ME-SEN: Graham Platner's online history means he'd lose to Susan Collins, Dem poll warns [View all]

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s social media history is a major general election liability, a new Democratic polling memo warns.

The survey, conducted on behalf of the Democratic group EMILYs List and obtained by POLITICO, finds that most voters wouldn’t support Platner over Republican Sen. Susan Collins after learning of his past social media posts in which he called himself a communist, denigrated the police and characterized white people in rural Maine as “stupid” and “racist.”

When voters are read direct quotes from Platner’s since-deleted Reddit posts, he loses to Collins by double digits. And in a test of
potential campaign messaging, a positive narrative about Platner that includes his life story as a veteran and oyster farmer and his apology for the posts fails to make up the gap.

Before testing a matchup between Platner and Collins, the poll summarizes pro-Platner messaging — including his military service and his promise to “fight the billionaire class” and make politics work “for regular people” — along with likely Republican attacks about the communist label and his comments about police. With that information, Collins leads Platner 51 percent to 42 percent.



https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/12/poll-graham-platner-maine-senate-emilys-list-00647389?nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nname=playbook&nrid=0000015d-667e-d075-a77f-e77ee1da0000