Time: Democrats Want Something Different, So They Choose a Nazi for Senate

Even I will concede that Graham Platner is no longer a Nazi. 

After all, he subsequently declared himself to be a communist revolutionary and now campaigns with Somali scammers who are ripping off Maine taxpayers, so he seems to have switched from allegiance to one totalitarian ideology to a different totalitarian ideology. 

Graham Platner defends saying violence with a gun is necessary:

“You said quote, ‘An armed working class is a requirement for economic justice…’”

“I don’t think it’s a very controversial statement.”

“In the context of political violence, some might see it as worrying.” pic.twitter.com/rB9InZPqU4

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 16, 2026

He trains “Armed Queers,” not stormtroopers, which makes him a perfect fit for today’s Democratic Party. 

TIME’s Platner patter:
After decades of nominating buttoned-up technocrats with glittering résumés, many Democrats want candidates with flaws, faded ink, and redemption arcs that resemble their own. Platner’s past, in other words, may actually be his path. “Platner’s rise fits a…

— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) May 26, 2026

TIME’s Platner patter:

After decades of nominating buttoned-up technocrats with glittering résumés, many Democrats want candidates with flaws, faded ink, and redemption arcs that resemble their own. Platner’s past, in other words, may actually be his path. “Platner’s rise fits a moment where many Democrats feel the traditional playbook hasn’t worked, either politically or personally,” says admaker Jim Margolis, who advised Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “Democrats are willing to bet on someone who may have a few warts but feels fresh, unscripted, and tuned in. His ‘difference’ may well be his secret sauce.”

It is true that Platner is “different,” although not as much as he would have been 15 years ago. Democrats have been zooming leftward so fast that Luigi Mangione is just outside the Overton Window these days. Colin Wright (follow him!) hit the nail on the head. 

Platner is every leftist’s dream candidate: a child of wealth and privilege, who went to tony private schools, but who can cosplay a workingman while spouting radical nonsense. He is a rougher-around-the-edges Mamdani, Katie Wilson, Brandon Johnson, or Hasan Piker. 

He’s not a flawed candidate. Not a guy with baggage.

He’s an absolute psychopath.

Decent people can’t vote for Graham Platner. https://t.co/Xu1D7jCEv2

— Gerry Callahan (@GerryCallahan) May 20, 2026

He’s an oysterman roughneck with 100% disability (fraudster! Yeah!), who sells his product to his wealthy mom before he goes out to train trannies how to kill normies. 

Maine Democrat Senate Candidate Graham Platner, who said violence with a gun is necessary to achieve change:

“I do 100% believe that a political revolution is entirely necessary.” pic.twitter.com/FQd8K2MOtY

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 11, 2026

Democrats are swooning over Platner, as Time acknowledges, though they characterize his flaws as warts rather than deal-breakers for ordinary people. The same media that literally turned the “OK” sign into an impermissible expression of white supremacy are fine with wearing a Totenkopf tattoo, seeing it as a charming expression of a man passionate for social justice. 

Amy McGrath: How can we trust a guy like Pete Hegseth? He has a white supremacist tattoo.

She must be really concerned about Graham Platner.😜 pic.twitter.com/kAG0M8pHIq

— MAZE (@mazemoore) May 5, 2026

The same Democrat/Pravda complex that went insane over Pete Hegseth having a tattoo of a cross on his chest is going gaga over the man with the Nazi tattoo, which I suppose tells you how they feel about Christianity today, and exactly how they feel about political violence. 

TIME’s new cover: Even in this antiestablishment political moment, Graham Platner’s rise has been remarkable. His candidacy is forcing the party to come to terms with what it’s willing to risk in exchange for a fighter https://t.co/1ExIrgNTaY pic.twitter.com/Yc1uLkzUUk

— TIME (@TIME) May 21, 2026

Platner’s story feels a lot like a pat movie plot: With Democratic voters yearning for outsiders to shake up the system, along comes a rough-hewn, gravelly voiced Marine Corps veteran from Sullivan, Maine—pop. 1,300—as their new national star. He barnstorms the state with a pugilistic brand of economic populism, building a following so quickly that he forces his central-casting opponent, the two-term Democratic governor, Janet Mills, out of the race before voters can cast a ballot. Even in this antiestablishment, unabashedly ageist political moment, Platner’s rise has been remarkable. Yes, Mills is 78. She’s also a lifelong Mainer who served as a state attorney general and DA, went toe-to-toe with President Donald Trump, and was the handpicked Senate recruit of national Democratic leaders. Platner, 41, is a newcomer carrying enough baggage to sink an oyster boat: a Nazi tattoo, a DUI from a post-military period of heavy drinking, and a trove of Reddit posts that spewed hostility in almost every direction. Working-class candidates are having a moment—but surely, many Democrats lament, the party could have found one who hadn’t, for example, defended peeing on dead Taliban fighters, or joked about the Virgin Mary being a “skank.”

Voters gravitated toward Platner anyway. After decades of nominating buttoned-up technocrats with glittering résumés, many Democrats want candidates with flaws, faded ink, and redemption arcs that resemble their own. Platner’s past, in other words, may actually be his path. “Platner’s rise fits a moment where many Democrats feel the traditional playbook hasn’t worked, either politically or personally,” says admaker Jim Margolis, who advised Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “Democrats are willing to bet on someone who may have a few warts but feels fresh, unscripted, and tuned in. His ‘difference’ may well be his secret sauce.”

Platner’s “secret sauce” is his vileness. Time and the Democrats believe that this makes him appealing to the “working class,” but all the evidence shows that the enthusiasm for Platner comes almost entirely from the Bernie Sanders/AOC/Piker/Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party, along with their media and podcast cheerleaders. 

Bernie Sanders says he supports Graham Platner — who got a Nazi tattoo, praised Hamas, and said women should “act like an adult” to avoid rape.

SANDERS: “I Like Graham Platner.” pic.twitter.com/3AVCHRwjoL

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 3, 2026

This is the same impulse, slightly skewed, that turned Tim Walz into a “code talker” to white males. In Walz’s case, they chose a social radical with very gay overtones and sold him as a normal guy; in Platner’s case, they chose a nasty bigot with a violent streak to appeal to us. 

Graham Platner’s Nazi tattoo isn’t generic.

It’s the Totenkopf, tied to Nazi camp guards who brutalized Jews.

For anyone, especially Jewish men like Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer, to put politics over basic decency is indefensible. pic.twitter.com/jd2m6aN6Wo

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 1, 2026

As long as they are communists, it’s all good. 

The 2026 Democrat Party is a place where people named Medhi, Hasan, and Saikat lecture an American Jew named Jake about why he needs to support a guy with a Nazi tattoo pic.twitter.com/ykz79Pw4nj

— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) May 26, 2026

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