Voters in Maine elected a woman for city councilor who was previously found guilty and served time for manslaughter.
Angela Walker, who was successfully elected in Bangor, Maine, on Tuesday, is making headlines after the surprising election results. Walker was convicted in 2003 in connection with the murder of Canadian tourist Derek Rogers, who had allegedly called her a racist name.
Walker and her brother, Benjamin Humphrey, pled guilty to the crime.
Rogers was a musician who had been visiting Old Orchard for 20 years prior. His body was discovered by a fisherman on the boardwalk close to the cottage he rented in Ocean Park, per <a href="https://www.themainewire.com/2025/11/killer-of-canadian-tourist-in-old-orchard-beach-among-three-new-city-councilors-in-bangor/">The Maine Wire</a>. Law enforcement found his body badly beaten and with sand forced down his throat.
Walker spoke with the Bangor Daily News about her criminal past prior to the election, which included nine candidates vying for three spots.
“I want people to see that it’s possible that we can change,” Walker said. “I was lost for so many years. I think people really need to see the other side of that.” She is also in recovery from prior addiction.
“One of the big reasons that I want to run is because I feel like, with my lived experience and the work that I’ve done in a few different agencies in the area, that I can bring concerns of community members to City Council and hope for some change and be the voice for people that can’t speak up or don’t speak up,” she added.
Walker is not affiliated with a political party. She is focused on working with the homeless and people struggling with addiction, she said, and wants to “really be on foot with our friends in the homeless community.”
Of the three councilors elected, Walker received the fewest votes, but her election was still shocking to many.
“People in Maine have turned into a Steven King horror story,” one reaction <a href="https://x.com/cjt4837/status/1986194934509281547">said</a>.
“Maine deserves better,” another commenter <a href="https://x.com/lmiller3745/status/1986165752349724909">agreed</a>.
“This is absolute insanity,” <a href="https://x.com/MiaRaeCameron/status/1986121825940611543">echoed</a> a third.

voting booth

Maine City Councilor Elected Despite Murdering Canadian Tourist Who Allegedly Said Racial Slur

Crime

Elections

Maine

Murder

Politics

<div>Embattled Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s treasurer has resigned just days after his national finance director called it quits, according to the Judge Street Journal.</div>
<div></div>
<div>The <a href="https://judgestreetjournal.substack.com/p/exclusive-graham-platners-treasurer?utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web&amp;triedRedirect=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outlet</a> reported that Victoria Perrone left her role as treasurer on Tuesday, and Ben Martello is the individual currently listed in the position on Federal Election Commission records.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Platner’s campaign has faced numerous controversies resulting from deleted Reddit posts and a Nazi-era tattoo, and in the days since those controversies spread across social media, both a campaign manager and a political director have also abruptly exited the campaign.</div>
<div></div>
<div>His former national finance director, Ronald Holmes III, posted to LinkedIn on Friday that he was resigning.</div>
<div></div>
<div>“Somewhere along the way, I began to feel that my professional standards as a campaign professional no longer fully aligned with those of the campaign,” Holmes posted.</div>
<div></div>
<div>“I wish the campaign and the voters in Maine well as they continue forward with selecting a nominee who they believe is best suited to meet the moment and flip this critical must win seat for us to take back the U.S. Senate in 2026,” he continued.</div>
<div></div>
<div><a href="https://x.com/hollyotterbein/status/1984284658612494537">Axios</a> reported the Platner campaign said that Holmes quit because his role had more to do with getting large donors on board to the campaign, but “the reality is our campaign’s fundraising success has come largely from small dollar donors. Nearly 90% of what we’ve raised has come from small dollar donations and online donors, which is run by our digital fundraising director.”</div>
<div></div>
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<div></div>
<div><a href="https://weartv.com/news/nation-world/platner-campaign-manager-steps-down-after-joining-campaign-last-week-social-media-maine-democrats-senate-race-republicans-susan-collins-janet-mills" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WGME News</a> reported that Kevin Brown took a job as the Democrat’s campaign manager, and claimed that his exit had to do with finding out that his wife is pregnant — but he left the job just days after beginning the new gig.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Platner&#8217;s former political director Genevieve McDonald spoke out about quitting after his now-covered Totenkopf tattoo went viral.</div>
<div></div>
<div>“Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest,” McDonald posted to Facebook. “He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”</div>
<div></div>
<div>The Democrat is in a primary race against Gov. Janet Mills, and whoever wins the primary will face off against Republican Sen. Susan Collins in 2026.</div>
<div></div>
<div>“Our movement is powered by the people of Maine,” Platner posted to X on Saturday. “The people of Maine will not be propagandized. And they will not be bought.”</div>
<div></div>
<div>Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</div>
<div></div>

