Janet Mills and Graham Platner are fighting for women voters in a key Maine Senate race
Gov. Janet Mills and oyster farmer Graham Platner are vying for women voters as Maine’s Senate race heats up, underscoring how the party can decide June’s Democratic primary and November’s general election.
Mills and Platner have launched TV ads in recent days narrated by women and held related events highlighting women who support their campaigns. Platner’s campaign also targeted women more with online ads.
The latest scandal came Thursday as Mills released another TV ad targeting Platner over a 2013 online post in which he downplayed sexual harassment. Platner, an Army veteran, has since renounced those positions and attributed them to his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder following his deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The back-and-forth on the radio shows how both campaigns are vying for female voters in the primary to replace GOP Sen. Susan Collins. The Maine race is a must-win for Democrats in their bid to pick up four seats and control the Senate.
“It’s hard to imagine him winning the Maine primary without doing well for women, especially older women,” said David Farmer, a Maine Democratic strategist who is not involved in the Senate race. He noted that women over the age of 65 tend to make up the bulk of Maine’s top voters. Polls show that women, who are a key part of the broader Democratic coalition, are on fire ahead of the midterm elections.
A recent national poll by NBC News found 67% of women rated themselves a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale of their interest in the election, compared to 61% of men. The survey also found that women favor Democrats in the congressional race by 7 points, while men favor Republicans by 9 points.
Collins was able to survive in a left-leaning state in part because of his appeal to women voters. In his last race for re-election in 2020, he narrowly won Maine women by 3 points, as President Donald Trump lost them by 23 points, according to an NBC News poll.
That’s why Mills and his allies have highlighted Platner’s comments in the past, making them especially offensive to women in the state who might once again support Collins.
“Women are an important group here in the primary, and in general, so it’s no surprise who is now being targeted,” said Mills supporter Emily Cain, a former state legislator and former executive director of EMILY’s List, a Democratic women’s advocacy group that supports Mills.
“Janet’s conflict with Graham Platner is that her past comments, these and others, make her path to victory in the fall very difficult against Susan Collins,” said Cain.
Mills continues to attack
Platner’s online Reddit posts, which resurfaced last fall, include a number of controversial comments, including calling himself a communist; that white, rural Americans were racist and stupid; and writing that “all” police officers are “bastards” after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd in 2020.
In comments first reported by The Washington Post, Platner responded to a Reddit commenter who wrote, “There’s always a story about a girl who gets raped because she had too much to drink and someone took advantage of that.”
Platner responded, “Holy f—, what is it about people who just hold back and don’t get so excited that they end up sleeping with someone they don’t mean to? Men and women, you choose to use something enough to lose control. So if you don’t want to be in a compromising position, act like an adult for f—s sake.”
The first negative ad from Mills’ campaign launched last week featured women, including prominent Democratic leaders, reciting those words and saying they retract them.
Mills defended the ad at a news conference last week with female supporters, saying, “It’s important that Mainers hear Platner’s words and the disgusting things he said.”
