Portland, Maine — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Days after posting multiple apology videos, he bared his chest to reveal a covered tattoo that Associated with the Nazi symbol He distances himself from old-fashioned online comments, and Graham Blattner, a Democrat from Maine, says he is more committed to his US Senate campaign.
Plattneran oyster farmer and first-time political candidate, is vying to flip the Senate seat held by Republican Susan Collins for nearly 30 years. However, he must first pass a competitive primary, which includes a showdown Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.
Blatner, 41, made a stunning leap in the Senate race in August as a progressive candidate. But it wasn’t until Mills, 77, jumped into the race that media outlets began reporting on old Reddit posts, forcing him to issue a lengthy apology. He made a separate video to apologize when questions started swirling about a chest tattoo he got while drunk nearly 20 years ago.
However, so far, Plattner is trying to move forward through the differences – which is not very different from the current situation. The rules of the game set by President Donald Trump, Which achieved success amid discoveries that would have ended campaigns just a decade ago.
Here’s what to know about Maine’s Senate primary.
Blattner did not dispute that he wrote a wide range of Reddit comments between 2013 and 2021 that appeared to endorse political violence, reject rape in the military, use homophobic slurs, and criticize police officers and rural America.
Instead, he maintained that the posts were made after he left the Army in 2012 when he “still had the crude sense of humour, the dark sentiment, and the offensive language that was really characteristic of the infantry when I was in it.” He also said he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. He has credited returning to his hometown in Maine, going to therapy and spending more time in his community to help him develop and change his worldviews.
After that, the tattoo on Platner’s chest quickly became a new target of scrutiny, with critics pointing out that the image resembled a specific symbol of Hitler’s paramilitary forces, or SS, which were responsible for the systematic killing of millions of Jews and others in Europe during World War II.
Plattner covered up his chest tattoo earlier this week with a new design — nearly 20 years after getting it with some fellow Marines in Croatia — and said no one pointed out the tattoo’s connotations until a few weeks ago.
Blattner has largely accused his opponents of being behind the leaks of his past comments online and raising questions about his tattoos. In an interview with The Associated Press, Blattner said he had been warned against participating in the race but said he had no plans to back out.
Later, at a town hall Wednesday in southern Maine, Blattner told a large crowd that the organization was “trying to ruin my life,” adding that it was “not trying to go out and talk about the issues” but rather “trying to find out if I said something stupid on the Internet 13 years ago.”
“The establishment is terrified, and I will say this — if they think this is going to scare me. If they think that ripping my life apart, trying to destroy it, is going to make me think I shouldn’t do this project, then they clearly haven’t spent a lot of time around Marines,” Blattner said to cheers.
Blatner’s supporters, starting with U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Martin Heinrich, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna and the United Auto Workers, continued to throw their support behind the embattled candidate.
“I’m not very impressed with a bunch of media outlets going around saying, ‘What do you think about the tattoo on Graham Blatner’s chest,'” Sanders told Axios in an interview explaining his endorsement.
Mills, meanwhile, has remained tight-lipped about Blatner’s revelations, but his estranged main rival, Jordan Wood, who was once chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, a California Democrat, said Blatner should withdraw because “Democrats need to be able to condemn Trump’s actions with moral clarity” and that Blatner “can no longer do so.”
Maine’s primary won’t be held until June 2026, meaning Blatner, Mills and the other candidates have another seven months to make their case to the state’s voters.