Graham Platner Maine

Graham Platner’s Treasurer Switch Marks Yet Another Exit From Campaign

graham platner

janet mills

Senate

Susan Collins

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s national finance director has now publicly called it quits, marking yet another major exit from the scandal-ridden primary campaign. 
Ronald Holmes III announced on LinkedIn on Friday that he “resigned from that role effective immediately.”
“Somewhere along the way, I began to feel that my professional standards as a campaign professional no longer fully aligned with those of the campaign,” he wrote. 
“I wish the campaign and the voters in Maine well as they continue forward with selecting a nominee who they believe is best suited to meet the moment and flip this critical must win seat for us to take back the U.S. Senate in 2026,” Holmes added.
In a statement to <a href="https://x.com/hollyotterbein/status/1984284658612494537">Axios</a>, the Platner campaign said that Holmes left because his role was focused on wooing large donors, while “the reality is our campaign’s fundraising success has come largely from small dollar donors. Nearly 90% of what we’ve raised has come from small dollar donations and online donors, which is run by our digital fundraising director.” 
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Platner’s campaign manager, Kevin Brown, quit after just a few days on the job earlier this week, saying he learned on Friday that he has a child on the way and referred to Platner as a “dear friend,” according to <a href="https://weartv.com/news/nation-world/platner-campaign-manager-steps-down-after-joining-campaign-last-week-social-media-maine-democrats-senate-race-republicans-susan-collins-janet-mills">WGME News</a>.
Political director <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-bad-news-keeps-rolling-in-for-graham-platners-senate-campaign?author=Cameron+Arcand&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+Bad+News+Keeps+Rolling+In+For+Graham+Platner%E2%80%99s+Senate+Campaign">Genevieve McDonald</a> exited the campaign following resurfaced Reddit posts from Platner, including ones where he labeled himself a communist and said “cops are bastards.”
McDonald spoke out on Facebook after news broke about his Totenkopf tattoo, a Nazi symbol, which he has since gotten covered.
“Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest,” McDonald posted to Facebook. “He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.” 
The Daily Wire reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment. He is in a closely-watched primary battle with Maine Governor Janet Mills. On October 25, <a href="https://x.com/grahamformaine/status/1982180731020300403">Platner</a> wrote on X that “voters have seen the DC smear campaign,” and it “isn’t working,” while showing a poll with him beating Mills.
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner said on Pod Save America earlier this month regarding the tattoo. “Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general. I would say, lifelong opponent.”
Whoever wins the primary will face Republican Senator Susan Collins in November 2026, in what will be one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.

Another Staffer Quits Graham Platner’s Campaign Over ‘Professional Standards’

campaigns

Democrats

Graham Platner’s campaign manager quit just days after starting the job, the latest in a seemingly unending series of upsets for the Maine Democrat&#8217;s struggling campaign.
Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/27/graham-platner-campaign-manager">reported</a> Monday that Kevin Brown, a friend of Platner&#8217;s, resigned his post shortly after taking it up. Brown follows Platner&#8217;s political director, Genevieve McDonald, who resigned earlier this month after Platner came under fire for a series of Reddit posts in which he called himself a communist. McDonald made waves following her departure for publicly commenting about Platner’s tattoo with Nazi-era connotations, which he has since gotten covered up.
“Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest,&#8221; McDonald wrote on Facebook. &#8220;He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.&#8221;
“Years ago I got a skull and crossbones tattoo with my buddies in the Marine Corps,&#8221; Platner wrote on X last week. &#8220;I was appalled to learn it closely resembled a Nazi symbol. I altered it yesterday, into something that isn&#8217;t deeply offensive to my core beliefs.&#8221;
“I am very sorry to all of you who had to contemplate a symbol of hate over the past 48 hours,” he added.
Platner told “Pod Save America” that he’s “not a secret Nazi” when discussing the Totenkopf tattoo. 
“Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general. I would say, lifelong opponent.”
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a href="http://dailywire.com/Subscribe">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now. 
“At no point in this entire experience of my life not once did anybody say ‘Hey, you’re a Nazi.’ It never came up, until we got wind that in the opposition research somebody was shopping the idea that I was secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo. And I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it, I have not been doing a very good job for the past 18 years,” Platner said. 
“We got those and then we all moved on with our lives,” he added. 
However, a report in<a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2025/10/graham-platner-ss-tattoo-maine-senate/"> Jewish Insider</a> indicated he knew about the meaning of the symbol as of at least 2012. 
Platner is facing Maine Governor Janet Mills in the state&#8217;s Democratic primary, the winner of which will likely take on Republican Senator Susan Collins in a highly competitive general election race.
A recent poll of likely voters from SoCal Strategies indicated that Mills is leading with 41% compared with 36% for Platner,<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5573485-maine-senate-poll-mills-platner/"> The Hill</a> reported on Saturday. Another poll from the<a href="https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1896&amp;context=survey_center_polls"> University of New Hampshire</a>, taken from Oct. 16-21, showed that 58% of “those who plan to vote” are backing Platner, compared with 24% for the governor.

