Fear grips Democrats as 'walking red flag' Senate candidate slapped with explicit new revenge porn threat

By JON MICHAEL RAASCH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT Published: 00:48, 6 June 2026 | Updated: 00:54, 6 June 2026 Democrats are in a panic about their scandal-plagued, Nazi-tattooed candidate in Maine as allegations of relationship abuse and sordid sexting come to light, and fears of a looming 'dick pic.'   Graham Platner, 41, the leading Democratic candidate in Maine's Senate primary, has been slapped with reports detailing his Nazi-linked tattoo, sexting with women while married and, most recently, allegations of physical abuse from his ex-girlfriend. Platner is running to take the seat held by Republican Senator Susan Collins since 1997. The race is a must-win for Democrats if they are to regain control of the Senate after the midterms in November.  Some top Democrats have already turned on the scandal-plagued former Marine and oyster farmer. Democratic Senator John Fetterman has called Platner a 'creep' who has refused to defend the embattled candidate. After the New York Times published an expose detailing Platner's alleged abuse against his former girlfriend, Congressman Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, admitted, 'The behavior described in the New York Times Story was wrong and toxic.' Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Jeanne Shaheen have also expressed their concerns over Platner publicly.  But the anxieties over the Maine candidate are also coming from off the Hill, and Democratic strategists are expecting even more scandals to drop before the state's primary election on Tuesday, including potential naked pictures of Platner.  'Bake in right now that we're eventually going to get a Graham Platner dick pic,' one top Democratic strategist told the Daily Mail. 'The guy's clearly not a good dude, there are so many red flags here ... this guy's just a walking red flag.' Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who has been hit with several major scandals, is 'a walking red flag,' one veteran Democratic strategist told the Daily Mail Platner is embroiled in a sexting scandal where he admitted to sending nude photos to women on Kik while married. Pictures viewed by the Daily Mail showed the Democratic candidate posing shirtless and in only a towel Graham Platner with his Totenkopf tattoo, before he covered it up. He claims to have no idea that the image has a long association with Nazis At the center of the storm is a tattoo that Platner has said he didn't realize had been associated with Nazis and the SS, the German WWII death squad.  'The Nazi tattoo is bad, and it seems to me like there are multiple people saying that he lied about not knowing it was a Nazi tattoo until somebody brought it up. He knew, it's just not credible to say that he didn't know at this point,' the strategist said.  Insiders say the tattoo scandal crosses a line for key voters in the state, especially Jewish ones.  'The Nazi tattoo isn't great,' Bennett said.  'It'd be one thing if he had it temporarily and realized his mistake and got it removed, but this idea that he spent 18 years with that tattoo and didn't know that it was a symbol of the Nazis is hard to credit.'  Meanwhile, the allegations of Platner's abuse of women are also sure to impact his support among women voters in Maine.  Lyndsey Fiefield, shown here with Platner, dated the candidate on and off again from 2013 to 2015. She accused him of physical abuse Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife Amy Gertner 'They will care if he sexually assaulted or abused or was violent with somebody. I think those are the lines that, I'm gonna be like, "get the f*** out of my party,"' the Democratic strategist said.  Further, the liberal politico argued that while Planter's extramarital sexting scandal, which took place on Kik - a platform with a history of use by pedophiles, may not be disqualifying, if there's any indication he was talking to underage women would destroy his chances in the election and tarnish Democrats' reputation.  'The Democratic Party's in a terrible position here... there's no one can force him from the race. If he stays in the race, he's going to be the nominee,' Bennet said. 'It's a rock and a hard place for the party.'  The New York Times piece on Platner featured comments from three ex-girlfriends.  Lyndsey Fifield, who dated the candidate from approximately 2013 to 2015, said that Platner would become aggressive, particularly when drinking.  Though she said he 'never hit me,' she claimed he would regularly grab her by the shoulders, leaving marks, and once pulled her from a taxi by her wrist during an argument. Fifield, a conservative operative, also recalled an incident in which he twisted her arm behind her back, pushed her into a bedroom, and held the door shut, telling her to stay there until she was 'calm.' Senator Bernie Sanders (C) has endorsed Platner and campaigned with him Platner's wife reportedly flagged the candidate's sexual messages to other women to the Democrat's campaign Platner's campaign told the Daily Mail in a statement, 'Let's be very clear: This is a lifelong GOP operative who's dedicated her career to electing Republicans.' Another ex, Maine Democrat, Jenny Racicot, 41, described Platner's behavior to the Times as 'reckless' and 'unsettling.' 'When I saw the old comments that he made online,' she said, 'I recognized a version of him that I had experiences with.' A third woman, a Maine Democrat who asked not to be named, described the candidate as charismatic at times but also prone to heavy bouts of drinking. She said she felt like 'collateral damage to the world that is his.' In a statement shared with the Daily Mail by his campaign, Platner noted, '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.' Despite his claims to have cleaned up his act, both liberal operatives warned there could be more coming.  'There is apparently a Washington Post article as well, and so the question of like the drip, drip, drip, you know, does that eventually become death by 1000 cuts?' the Democratic strategist said. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.