<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Some top Democrats are <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/us/politics/platner-democrats-maine-senate-primary-election.html" title="">struggling to respond</a> to the latest controversy surrounding <strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Graham Platner</strong>, whose campaign in Maine is essential to the party’s attempt to win back control of the Senate in the midterm elections.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">In the last week, Platner has faced new scrutiny for <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/us/politics/graham-platner-maine-senate-texts.html" title="">sexual messages he sent to women</a> outside his marriage. Before that, his primary campaign had overcome blowback for offensive posts he made online years ago about women, as well as for a tattoo he had resembling a Nazi symbol, which he later had covered up.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">But new critical accounts came on Thursday, when <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/politics/platner-maine-senate-girlfriends-relationships.html" title="">my colleagues reported</a> that three women who dated Platner described volatile relationships in which his actions could be unsettling or disturbing. They spoke to the women in extensive conversations over the past two months. (They also spoke to several ex-girlfriends this week who said they felt safe with him.)</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Here are some of the key takeaways:</p><ul class="css-1le37cb ez3869y0"><li class="css-1i3ul0c eoqvrfo0"><p class="css-11haxaj evys1bk0">One woman, Lyndsey Fifield, 40, a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns and who dated Mr. Platner from roughly 2013 to 2015, said that he regularly grabbed her by her shoulders, sometimes so hard that it left marks. On one occasion, she said, he grabbed her wrist and yanked her out of a cab after they argued. During another argument, she said, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out. He told her to remain there until she was “calm,” she recalled. Eventually, she fell asleep and left the next morning. (Platner “strongly disputes” any claims of physical intimidation or altercations, his campaign said.)</p></li><li class="css-1i3ul0c eoqvrfo0"><p class="css-11haxaj evys1bk0">Fifield said that Platner would fantasize about killing people he deemed a threat. She recounted that he frequently said that he would rape anyone who broke into his home, describing rape as a show of power.</p></li><li class="css-1i3ul0c eoqvrfo0"><p class="css-11haxaj evys1bk0">Platner has repeatedly said <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/21/graham-platner-tattoo-nazi-00617686?utm_source=chatgpt.com?is_magic_link=true&amp;experience_id=EXYF89KVT5UQ&amp;template_id=OTJIR2CRKUD6&amp;template_variant_id=OTV7T8G93R30L" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">he did not know</a> his chest tattoo was a Nazi symbol until it became a campaign issue last fall. But Fifield said that his claim was untrue, and that he had called it “my Totenkopf.” In a private chat group last summer, months before Platner acknowledged the tattoo himself, she told friends about the tattoo, according to a screenshot she shared with my colleagues. (Platner “strongly disputes” Fifield’s account of what he knew about the tattoo and what he told her, his campaign said.)</p></li><li class="css-1i3ul0c eoqvrfo0"><p class="css-11haxaj evys1bk0">Another woman, Jenny Racicot, 41, a Maine Democrat who said she dated Platner casually off and on between 2019 and 2021, said that in 2021, he arrived at her house drunk, after she had asked him not to come over. She declined to elaborate, but said she cut off contact soon after that episode and had found his behavior “reckless” and “unsettling.”</p></li></ul><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The reporting only added to Democratic fears that Platner may have more baggage that is yet to be revealed. A military veteran and oysterman, he has often been held up as the type of candidate Democrats need to win back working-class voters — but he is new to the political scene and has not been vetted as thoroughly as some of the party’s other top Senate recruits.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Platner is forging ahead.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">He told MS NOW last night that <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/politics/graham-platner-maine-senate-former-girlfriends.html" title="">he would not drop out of the race</a>, and he is expected to appear this evening at a campaign rally in Bar Harbor.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">He is set to be joined by <strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Representative Ro Khanna,</strong> a prominent progressive Democrat from California, who texted my colleague Reid Epstein this morning that “Platner must continue to accept responsibility for his past and speak to his redemption, which many Americans understand.”</p><div class="css-kbghgg"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171d1bw"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1u67kh9" data-tpl="i" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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