The Bad News Keeps Rolling In For Graham Platner’s Senate Campaign

There may be no state legislator more popular at The Daily Wire than Laurel Libby.
She took a bold stand for girl’s sport in Maine and refused to budge. But it wasn’t always that way.
As Libby explains, she once failed to stand strong for what was right. Never again. — The Daily Wire
* * *
America’s founders appropriately recognized freedom of speech as the most fundamental right for a flourishing republic. But in today’s America, telling the truth carries a cost.
From social media bans to government censorship to silencing dissent inside our statehouses, the message is clear: if you dare to speak the truth, you will pay a price.
I witnessed this firsthand in Maine’s Democrat-controlled state house, where I was stripped of my right to speak for the people of Maine as their elected representative simply for highlighting biological differences between boys and girls in a state competition.
And the problem is getting worse, not better. Without a renewed commitment to our founding ideals, our society may become free in theory, but authoritarian in practice.
My experience in Maine began in February with a viral social media post. A biological male, who had placed fifth in the boys’ competition the year prior, won the girls’ state pole vault championship. Seeing his female competitor relegated to second place broke my heart.
I could not remain silent.
I posted two publicly available photos side by side. One showed the athlete finishing fifth in the boys’ competition one year; the other showed him taking gold in the girls’ competition the next. Official results had already been available for all to see, but this picture made the unfairness of the situation crystal clear.
Girls in Maine, and across the country, were being forced to compete on unequal terms – not only to justify a political cause, but to signal obedience to an ideology that punishes anyone who questions it.
And punished I was. 
The Maine House Speaker demanded I delete my post. When I refused, I was stripped of my right to speak or vote in the Legislature. Unless and until I issued a formal apology, I would remain barred from representing the nearly 9,000 constituents who elected me.
This wasn’t the first time legislative leadership in Maine used procedural tools to suppress dissent. In May of 2021, the Democratic legislative leadership issued a mask mandate, solely for the State House, after Governor Janet Mills had lifted the state mask mandate.
As a result, Mainers were denied their First Amendment right to assemble, to petition their government, and to speak freely, unless they traded a piece of their liberty. 
I knew it was wrong, and alongside five colleagues, I walked in without a mask.
In response, the Speaker stripped us of our committee assignments and barred us from voting. I agonized over what to do, but in the end, I put a face shield back on, telling myself it was my duty to vote for my constituents.
But the truth is I failed to stand strong in defense of the First Amendment. And that failure taught me that when you give in to fear and intimidation, it only encourages more of both.
This year, I chose not to make the same mistake.
Now, in February, I was confronted with a choice again: to give in or keep fighting. For Maine, for our girls, and for our First Amendment, I chose to fight. 
I filed suit against the Legislature after they barred me for exercising my right to speak truthfully about protecting girls’ sports. And the Supreme Court ruled in my favor and restored my vote!
It was, by any normal standard, the right outcome. But it should never have been necessary. An elected official was forced to file a lawsuit to fulfill her duty to the people of Maine, all because she took a stand for women and girls.
These are the things of totalitarian governments, not the United States.
We still talk about the First Amendment as though it protects us in practice as well as in theory. But in much of American life, the real barriers to speech are procedural, reputational and cultural. They come from norms that shift depending on the issue at hand and the politics of the speaker.
When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I was in Washington, DC. I called home to tell my older children, and my teenager’s first question stopped me in my tracks: “Mom, are you going to stop speaking up?” Without hesitation, I answered: “No. Absolutely not.”
If we stay silent now, we surrender the foundation of liberty. If we bow to intimidation, we hand our children a future where truth is unwelcome and freedom is conditional.
This is not someone else’s fight. It is ours. Parents, teachers, students, pastors, lawmakers, citizens – every one of us has a role to play in protecting the space to speak truthfully, even when it costs us.
This moment is where we stand to lose, or gain, the most. The only way we lose is if we make the choice to silence ourselves.
We cannot be silent. We must speak. We must stand. There is too much at stake to do otherwise.
 * * * 
Laurel Libby is a member of the House of Representatives in Maine.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Maine legislature

