How a Rising Populist Star's Senate Bid Fell Apart

In Maine, the political meteor that was Graham Platner is now detailed as a case study in how a breakout campaign can explosively come apart. The New York Times tracks how the little-known oyster farmer and Marine veteran—recruited by progressive operatives who cast him as a "hero of the movement" and fast-rising Senate hopeful against Republican Susan Collins—became, in the words of a former top aide, a "slow-rolling disaster." Reporter Shane Goldmacher describes a campaign that surged online and in the polls even as staffers, party officials, and worried friends flagged mental health concerns, thin vetting, and undisclosed personal baggage.

Goldmacher reports that aides repeatedly accepted Platner's assurances that there was nothing more damaging in his past, only to be blindsided by waves of revelations: a Nazi-referenced tattoo, old incendiary posts about rape, explicit messages with women, and, finally, a rape allegation from an ex-girlfriend that he denies. Within a day of that last accusation, Democrats abandoned him and Planned Parenthood yanked its risky endorsement, ending what had been one of the party's strongest chances to flip a Senate seat. For the inside account of how it unraveled, read the full piece in the New York Times.