As of June 9th, Graham Platner is officially the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine. He won his primary election comfortably against Janet Mills, who had dropped out on May 30th. Platner ran on a hard-line progressive agenda, garnering endorsements from the likes of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ro Khanna. Left-wing populists in America like him. They like him so much that they are willing to shrug off numerous incidents of misogyny, infidelity, and allegations of volatility towards past girlfriends. Reports of infidelity came from The Wall Street Journal the very day that Janet Mills dropped out, and accusations of volatility came from The New York Times 5 days later. Why these two publications waited until after Mills’ departure from the race to release reports of Platner’s scandals is unknown, but Mills would be well within her rights to pursue legal action against the Journal and the Times.

When Ro Khanna affirmed his support for Platner, he acknowledged Platner’s past misogynistic comments on social media, which was a story in October 2025 that Platner has long since dealt with. What Khanna failed to mention were recent allegations, pretending as if Platner’s past apologies for his words were enough to act as an apology for his present scandals. They are not. Excusing the Maine politician further, Khanna equated Platner’s primary victory to “a chance at redemption.”The United States Senate is not a correctional facility or a tabernacle. It is not a sanctuary for broken souls to redeem themselves. It is a place where concerned citizens are entrusted with the most powerful branch of government so that they may create law that best serves their country. Graham Platner should not be entrusted with that power because men who behave the way he does show that they misunderstand and mistreat power dynamics.

Platner does not only reflect poorly on himself, but the Democrats who defend him. For a decade, Democrats have been justifiably flaming Donald Trump for his mistreatment of women. Progressives have criticized people within the Democratic establishment, like Andrew Cuomo, for similar mistreatment. But it was only a matter of time before a progressive Democrat like Graham Platner ended up being morally depraved and the supposed values of left-wing populism were put to the test. Those values have been compromised, and Americans are left with questions. Did Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders ever care about sexual misconduct, or was it just a tool to dismantle political opponents? Or do they really care about such depravity so long as one of their own is not involved? Either way, the ethics are taking a backseat to political ideology. Khanna, Sanders, and every politician who has reaffirmed their support of Platner following the Times report should be ashamed of themselves.

Questions may be raised about whether or not support for someone like Platner is worth eroding the influence of someone like Trump, who is even more depraved. However, Platner is not running against Trump or a supporter of his movement. He is running against Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who has resisted Trump’s unconstitutional war in Iran and did not garner Trump’s endorsement because she voted to convict him on articles of impeachment after January 6th. In other words, if the Democratic Party is so far gone as to believe that fighting fire with fire is appropriate, this is not the race to test that theory. Even if Democrats unseat Collins, they have no excuse for resorting to Platner to do so. The party has a moral obligation to take advantage of election law and pressure Platner to suspend his campaign before July 13th so that they can hold another primary and emerge with a less problematic candidate. Otherwise, Platner will leave a stain on the party, and the party will deserve it.