Silenced In Maine: How Standing Up For Girl’s Sports Cost Me My Voice

Silenced In Maine: How Standing Up For Girl's Sports Cost Me My Voice

Gender

gender ideology

Leftists

Opinion

Republicans

Transgender Athletes

Bernie Sanders let the cat out of the bag yesterday.
In an interview with <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/23/bernie-sanders-aoc-2028-presidential-election">Axios</a>, he said what I think we&#8217;ve all been thinking: that AOC is almost certainly going to run for president in 2028 — with the backing of Bernie Sanders.
<blockquote>“She is an incredibly intelligent person and in the best sense of the word, a very, very good politician,” he declared. “I&#8217;ve been out on the streets where the people come up and how she responds to people is so incredibly genuine and open, you know, it&#8217;s just something. That&#8217;s a gift that she has. It&#8217;s a quality that she has. She&#8217;s a great speaker out there. She comes from the working class. She was a kid who was cleaning houses with her mother. She knows what it&#8217;s like not to have any money. And she&#8217;s going out fighting for working families all over this country. And I think as a young person who six years ago was a waitress, becoming politically prominent has been incredibly inspiring.”</blockquote>
She&#8217;s not inspiring.
To the wild Left, however, she is inspiring.
Sure, she is a dunderhead who says unintelligent things every five seconds.
But Bernie Sanders is also a dunderhead, and he&#8217;s been able to get away with it for 2,000 decades at this point. I believe he was a contemporaneous follower of Methuselah.
Sanders has taken over the Democratic Party wholesale at this point.
They are moving further and further to the Left. And one of his chosen acolytes is Graham Platner, the Maine Democrat running for the Senate who leads in the polls by leaps and bounds.
According to new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maine-senate-candidate-graham-platner-socialist-group-linked-to-ice-attack-tesla-bombings?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=24&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Maine+Dem+Graham+Platner+Belonged+To+Socialist+Group+Linked+To+ICE+Attack%2C+Tesla+Bombings">reporting</a> from our own Luke Rosiak:
<blockquote>Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner was a member of a radical Left group whose members have been linked to a slew of attacks, including an assault on an ICE facility that was designated a terrorist attack this month as part of a crackdown on Antifa.
Maine’s Democrat Senate primary was upended after <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/16/politics/kfile-graham-platner-maine-senate-candidate-deleted-reddit-posts">CNN</a> reported that Platner had called himself a “communist” in posts on the Reddit forum r/SocialistRA, where he wrote that if people “expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history.”
The forum name refers to the Socialist Rifle Association, a group whose members have been repeatedly linked to violent political crimes.
On July 4, a group of militants allegedly swarmed law enforcement at an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas and “opened fire at the unarmed DHS correctional officers.” One of them, Benjamin Hanil Song, is charged with shooting a police officer in the neck. Song was a member of the Socialist Rifle Association’s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter, a fellow group member told <a href="https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-07-22/shooting-at-alvarado-ice-facility-other-attacks-the-new-normal">KERA</a>.
Last week, the Department of Justice charged two suspects in that attack, Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts, with providing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-hits-antifa-with-very-first-terrorism-charges-in-anti-ice-attack">material support to terrorists</a>, calling their crew an “Antifa Cell.” It was the first use of the terrorism statute against domestic extremists since Trump ordered a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-ups-the-ante-orders-cabinet-to-label-antifa-a-foreign-terror-organization">crackdown</a> on far-left political violence. Arnold, like the founders of the Socialist Rifle Association, is transgender and goes by the name Autumn Hill.
Membership in the Socialist Rifle Association isn’t required for users to post on the Reddit forum. But a New England publication, the <a href="https://robinsonreport.substack.com/p/ex-marine-graham-platner-taught-military">Robinson Report</a>, revealed that Platner explicitly described his membership in the group.
“Check out the Maine SRA chapter, we’re quite active,” he wrote in April 2020. In August 2020, he said “my local SRA chapter” does “lots of range days, firearms education classes, and developing mutual aid networks in our community.”</blockquote>
Images of the main chapter include a man training in a pink tutu shooting a gun, and one who has facial hair matching Platner’s.
This is a person, a Nazi-tattooed Antifa-training pseudo-man-of-the-people oyster farmer, who went to a $75,000-a-year prep school when he was younger.
And he’s Sanders’ chosen guy in the Senate race in Maine. If the Democrats wish to embrace this sort of radicalism, I do not think the American people will move alongside them.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2303-i-m-shocked-shocked-to-find-nba-gambling-going-on?elementPosition=2&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
I know there are a lot of Republicans who are rooting for the socialists to take over the Democratic Party.
I am not.
I&#8217;ve been saying this since 2020, when Bernie Sanders was running against Joe Biden. I said I preferred Joe Biden to be the nominee rather than Bernie Sanders, even if Bernie was more likely to lose to Donald Trump.
Why? Because the risk factor in having a socialist leader was higher than the risk factor in having a “dead” leader like Joe Biden.
Even if Joe Biden had slightly higher odds to win the presidency than Bernie Sanders, if I had to calculate the damage that a Bernie Sanders presidency would do versus a Joe Biden presidency, it would be astronomically higher under Bernie Sanders than Joe Biden, no matter how bad Joe Biden was.
I feel the same way about the Democratic Party falling wholesale to the wild-Left democratic socialists. If they do that, it’s true there&#8217;s a lower chance that they will win power anytime soon.
But to pretend that chance doesn&#8217;t exist is to whistle past the graveyard.
Let&#8217;s say, for example, that the Democratic Party has a 40% shot of winning the White House in 2028 right now with some sort of pseudo-moderate, like a Gavin Newsom or a Wes Moore. And let&#8217;s say they have a 30% shot of winning the White House with a clear, insane socialist like AOC at the top of the ticket.
The damage that would be done by Wes Moore or Gavin Newsom would be a seven out of ten, and the damage done by an AOC would be a ten out of ten.
I would rather take the low-risk scenario, even if there&#8217;s a greater risk that the person might become president, than take the absolutely disastrous apocalyptic scenario of having a Democratic party controlled by the nutjobs.
This is why the rise of the Zohran Mamdani Left is truly, truly troubling.
* * *
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Bernie Sanders And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Hold “Fighting Oligarchy” Rally In L.A.

Sanders Backs AOC For 2028. The Radical Left’s Grip On Democrats Tightens.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Ben Shapiro

