The Irony of Graham Platner’s Campaign

Most people don’t know this, but the rise of Graham Platner wasn’t remotely organic, and there is almost nothing real about his origin story or his campaign. 

Jim Geraghty did a superb job explaining the process by which a wealthy, mentally unstable guy who was kicked out of an exclusive private school and who bragged about how he went off to war because he wanted to kill people was transformed into a working-class everyman oyster farmer. 

This is a really valuable read to understand how Graham Platner rose – it wasn’t some organic populist surge.

It was a well-funded op – including glowing NYT and GQ profiles BEFORE he even announced, promoting a very specific curated message intended to get libs online buzzing. https://t.co/4zR0Kf9gzU

— Matt Whitlock (@MattWhitlock) May 26, 2026

Platner was handpicked, groomed, artificially constructed, promoted through a sophisticated public relations campaign, and elevated to superstar status. 

The phrase “it’s an op” – meaning an influence operation – is often, though not always, a marker of paranoia, a tendency towards conspiracy theories, or a belief in forces that are unseen and cannot yet be proven to exist.

Still, from the very start of SS-tattooed Democrat Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate, something seemed odd. The New York Times is not in the habit of writing a largely glowing profile of every long-shot, little-known Democrat who announces a bid for Senate. Platner was the harbormaster of Sullivan, Maine, population 1,246.

Yet the Times wrote its profile of Platner before he officially announced his campaign, in August.

In September, The New Yorker wrote its own 3,400-word profile of Platner, emphasizing how he “devoured books on military history.” (But remember, he insists he never recognized the tattoo on his chest as a symbol of the Nazi SS.) Again, The New Yorker almost never writes long-detailed profiles of little-known Democratic Senate candidates one month after they announce their bid.

Then in October, GQ – not primarily a political magazine, and not one that often spotlights candidates – published its own large spread of Platner with lots of photos.

Then in November, the culinary magazine Bon Appetit – again, not in the habit of covering obscure Senate candidates – wrote another glowing profile, this one entitled, “How Graham Platner Went From Working-Class Oysterman to Maine’s Zohran Mamdani.”

This is Beto O’Rourke-level national coverage, right out of the gate

There was nothing organic about this, obviously. It’s not like The New York Times has a laser-focus on random oyster farmers in Maine and can predict that one might jump into the Senate race 

Graham Platner created the website for his Senate campaign before he created the website for his fake oyster business. The WhoIs records are indisputable.

His mom is the only customer of his oyster hobby, and judging by the number of liens, she’s had filed against her for unpaid… https://t.co/NXdx9chlxP

— Steve Robinson (@SteveRob) June 6, 2026

Graham Platner created the website for his Senate campaign before he created the website for his fake oyster business. The WhoIs records are indisputable.

His mom is the only customer of his oyster hobby, and judging by the number of liens, she’s had filed against her for unpaid taxes, she’s not buying that many.

For that matter, Graham Platner wasn’t an oyster farmer who was on the map. He created the website for his business  AFTER he registered his Senate campaign address, which makes sense, since he has only one customer—his mother—and his “farm” is on a wealthy buddy’s private island. 

Maine’s far-left Democratic Senate nominee, Graham Platner, has leaned on his career as a “working-class” oyster farmer to cast himself as a blue-collar everyman. His Ivy League business partner—who owns the secluded island where the farm is based—is, well, anything but.

Robert Cushman III is an elite New England boarding school graduate who has described his habit of drinking “foraged spring water with Redmond sea salt.” He got into the oyster farming business, he has said, after having had a “liminal seafood experience” at the age of four.

The website for the Platner-Cushman farm—which is officially called the Frenchman Bay Oyster Company but does business under the name of Waukeag Neck Oyster Co.—describes Cushman as a “local food” advocate with “long-time family ties” to Maine. But Cushman was born in Africa and raised in Canada, according to an interview he gave to CKTH, short for Can’t Knock the Hustle, an online wetsuit store that sells $25 wooden hangers and counts Cushman as a “founding member.” He has spoken of spending summers in Maine with his family, and his “liminal seafood experience in Maine,” he said in 2010, came when he “was about four and it involved fresh mussels collected a hundred feet from the table.”

“I crave that rich, savory rush of amino acids that it has in such abundance,” Cushman said, describing his love of seafood in an interview with Greenhorns, an organization focused on “food justice” and creating a “welcoming cultural space.”

A very Maine working-class story, isn’t it? Very relatable. 

Of course, candidates always burnish their resumes; what makes this all interesting is that, clearly, Platner didn’t do the burnishing; he is the product carefully constructed by a highly sophisticated political operation that has its roots in the Obama Bros, who have been Platner’s cheerleaders, helping him rise from obscurity to the Democratic candidate for Senate against Susan Collins. 

