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A second poll that was conducted in the midst of the recent onslaught of media reports about US Senate candidate Graham Platner's deleted Reddit posts and tattoo confirmed that voters in Maine have been undeterred by the attacks on the Democrat's character.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) polled 647 likely Democratic voters from October 22-23, amid considerable national attention focusing on a tattoo that Platner got while he was in the Marines—one that some said resembled a Nazi symbol and that Platner got covered up after learning of the resemblance.
The survey found that 46% of respondents supported Platner despite the controversies, while 25% were backing Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
Mills announced her campaign earlier this month; US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had called on her to join the Democratic primary race.
Next year's primary winner will face longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has persistently claimed to hold moderate views, particularly on abortion rights, but has voted for numerous anti-choice federal judges including Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Seventy-one percent of voters said they viewed Platner favorably, and 73% said he stands up for their values.
Since launching his campaign in August, Platner has been outspoken in his criticism of the United States' "oligarchy," Democratic leaders who have capitulated to President Donald Trump, and US support for Israel's assault on Gaza. His platform includes support for Medicare for All, a billionaire minimum tax, and federal LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination legislation.
This week, in addition to promoting policy proposals to help working families afford childcare, groceries, and other essentials, Platner has spoken about how many of his views have evolved since he wrote comments in online forums about sexual assault, people who live in rural areas, and other topics.
At a town hall in Ogunquit on Wednesday night, Platner said he did not want to "minimize what has come out,” but emphasized that he "used to hold different opinions."
"I also grew," he said. "I met new people. I learned of other people’s experiences."
In the NRSC poll, 45% of respondents said Platner's statements about his past remarks made them more likely to support him.
The findings, said journalist Ryan Grim of Drop Site News, suggested that the scandal is "helping Platner rather than hurting him—not because people love Nazi tats but because people want a culture that brings back grace, forgiveness, and growth."
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Drop Site Newsinterviewed attendees at the town hall, and found similar sentiments.
"I’ve lived long enough to know people make mistakes, and I’ve never been someone to throw a person by the wayside because they misstep," said Christian Millian, 39, of Wells. "Otherwise, I’d be on the wayside."
At another event in Waterville recently, Sharon McCarthy, 50, told Drop Site News that "anyone our age and younger is going to have a past on the internet."
“I liked that he addressed the Reddit comment issue straight out," she said. "A lot of us said things we aren’t proud of in our younger years and have learned and grown since then. Since he addressed it straight out, didn’t deny or deflect, and said he had changed, I’m willing to give him that grace.”
At the town hall Wednesday, Platner also spoke about the need for voters to connect with one another over politics instead of seeing it as the realm of "congressman and senators."
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"For us to get young people to believe again, we have to show young people that... politics is about building power with your neighbors," he said. "Politics is about protecting your community... We are not going to just convince people by telling them that they need to read a different news source."
"Every second we spend talking about a tattoo I got in the Marine Corps is a second we don't talk about Medicare for All," said Platner ahead of a town hall. "It's a second we don't talk about raising taxes on the wealthy."
As Politico and other news outlets reported over the past week on old posts written by progressive US Senate candidate Graham Platner and a tattoo he got while in the military, pollsters with the University of New Hampshire were speaking to Mainers about their views on the state's Democratic primary, in which Platner is now facing Gov. Janet Mills along with several other candidates.
Despite the media onslaught, UNH's Pine Tree State Poll revealed on Thursday that voters in Maine heavily favor Platner, who has spent the past two months since his campaign launch speaking to overflow crowds about his platform—one that is focused on making life more affordable for Maine families, shifting the Democratic Party away from corporate interests and toward the needs of working people, and ensuring corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share to provide for the needs of all Mainers.
The poll, taken between October 16-21, found Platner with 58% of the vote. Twenty-four percent of respondents said they support Mills, who announced her campaign on October 14 after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) urged her to run, while other candidates each had less than 2% of the vote.
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Politicoreported on Platner's old Reddit posts on October 16, generating national attention in the following days, and on Monday the oyster farmer and former Marine spoke on the popular podcast Pod Save America about his tattoo that was visible in a video—one that critics said resembled a Nazi symbol, but which, he noted, didn't prevent from from being approved to reenlist in the US military after he got it. Platner this week covered the tattoo and denounced Nazism.
"In other words, they were in the field as all the [opposition] hit," Democratic consultant Rebecca Katz saidin response to the polling. "Mainers have Graham Platner's back because they know he has theirs."
Progressive observers said the polling showed that recent efforts to damage Platner's working class-focused campaign—which, one attendee at the candidate's town hall on Wednesday night noted, coincided with Mills' entrance into the race—have been no match for voters' palpable anger over a political system that has left millions struggling to afford healthcare, groceries, and other essentials while the wealthiest Americans are handed tax breaks.
The survey, said journalist David Sirota, provides "today's evidence that people are really pissed at the status quo, and also despise the national Democratic leadership and the media that so often run interference for them."
Ryan Grim of Drop Site Newsadded that, judging from the temperature-check in Maine, the "Democratic Party leadership could not be more disconnected from the party base if they had lived on the moon the past decade."
Tommy Vietor of Pod Save America said that the poll served as a "good reminder that the DC pundit class has no fucking clue what actual Maine voters think or how they will vote."