Bernie Sanders

Zohran Mamdani

Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner was a member of a radical Left group whose members have been linked to a slew of attacks, including an assault on an ICE facility that was designated a terrorist attack this month as part of a crackdown on Antifa.
Maine&#8217;s Democrat Senate primary was upended after <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/16/politics/kfile-graham-platner-maine-senate-candidate-deleted-reddit-posts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a> reported that Platner had called himself a &#8220;communist&#8221; in posts on the Reddit forum r/SocialistRA, where he wrote that if people &#8220;expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history.&#8221;
The forum name refers to the Socialist Rifle Association, a group whose members have been repeatedly linked to violent political crimes.
On July 4, a group of militants allegedly swarmed law enforcement at an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas and “opened fire at the unarmed DHS correctional officers.” One of them, Benjamin Hanil Song, is charged with shooting a police officer in the neck. Song was a member of the Socialist Rifle Association’s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter, a fellow group member told <a href="https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-07-22/shooting-at-alvarado-ice-facility-other-attacks-the-new-normal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KERA</a>.
Last week, the Department of Justice charged two suspects in that attack, Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts, with providing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-hits-antifa-with-very-first-terrorism-charges-in-anti-ice-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">material support to terrorists</a>, calling their crew an &#8220;Antifa Cell.&#8221; It was the first use of the terrorism statute against domestic extremists since Trump ordered a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-ups-the-ante-orders-cabinet-to-label-antifa-a-foreign-terror-organization" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crackdown</a> on far-left political violence. Arnold, like the founders of the Socialist Rifle Association, is transgender and goes by the name Autumn Hill.
Membership in the Socialist Rifle Association isn&#8217;t required for users to post on the Reddit forum. But a New England publication, the <a href="https://robinsonreport.substack.com/p/ex-marine-graham-platner-taught-military" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robinson Report</a>, revealed that Platner explicitly described his membership in the group.
&#8220;Check out the Maine SRA chapter, we&#8217;re quite active,&#8221; he wrote in April 2020. In August 2020, he said &#8220;my local SRA chapter&#8221; does &#8220;lots of range days, firearms education classes, and developing mutual aid networks in our community.&#8221;
Images of the Maine chapter training include a man in a pink tutu shooting a gun, and one who — though the group blurred the faces of its members — has facial hair matching Platner&#8217;s, Robinson reported.
Platner, who would face off against Republican Senator Susan Collins in the general election and has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), said he made the comments after a difficult time period serving in the military.
“When I got back from Afghanistan in 2011, I stayed in the Army for another year. I got out in 2012. Some of the worst comments I made, the things that I’m — I think are least defensible, that I wouldn’t even try to defend, come from that time,” he said.
The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/socialist-rifle-association-linked-to-numerous-violent-attacks">chronicled</a> Socialist Rifle Association members charged with crimes of political violence.
In October 2021, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flnd.353608/gov.uscourts.flnd.353608.2.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Alan Baker</a> of Florida was sentenced to 44 months in prison for threats. After the pro-Trump Capitol protest on January 6, 2021, Baker offered “cash rewards for information leading to the verified identification of an and every individual in this video. Don’t worry, I wont ne [sic] going to the cops. We have decided to handle this ourselves.” Baker told prosecutors that he was a <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59305500/81/united-states-v-baker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">member</a> of the Socialist Rifle Association, and said, “I believe that the philosophy of an anarchism leads to socialism. And I believe that the government should provide for everyone’s housing, healthcare, food. I even believe that the government should distribute weapons to people who are loyal citizens.”
On January 20, 2025, the day Donald Trump was sworn in as president, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ord.185254/gov.uscourts.ord.185254.1.1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adam Matthew Lansky</a> allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership in Salem, Oregon. He returned to the same dealership a month later and shot it up using a semi-automatic rifle with a suppressor, according to court documents. “Lansky is a competitive shooter and a former member of the Socialist Rifle Association. He is skilled and well-practiced in the use of firearms and combat scenarios. The [improvised incendiary devices] used by Lansky were all manufactured by him,” prosecutors <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69768879/22/united-states-v-lansky/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
On March 18, 2025, in Las Vegas, Paul Hyon Kim set on fire and shot up five Teslas, leaving a Molotov cocktail inside one, <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69803347/1/united-states-v-kim/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charging documents</a> said. Tesla had, of course, been treated as a political symbol by the left because of Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump. The court papers said, “Kim has an Instagram page where he follows the Socialist Rifle Association’s page. In a post from October 2018, on the Reno Socialist Rifle Association’s Instagram page, is a picture of a subject that appears to be Paul Kim training with firearms.”
A <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SocialistRA/comments/cf9i4r/wait_is_the_sra_mostly_tankies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> of Socialist Rifle Association members found that it was 30% anarchist, 30% Marxist-Leninist or Maoist, 30% Democratic Socialist, and 10% other.
The Socialist Rifle Association was incorporated in Kansas in 2019 by Alexander Tackett, who later began identifying as a woman named Alex Norma Tackett. A website for a queer bookstore he owned <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20221207035629/https://sweetreadsict.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “Lilith [it/she] &amp; Alex Tackett [she/it] are a trans lesbian couple living in Wichita with their six-year-old son.”
The group&#8217;s co-founder was Faye Ecklar, who explained that “I believe firearms ownership is necessary because as a transgender socialist, half the country wants me dead, and the other half is happy to watch. Plus, the means of production won’t seize themselves.”
Platner has faced a wave of negative publicity since his old Reddit posts resurfaced, much of which centers around the Democrat&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/graham-platner-has-known-about-his-tattoos-nazi-connotations-since-2012">Nazi chest tattoo</a>.

Socialist Rifle Association card and one of its members

Maine Dem Graham Platner Belonged To Socialist Group Linked To ICE Attack, Tesla Bombings

