfortable in plaid flannel than pinstripe suits. And they are banking that the antiestablishment populism that Republicans have embraced during the Trump era can work the other way, too,” the Post wrote about Platner and other Democratic hopefuls.
Journalist Ross Barkan authored a Platner profile for GQ in October titled, “Marine Turned Oysterman Is Ready to Fight Trump. Will MAGA Men Join Him?”
“In the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, Senate candidate Graham Platner might be the perfect soldier: The virile, earthy w