The poll results were released the morning after Platner spoke to a crowd of about 600 people at a town hall in Ogunquit, Maine, following a video he posted on Instagram addressing the controversy surrounding his tattoo.
"This has come up because the establishment is trying to throw everything it can at me," said Platner, who also showed a new tattoo he got to cover up the old image. "It is terrified of what we are trying to build here. Every second we spend talking about a tattoo I got in the Marine Corps is a second we don't talk about Medicare for All. It's a second we don't talk about raising taxes on the wealthy. It's a second we’re not talking about the material struggles of Mainers as they try to scrape through a system that at its core is trying to rob them."
"And that's why tonight, I'm just going back right out on the road," he said. "Going around the state of Maine, making myself accessible to Mainers in their communities, so I can listen to them, I can hear about what it is they need to change in our political system, and that is what I'm going to continue dedicating my time to."
At the town hall in Ogunquit, Platner emphasized his political and personal evolution as he turned the attention back to his platform—one focused on passing a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling and ban "billionaires buying elections," rebuilding the US healthcare system by extending Medicare to all, breaking up corporate monopolies and ensuring corporations pay a fair tax rate, and defending the rights of immigrants and other marginalized groups.
"I'm not going to minimize what has come out," he said. "I used to hold different opinions... I also grew. I met new people. I learned of other people's experiences. I realized... that the more open I could be to listen to other people's stories, the more open I was willing to be—to extend compassion and empathy to others."
If they thought that any of this would stop us or deter us: they clearly don't understand our movement, and they don't understand Marines. pic.twitter.com/fXukXG2nVT — Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) October 23, 2025
"The establishment is spooked," he reiterated. "And if they thought that this was going to scare me off, if they thought that ripping my life to pieces and trying to destroy it was going to make me think that I shouldn't undertake this project, they clearly have not spent a lot of time around Marines."
In addition to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said the senator, "you've got a lot of great young people right now in the Progressive Caucus in the House... And that gives me a lot of optimism about our political future."
Despite the Trump administration's increasing assaults on immigrant communities, the political left, and the rule of law, US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday said he is optimistic "about our political future" when he looks at progressive leaders including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In excerpts of the latest episode of "The Axios Show" by the news outlet Axios, which is set to be released in full on Friday, Sanders (I-Vt.) weighed in on the recent news that Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is considering a presidential run in 2028.
When host Alex Thompson asked him whether Ocasio-Cortez would be a "formidable" candidate, Sanders replied, "I think she would."
He added that a number of other Democratic elected officials would also be good candidates, and said the congresswoman's future political moves are "her decision to make." Ocasio-Cortez has also been named as a potential challenger to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2026.
Sanders spoke about Ocasio-Cortez's ability to connect with voters she meets in person.
"I've been out on the streets with her, people come up, and how she responds to people is so incredibly genuine and open," he said. "It's just something that's a gift that she has. It's a quality that she has, she's a great speaker out there."
While progressive electoral successes like Ocasio-Cortez's have often been dismissed by centrist Democrats and Republicans who claim left-wing candidates don't have appeal outside of deep-blue urban areas like New York City, the congresswoman—who's often called by her nickname, AOC—has received warm receptions in conservative, rural parts of the country, including when speaking to crowds of thousands with Sanders on his Fighting Oligarchy Tour this year.
"She comes from the working class, she was a kid who was cleaning houses with her mother," he said. "She knows what it's like not to have any money and she’s going out, fighting for working families all over this country."
"I do want to say, it's not just Alexandria," he said. "You've got a lot of great young people right now in the Progressive Caucus in the House...I mean literally dozens... And that gives me a lot of optimism about our political future."
Sanders also spoke about Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is running a campaign focused on lifting up the working class in the primary against multiple candidates, including Gov. Janet Mills, as the party aims to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
Platner has been the subject of controversy in recent days over deleted Reddit posts he wrote in the past and a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol—one that he got while serving in the military and that didn't prevent him from being approved to reenlist. He announced Wednesday that he had gotten the tattoo covered with another image, before continuing his campaign with a town hall where he spoke to hundreds of Maine voters.
When Thompson asked Sanders about Platner's controversies, he answered that he is "not overly impressed by a squad of media running around saying, 'What do you think about the tattoo on Graham Platner's chest?'"
"Between you and me, there might be one or two more important issues," he said before speaking about the progressive oyster farmer's impressive campaign rallies and the "dark period" he went through in the past.
"He went through some very difficult experiences in the military," said Sanders. "Seeing his friends killed... He went to the VA and by the way, he says they rebuilt his life. He went into a dark period in his life. I suspect that Graham Platner is not the only American to have gone through a dark period."
📺 EXCLUSIVE: On the latest episode of The Axios Show, @SenSanders defends Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, saying there might be "one or two more important issues" than the Marine veteran's tattoos.
"The guy that I saw up on the stage in Portland, Maine, rather a brilliant guy," said the senator. "Really a strong fighter for the working class, very articulate, very smart and what he said is, 'Yeah, I went through a dark period and said stupid things. I am not the person that I was back then.'"
"And I think as a nation," he added, "especially given the fact that we have a president who was convicted of 34 felonies, maybe we have to do a little bit of forgiveness."