Socialism

Terrorism

Democrats are in a tough position in the Senate races in 2026, as there are few vulnerable seats for Republicans.
One of those vulnerable seats was supposed to be in Maine, where Susan Collins, who is a Republican senator from a very purple to blue state, looked to be vulnerable against the Democrats. The Democrat chosen to run by the party was Graham Platner.
Graham Platner is a Bernie Sanders acolyte. He&#8217;s a far-leftist.
And now he is in trouble.
He’s in trouble because he is a radical, insane communist who seems to like Nazis. I don&#8217;t know where all this fondness for Nazis is coming from, but it does seem like a bizarre number of people are kind of into the Nazis these days.
The reason this is coming up is because Graham Platner apparently released a video showing him shirtless when he was drunk at some sort of event, and displayed a Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest.
Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/21/graham-platner-maine-senate-candidate-tattoo">reported</a>:
<blockquote>Platner drew the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as an anti-establishment outsider, but his campaign is already trying to clean up recently resurfaced Reddit posts where he espoused offensive views about Black people and sexual assault victims. Platner&#8217;s campaign shared video with Pod Save America of him singing shirtless that exposed a skull tattoo on his chest that resembles the &#8220;Totenkopf,&#8221; a symbol used by Hitler&#8217;s Schutzstaffel (SS). The move was intended to get ahead of opposition research, and the GOP&#8217;s Senate campaign arm seized on the images, accusing Platner of having a &#8220;Nazi tattoo.&#8221;</blockquote>
Platner then decided to go on the Pod Save America podcast, joining Tommy Vietor (former van driver for Barack Obama).
Platner said that the video was from his brother&#8217;s wedding, adding, “I am not a secret Nazi.”
It’s never a great political sign when you have to say you&#8217;re not a secret Nazi.
“I went to college,” Platner said. “I went to the gym, I did all the things. And at no point in this entire experience, of my life, did anybody ever once say, hey, you&#8217;re a Nazi. It never came up. Until we got wind that in the opposition research, somebody was shopping the idea that I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo. And I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it, I&#8217;ve not been doing a very good job for the past 18 years.”
Controversy has now broken out over whether he meant to have a Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2301-a-democratic-senate-candidate-with-a-nazi-tattoo?elementPosition=5&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Now, I don&#8217;t know how many people accidentally have Nazi symbols tattooed on their chests. I feel like the number is relatively low. That&#8217;s not something you just randomly stumble onto. You get drunk one night and say, “Hey, let me get that Nazi tattoo here on my chest.”
Jewish Insider (JI) <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2025/10/graham-platner-ss-tattoo-maine-senate/">reported</a>:
<blockquote>But according to a person who socialized with Platner when he was living in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, Platner had specifically acknowledged that the tattoo was a <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/totenkopf">Totenkopf</a>, the “death’s head” symbol adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II. “He said, ‘Oh, this is my Totenkopf,’” the former acquaintance told Jewish Insider recently, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue. “He said it in a cutesy little way.”
The exchange occurred in 2012 at Tune Inn, a popular dive on Capitol Hill where Platner later worked as a bartender and was a frequent patron while he attended The George Washington University on the G.I. bill, according to the former acquaintance. He would often take his shirt off drinking with friends late at night at the bar, and on at least one occasion had stated he knew what the tattoo represented, the former acquaintance recalled.
Platner gave varying accounts of the image during this time, saying at one point he was aware it was a Totenkopf when he had first gotten the tattoo several years prior and at another time claiming he had not known, according to the former acquaintance. </blockquote>
That is why he&#8217;s revealing the video now, early, in an attempt to get past it before the vote.
JI continued:
<blockquote>Platner’s former political director, Genevieve McDonald, who <a href="https://www.bangordailynews.com/2025/10/17/politics/elections/former-maine-lawmaker-resigns-graham-platner-campaign/">resigned</a> from his campaign last week over her objection to his recently unearthed incendiary Reddit comments, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that “Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest.” “He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff,” McDonald <a href="https://image.jewishinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/21135315/PHOTO-2025-10-21-19-24-33.jpg">wrote in the post</a>, which was reviewed by JI. “Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”</blockquote>
This is not a gigantic shock coming from Platner because there were a bunch of Reddit posts that are pretty ugly as well. In one of them, he openly described himself as a communist. He called all cops “bastards” and dismissed sexual assault in the military. He also defended a man with a Nazi SS lightning bolt tattoo who later admitted to impersonating a federal officer at a BLM protest in Las Vegas in 2020.
What&#8217;s amazing about this — aside from the fact that Graham Platner seems to be a bit of a scumbag — is this the kind of stuff that would normally get you canceled, especially by Democrats (if you weren’t a Democrat).
Jon Lovett, one of the Pod Save America brothers, <a href="https://x.com/jonlovett/status/1980783543354810546">tweeted out:</a>
<blockquote>Only perfect candidates off the Harvard law conveyor belt pls, highly disciplined, all boxes checked, well liked and humble, absolutely no spiritual connection to having a physical body except for severe IBS, volunteered at a soup kitchen in high school, signs email ‘cheers,’ etc.</blockquote>
There&#8217;s a big gap between that and the drunken dude who is routinely spewing garbage and has a Nazi tattoo on his chest.
Also, Jon Lovett routinely calls people Nazis. Interesting how that double standard immediately applies.
Bernie Sanders <a href="https://x.com/igorbobic/status/1980703417229000878">declared</a>, “There’s a young man who served his country in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he went through some really difficult experiences seeing friends of his killed or whatever, and in spite of all of that he had the courage to run. I personally think he is an excellent candidate. I’m going to support him.”
I don&#8217;t think Sanders would be making the same excuses if the person were on the other side of the aisle.
When asked about Platner’s comments on sexual assault, Sanders then shot back, “Have you served four tours of duty?”
I love Bernie Sanders pulling out the patriotic military service card after spending an entire career ripping on the American military industrial complex and America&#8217;s foreign policy.
But in the end, this is the Democratic Party. It is all about power. It is not about actual, consistent argumentation. They are perfectly happy to have a self-described commie with a Nazi tattoo on his chest running for the Senate in Maine. If it means the Republicans lose control of the Senate, that&#8217;s it.
That&#8217;s what really matters to them in the end.
* * *
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A Democratic Senate Candidate Has A Nazi Tattoo. And They’re Fine With It.