Morris Katz, about whom many others and I have written, is the wunderkind running Platner’s campaign, and he, in turn, is being run by his mentor, David Axelrod. These are the people who picked a deranged, violent, Nazi-tattoo-wearing self-avowed communist who abuses women to become their everyman candidate.

It’s sickening to watch Democrats who screamed “Believe All Women” and lionized Christine Blasey Ford — despite zero corroboration — now dismiss allegations against Graham Platner simply because she’s a Republican .

Ford got the Time cover, CBS, The View. A conservative woman… pic.twitter.com/V7rKesmcOD

— Lydia Moynihan (@LydiaMoynihan) June 6, 2026

It’s sickening to watch Democrats who screamed “Believe All Women” and lionized Christine Blasey Ford — despite zero corroboration — now dismiss allegations against Graham Platner simply because she’s a Republican .

Ford got the Time cover, CBS, The View. A conservative woman gets a character assassination. 

Bear in mind, Dems aren’t forced to choose between a democrat and republican… they’re choosing a guy with a Nazi tattoo over a normal Democrat.

Seriously. Platner didn’t find them and fool them into backing him; they found him, groomed him, constructed a narrative around him, and are backing him despite (or because of?) his obvious red flags. Even the origin story that random DSA kids convinced Graham to run is constructed, since random DSA kids can’t conjure up New York Times, New Yorker, GQ, and Bon Appetít profiles on demand. 

“Vets are just Nazi domestic abusers…”

What a take. What a freaking take. https://t.co/ZvzRik12NK

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 6, 2026

With all the scandals that have swirled around Platner’s campaign, you have to wonder why these sophisticated operatives chose such a flawed vehicle for their takeover of the Maine Democratic Party—and make no mistake, that was part of the plan, and it was successful enough to destroy the political career of one of the most popular governors in the country, Janet Mills. 

Former Obama and Biden Official Rahm Emanuel says he will “absolutely” support Graham Platner.

Platner got a Nazi tattoo, praised Hamas, and said women should “act like an adult” to avoid rape. pic.twitter.com/ErjoX5iweW

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 1, 2026

I can’t answer that, but it certainly wasn’t because they couldn’t have vetted him thoroughly before elevating him. Graham Platner was a random crank who liked to train Antifa trannies—that was his preferred student group—in how to do combat assaults. He was bloodthirsty, openly saying he wanted to kill people, and even after serving in the Marines, he lusted to go back into combat, so he volunteered for a PMC, despite coming from a wealthy family, being on 100% combat disability, and not needing the money. 

He’s the victim here, you see. https://t.co/p7CeG0unNJ

— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) June 6, 2026

And he openly discussed being a communist on Reddit, along with his rather unsavory attitudes about rape and women. 

The left LOVES Graham Platner, and seemingly because he is so flawed. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are still excited about him, Ro Khanna is out campaigning for him, and after it was revealed that he abused his girlfriends (some of whom he was dating and abusing simultaneously!), the money is rolling in faster than ever. 

Abuse women, play victim, raise tons of money.

It’s all so Palestinian. https://t.co/SukLal5bla

— Max 📟 (@MaxNordau) June 6, 2026

The Platner campaign is at least as much about a battle in the Democratic Party between the Bolsheviks who are seizing power and the Organized Crime Democrats who have been running the party until recently. There are plenty of Organized Crime Democrats who want the grift to keep going, since it is a huge multi-billion-dollar-a-year corruption scam that has made them very wealthy and created an almost unbeatable money machine for them; they understand that the Bolshevik wing is a threat to their grift. 

The Hill is out with my column on the curious anniversary of the Kavanaugh nomination. It now appears that there are some women who do not deserve to be believed. Democratic leaders have decided to swap Me Too for Maine. https://t.co/alotU89xTl

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 6, 2026

But, as Platner’s rise and Mills’ fall show, the Bolsheviks are on the upswing, able to survive and thrive during the campaign to take Platner out. The Organized Crime Democrats flirted with and even groomed the Bolsheviks because they were useful for their willingness to do the dirty work for the party, not understanding that they would seize the power in the Party. 

There are plenty of Democrats who would love to have Mills or somebody other than Platner. They are on the losing side, as the Mensheviks were when fighting the Bolsheviks. 

Platner is a tool of the Bolsheviks, not an organic rising star. They picked him, groomed him, created an image, and intend to ride him to victory over their party enemies first, and hopefully over Susan Collins. 

Editor’s Note: Every single day, here at HotAir, we will stand up and FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT against the radical Left and deliver the conservative reporting our readers deserve.

Help us continue to tell the truth about the Trump administration and its successes. Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.