WASHINGTON ― Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed Graham Platner in the competitive Maine Democratic primary to decide who will take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
Warren’s endorsement is a significant boost for Platner, whose chief rival in the crowded Democratic primary, Gov. Janet Mills, has the full backing of party leadership. In a video statement posted by Platner’s campaign, Warren touted Platner’s blue-collar bona fides and military background.
“Graham actually knows hard work,” Warren says in the video. “He’s an oyster farmer in Maine. Graham knows the consequences of Donald Trump sending our service members to fight endless wars in the Middle East. He’s a combat veteran who was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The winner of the June primary will face Collins in November, one of several Senate contests that could tip control of the chamber back into Democrats’ hands.
Warren’s endorsement comes at a critical time for Platner. The Mills campaign hit Platner with an ad this week highlighting gross Reddit posts he wrote in 2013. “How about people just take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f**ked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to?” Platner wrote in one since-deleted post, part of a cache that came to light last fall, prompting Platner to apologize.
In a brief interview with HuffPost on Thursday, Warren acknowledged Platner’s Reddit posts but indicated she believed his apology was sincere.
“Look, he has apologized for that, and he’s out there talking to the people of Maine every single day,” Warren said.
As she did in her video, Warren highlighted Platner’s “fighter” style.
“I endorse Graham Platner because I know he is a fighter on behalf of working families, and because he doesn’t take any corporate PAC money, and we need more people here in Washington who are less about go along to get along, and more about fighting to make the kind of changes that families need.”
The Mills ad shows the contrast between Mills, who is regarded by the Democratic establishment as the far safer choice for the general election, even though she’s 78 years old, and the 41-year-old Platner, who emerged as the favored candidate of the Democratic party’s progressive voters last year.
Platner is the sixth Senate candidate Warren has endorsed this cycle in a competitive primary, following fellow Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow in Michigan, state Sen. Zach Wahls in Iowa, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who won her primary in Illinois on Tuesday night.
Four of those candidates ― Platner, Wahls, Stratton and McMorrow ― have called for the replacement of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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