Nazis

Tattoos

U.S. Politics

U.S. Senate

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner was reportedly aware of the Nazi-affiliation of his skull and crossbones chest tattoo, despite recent claims that he had never faced negative accusations regarding it until he ran for office, according to Jewish Insider.
“He said, ‘Oh, this is my Totenkopf,’” an acquaintance recalls Platner telling him at Tune Inn, a Capitol Hill Bar where Platner worked, in 2012.
“He said it in a cutesy little way,” the individual said. Platner said at the time that he was aware of what the symbol meant when he got the tattoo, though he has denied knowing the meaning at other times, <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2025/10/graham-platner-ss-tattoo-maine-senate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jewish Insider</a> reported. Platner has since gotten a new tattoo to cover the symbol, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Graham Platner shows off cover-up tattoo of Nazi symbol in interview with local Maine news outlet: <a href="https://t.co/MMPvw57zzz">https://t.co/MMPvw57zzz</a> <a href="https://t.co/JaUYLjuM41">pic.twitter.com/JaUYLjuM41</a>
— Politics &amp; Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) <a href="https://twitter.com/PollTracker2024/status/1981027114796134407?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 
The report came after Platner attempted to explain the tattoo on “Pod Save America” on Monday.
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner said on the podcast. “Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general. I would say, lifelong opponent.”
Platner, who has been endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), further added that he was “very inebriated” on leave in Croatia while on a deployment for the Marines in 2007, and “we chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall” while at the tattoo shop.
“We got those and then we all moved on with our lives,” he said.
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“At no point in this entire experience of my life not once did anybody say ‘Hey, you’re a Nazi.’ It never came up, until we got wind that in the opposition research somebody was shopping the idea that I was secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo. And I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it, I have not been doing a very good job for the past 18 years,” Platner continued.
Platner has been under fire since a number of his Reddit posts were revealed, including one where he referred to cops as “bastards” and described himself as a “communist.”
Axios reported that in a 2020 Reddit post Platner said he had the term “antifa super soldier” on “armor” he owned.
His former political director, Genevieve McDonald, who quit just days ago, called him out in a Facebook post in light of the tattoo scandal.
“Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest. He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means,” McDonald wrote, The Maine Wire reported.
Platner is currently facing Democrat Governor Janet Mills in a primary, the winner of which will face incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, in a closely watched 2026 race.

Capitol Hill Prepares Ahead Of Full House Vote On Impeachment Articles This Week

Graham Platner Has Known About His Tattoo’s Nazi Connotations Since 2012

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner addressed a tattoo on his chest that critics have slammed as being linked to Nazi imagery, as a flurry of controversial social media posts resurfaced.
In a Monday interview with “Pod Save America,” Platner encouraged the hosts to play a video of himself lip-syncing to Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” while shirtless at his brother’s wedding a decade ago. The video revealed that Platner has a tattoo of a black skull and crossbones on his chest. The design is known as the Totenkopf or “Death’s Head,” which was used as a symbol for the SS during the Nazi regime, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner told Pod Save America. “Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general. I would say, lifelong opponent.”
Platner explained that he got the tattoo while on deployment as a Marine while “very inebriated” on leave in Croatia, and “we chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall” at the tattoo parlor.
“We got those and then we all moved on with our lives,” he added, saying that he was screened without issues when he later joined the Army, obtained security clearance, and worked as a State Department contractor without issue.
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“And I’ve also just lived my entire life like a regular person with a skull and crossbones on their chest,” he said, joking about the “Wrecking Ball” clip.
“At no point in this entire experience of my life not once did anybody say ‘Hey, you’re a Nazi.’ It never came up, until we got wind that in the opposition research somebody was shopping the idea that I was secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo. And I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it, I have not been doing a very good job for the past 18 years,” he added.
The tattoo received some negative responses from critics on social media, including on the Left.
“No skeletons in his closet, just an apparent Nazi logo on his chest,” MSNBC anchor Catherine Rampell posted to X.
“Gonna be hard to erase this one, literally and figuratively,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
Platner is currently in a primary against Maine’s Democratic Governor, Janet Mills. The winner of that race will face incumbent Senator Susan Collins (R) in one of the most competitive races in the country. Various old Reddit posts of his resurfaced last week, including “I got older and became a communist.”
“The fact that I have managed to go from Communist to Nazi in the space of four days, according to the people who are trying to, whatever, do this to me, I find to be quite a spectacular turn of events,” Platner added in the podcast interview.
Other posts included him saying that, “Bastards. Cops are bastards. All of them, in fact.” The candidate has attempted to turn the tables on the news cycle, sharing other past Reddit posts condemning “misogyny and homophobia in the Marines,” he wrote in a recent X post.
Last week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee torched the posts from Platner.
“Graham Platner is a communist who supports violence against Republicans to promote his radical agenda. These posts are not just him messing around on the internet as he is trying to claim, they paint a very dark picture of a candidate not fit for office,” Samantha Cantrell, NRSC Regional Press Secretary, told The Daily Wire at the time.
The Daily Wire reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment.

Maine Senate Candidate Downplays SS Skull Tattoo: ‘I Am Not A Secret Nazi.’

