Senate Democrats want their party to offer the Ken Paxton treatment to Graham Platner after clinching Maine’s Democratic nomination for Senate.
Hungry to oust longtime centrist Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), early supporters of the embattled progressive candidate say it’s time their colleagues drop lingering skepticism over personal baggage to embrace the party’s best chance at winning the toss-up seat.
“If Democrats want to win the Senate, as I’m sure they do, I think they’re going to rally around the Democratic nominee in Maine,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told the Washington Examiner.
“They need to coalesce,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said. “He has taken responsibility.”
An eagerness for Democrats to embrace Platner, a scandal-plagued nominee, resembles Republicans falling in line for the Trump-endorsed Paxton after ousting leadership-backed Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the competitive Texas Senate race. But even as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Democrats’ campaign arm extend a lukewarm embrace, there remains a greater reluctance among some to champion Platner in the way Republicans quickly did for Paxton after months of vehemently opposing him.
“It just doesn’t matter what I think. It literally doesn’t matter,” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT). “It matters what the voters in Maine think, and the challenge that Platner has is the challenge that any candidate has. It is to address, in a direct way, both personal and political issues that are legitimate questions for the voters. He’s got to do that.”
Welch added: “Until the election is over, he’s got work to do every day and every way.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) described Platner as a key player to winning back the Senate so Democrats can challenge the Trump administration. But she also expressed anxieties that there could be more yet-to-be-unearthed skeletons for the insurgent nominee.
“I just hope we’re — I’m — not caught again live on TV answering the same questions about bad behavior,” Slotkin said.
The Democrat most eager to talk about Platner, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), is perhaps the nominee’s strongest opponent within the party over his past transgressions that have come to light on the campaign trail. Those include a Nazi tattoo, offensive social media posts, an extramarital sexting scandal, and allegedly toxic former romantic relationships.
“I will be the one Democrat to never defend and pretend that he isn’t an absolute mess and a disgrace as a candidate,” Fetterman told the Washington Examiner, suggesting he’ll stay neutral and not support Collins. “The only thing that keeps him alive politically is that there happens to be a ‘D’ at the end of his name.”
Platner won the Tuesday primary against Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME), who suspended her campaign in late April, with roughly 72% of the vote. In his victory speech, he painted reporting on his scandals as an attempt by the “political establishment” to distract voters.
“And they will try to make this race about everything other than what it absolutely is: a simple choice for who will represent us in the United States Senate,” Platner told supporters.
TRUMP BACKS SUSAN COLLINS FOR REELECTION
President Donald Trump lambasted Platner Wednesday as a “thug” and an “outright pig” while endorsing Collins for a sixth term, despite frequently butting heads with the powerful swing-vote senator who doubles as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“She’s a sane woman, and she’s a respected person, maybe a little different ideology than me,” Trump praised Collins, before turning to criticism of Platner. “But this guy is a thug, he’s a fake, he’s a fake thug, he’s a phony. … I made a lot of money picking out phonies. He’s a real phony, he’s bad, he’s a bad person.”
Christian Datoc and Mabinty Quarshie contributed to this report.
