Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks at an event hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders in Orono, Maine, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
An ex-girlfriend of Senate candidate Graham Platner told the New York Times he bragged about having a Nazi tattoo and regularly grabbed her by the shoulders during fights.
The new story details Platner’s often rocky romantic history, citing interviews with “more than two dozen people, including six women who had been romantically involved with Mr. Platner.”
Platner has taken the Democratic party by storm and become the presumed nominee for Maine’s high-profile Senate race against Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins despite repeated controversies from his past.
Platner’s campaign told the Times that he “strongly disputes” the claims about physical altercations, and noted that the central allegations come from a Republican operative who has worked for the conservative group Independent Women and the Heritage Foundation. The Times story, published Thursday afternoon, also cites “several” women who said Platner was a “fun and caring partner.”
The Portland Press Herald has not verified the reporting in the Times’ story.
“Throughout this campaign, I’ve been open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend,” Platner wrote in a statement to the Press Herald. “I take responsibility for all of that, and wish I had been better. Any characterization beyond that is false, and I believe, politically motivated. I’m not proud of who I was then, but I am proud of the work I’ve done since, and the movement we are building in Maine.”
The story is the most recent controversy-inducing report to come out on Platner. This past weekend, the Times and Wall Street Journal reported about how Platner’s wife had alerted his campaign to sexually explicit texts to other women that she had discovered on his phone after the couple married in 2023. His campaign has since confirmed the existence of the explicit texts, though it disputed the reported number of women involved.
In October, Platner hit the first bump of his campaign following the disclosure of old, deleted Reddit comments he had made over the years that included disparaging remarks about rural Americans, police, Black patrons at bars and sexual assault victims, among other topics. In a since-deleted 2013 post, Platner wrote that rape victims need to “take responsibility” and “not get so (expletive) up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.”
He apologized for the posts and said they did not reflect his current beliefs.
He disclosed later in October the presence of a tattoo he got while drunk with other Marines in Croatia in 2007 that resembled a Nazi symbol. He covered the tattoo after the initial reporting on it. At the time, he said he didn’t understand the symbol’s significance, a claim which some publicly doubted.
One of the women quoted in the Times’ story, Lyndsey Fifield, said Platner had referred to the controversial tattoo that he had covered up last fall as “my Totenkopf” — undercutting the candidate’s longstanding claim that he didn’t know its significance.
Fifield, who dated Platner when they were in their 20s, described their relationship as toxic and said he grabbed her by the shoulders in a way that, at times, left marks.
Her claims are sure to renew questions about Platner’s electability and whether he knew about the dark history behind the symbol he had tattooed on his body.
Platner traveled to Washington on Tuesday to meet with Democratic senators, who asked him about whether any other allegations against him would come out following the sexting-related stories.
The candidate told the group that no credible sexual assault allegations would come out against him, according to the Wall Street Journal. So far, none have.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, who was one of Platner’s earliest supporters and who has stood by him through various controversies, was among the members who reportedly asked Platner about any allegations surfacing.
Earlier Thursday, reporters on Capitol Hill asked Sanders whether he was “confident” in the “assurances” that Platner had offered senators.
“I didn’t get any assurances, alright,” Sanders replied. “We got other things to worry about right now. We’re worried about massive income and wealth inequality and a corrupt campaign finance system. Why don’t you write about that?”
Although he has faced scrutiny from supporters and undecided voters amid the latest controversies, Platner has gained a large following in Maine, with many supporters indicating earlier this week that they will stick by him after the sexting-related disclosure.
But both Democrats and Republicans had been openly musing since the weekend about whether more controversial stories would continue to trickle out. Gov. Janet Mills joined the Senate primary in October as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s prized recruit, but suspended her campaign in late April after she never overcame Platner’s strong advantages in polling and fundraising.
Still, she told the Press Herald after the weekend’s sexting-related stories that “I am still on the ballot” for Tuesday’s primary election.
The other Senate candidate on the primary ballot is Brunswick Democrat David Costello.