Congress

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner is under scrutiny for a series of resurfaced social media posts in which he declares himself a “communist” and denigrates cops and white people.
CNN’s KFile uncovered the Reddit posts from Platner, who is facing off against Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary, the winner of which will take on Republican Senator Susan Collins.
“I got older and became a communist,” Platner, a veteran and oyster farmer, wrote on a Reddit forum dubbed “antiwork” in 2021, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/16/politics/kfile-graham-platner-maine-senate-candidate-deleted-reddit-posts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>. He also said he was a “vegetable growing, psychedelics taking social these days” in a United States Marine Corps subreddit that same year, saying that he “still got the guns though, I don’t trust the facsists [sic] these days,” citing his past military experience in the post.
“Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are,” the Democrat said about white Americans.
“Bastards. Cops are bastards. All of them, in fact,” Platner said in another post.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/16/maine-senate-candidate-promoted-violent-political-action-in-since-deleted-online-posts-00613037" target="_blank" rel="noopener">POLITICO</a> reported that Platner wrote other Reddit posts in 2018 suggesting that “an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice” and said that a “good semi-automatic rifle” would be expected in order to successfully “fight fascism.”
In addition, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/17/graham-platner-sexual-assault-comments-senate-midterms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Washington Post</a> reported multiple posts he made to Reddit in 2013 regarding sexual assault, including in the military.
“Rape is a real thing. If you’re so worried about it to buy Kevlar underwear you’d think you might not get blacked out f***ed up around people you aren’t comfortable with,” he wrote.
“In today’s current climate, when every whisper of a misplaced hand brings down a feature length film, anyone who actually thinks the military is purposefully covering up rape to save the career of some god damn [captain], is clearly both an idiot and junior enough in rank or life experience to think it matters,” Platner wrote.
<a href="https://www.bangordailynews.com/2025/10/17/politics/elections/graham-platner-black-people-tipping-rape-reference-reddit-posts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bangor Daily News</a> on Friday uncovered more of Platner’s Reddit posts, from 2013, in which he calls black people cheap.
“I work as a bartender and it always amazes me how solid this stereotype is,” Platner wrote. “Every now and again a black patron will leave a 15-20% tip, but usually it [is] between 0-5%. There’s got to be a reason behind it, what is it?”
The candidate said that the posts circulating do not reflect who he is today.
“As I told CNN, I was f***ing around on the internet at a time when I felt lost and very disillusioned with our government who sent me overseas to watch my friends die,” Platner told POLITICO. “I made dumb jokes and picked fights. But of course I’m not a socialist. I’m a small business owner, a Marine Corps veteran, and a retired s***poster.”
However, Republicans have raised concerns about the candidate’s past comments.
“Graham Platner is a communist who supports violence against Republicans to promote his radical agenda. These posts are not just him messing around on the internet as he is trying to claim, they paint a very dark picture of a candidate not fit for office,” Samantha Cantrell, NRSC Regional Press Secretary, told The Daily Wire in response to the reports on the Democrat.
The Daily Wire reached out to the Platner campaign for comment.

Reddit

Dem Senate Hopeful Called Himself A Communist, Made Racist Comments In Reddit Posts

2026 election

Senator Susan Collins has an unlikely new supporter: Maine Governor Janet Mills, who&#8217;s running against Collins in a contentious race.
The group One Nation on Thursday released an ad that features Mills, a Democrat, praising her Republican opponent just last month.
“I appreciate everything she is doing,&#8221; Mills says in the clip, which comes from a press availability Mills held on Sept. 8 in Waterville, Maine, according to a video posted to the YouTube channel<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-45V9I3AQzg"> Central Maine</a>.
“She’s in a tough position. I appreciate everything she is doing,” she says when asked by a reporter if she thinks Collins is doing enough to counter President Donald Trump on tariffs and other aspects of his agenda.
“Everyone agrees: Sen. Susan Collins is getting results,&#8221; the <a href="https://x.com/OneNationOrg/status/1978796064196210989">ad</a> says.
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The Daily Wire reached out to the Mills campaign for comment. The governor made national headlines over her public disagreement at the White House with Trump over women’s sports.
“I’ll comply with state and federal law,” Mills said in response to Trump asking, “Is Maine here? The governor of Maine? Are you not going to comply with it?”
“We are the federal law,’ Trump said,<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-spars-with-maines-dem-governor-over-men-in-womens-sports-at-white-house"> The Daily Wire</a> reported at the time. “You better do it. Because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t. And by the way, your population, even though it is somewhat liberal although I did very well there. Your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports. You better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding.”
“We’ll see you in court,” the governor can be heard saying.
“Good, I’ll see you in court,” the president replied. “I look forward to that, that should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
Mills touted in a recent X post that,”When Donald Trump tried to strong-arm me, I told him see you in court. So I did. And we won.”
The Cook Political Report currently ranks the race as a “toss-up” along with the Senate races in North Carolina, Georgia, and Michigan.
Collins won her fifth term during the 2020 election, in which she defeated Democrat Sara Gideon, who won just over 42% of the vote compared with Collins pulling roughly 51%.
Graham Platner is also in the Democratic primary alongside Mills, and is currently facing controversy for now-deleted social media posts where he said he was a “communist,” according to<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/16/politics/kfile-graham-platner-maine-senate-candidate-deleted-reddit-posts"> CNN</a>.

WHOOPS: New Ad Features Maine Democrat Governor Janet Mills Praising GOP Opponent Susan Collins

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