这位得到桑德斯和沃伦支持的退伍军人将在关键中期选举中挑战温和派共和党现任议员
2026年6月9日 晚上9:27 美国东部时间 / 福克斯新闻
作者：保罗·施坦豪泽、安德鲁·马克·米勒
《福克斯新闻周日》栏目讨论缅因州民主党参议院候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳持续发酵的争议及其对其参议员竞选的影响，以及其他话题。
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缅因州布鲁因希尔——尽管格雷厄姆·普拉特纳的联邦参议员竞选正经历最艰难的阶段之一，但他在周二赢得了民主党参议院提名。
据美联社报道，普拉特纳是一名退伍军人兼牡蛎养殖户，得到进步派领袖、佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯、马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦以及加利福尼亚州众议员罗·卡纳的支持，他在缅因州民主党参议院初选中击败了两位胜算渺茫的对手。
“苏珊·柯林斯曾说过只会连任两届，现在她却要竞选第六个任期了，”普拉特纳在被宣布获胜后，在布鲁因希尔基督教青年会对人群说道。
“她从政的时间比乔·拜登还长，”普拉特纳表示，将自己的竞选定位为对两党政治建制派的抨击。“事实是，苏珊·柯林斯不为我们服务。她为唐纳德·特朗普服务。她为爱泼斯坦阶层服务。”
这位身陷多重争议的普拉特纳将在今年中期选举中挑战未获对手、获得共和党提名的温和派共和党议员苏珊·柯林斯。在政治倾向偏左的缅因州，这场竞选是全国为数不多几场将决定共和党能否保住微弱参议院多数席位的选举之一。
决定参议院控制权的十大竞选
2026年6月7日周日，美国参议院民主党候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳在缅因州波特兰的一场竞选活动外对爆满的人群发表讲话。（罗伯特·F·巴卡蒂/美联社照片）
普拉特纳主张经济民粹主义议程，抨击企业影响力，为工薪阶层发声，他还在初选中击败了两届民主党州长珍妮特·米尔斯。尽管米尔斯此前得到了参议院民主党领袖查克·舒默以及参议院民主党竞选机构的支持，但她在今年春季因筹款和民调大幅落后于普拉特纳而暂停竞选，但其名字仍留在选票上。
“我们将在11月获胜，我们将为这个国家的人民夺回权力，”普拉特纳在初选前的最后一场集会上，于周日晚间预测道。
过去一个月来，普拉特纳一直忙于应对多重争议。这些争议包括他在Reddit上发表的煽动性在线评论、广为人知且现已被遮盖的类似纳粹标志的胸前纹身、近期曝光的他婚内与多名女性交换露骨色情信息的报道，以及上周前女友们提出的新指控，称他有强奸幻想、酗酒和暴力行为史。普拉特纳称最新的暴力指控不实。
周一，也就是初选前一天，普拉特纳竞选团队的一名前高级幕僚在《华盛顿邮报》撰文称，普拉特纳“不是一个对缅因州或美国有利的人选”。
尽管越来越多的争议引发了华盛顿部分民主党人对普拉特纳是否已成为“受损商品”的质疑，但这位候选人上周六感谢缅因州选民继续支持他。
“十年前我在网上说过的伤人言论曝光时，我分享了自己经历创伤后应激障碍、走出黑暗、承担责任并获得成长的个人历程。缅因州支持了我，”普拉特纳在缅因州东部沿海地区离家乡不远的一场集会上说道。“如今，我的每一段过往和经历都被挖出来、拿出来争论、被用作政治武器，你们依然支持我。当那些出于政治动机、严重且虚假的指控指向我时，缅因州，你们依然站在我这边。”
普拉特纳对支持者说：“缅因州，我站在你们这边”
2026年6月5日，参议院民主党候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳在缅因州巴港的一场集会上对支持者发表讲话。（保罗·施坦豪泽/福克斯新闻）
普拉特纳曾坦言自己在海军陆战队三次赴伊拉克服役，以及在陆军国民警卫队一次赴阿富汗服役后患上创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）。去年秋天他宣布参选参议员后，部分Reddit帖子引发关注，他随后为这些有争议的帖子道歉。
普拉特纳表示，他胸前的骷髅头交叉骨纹身是2007年与驻扎在克罗地亚的海军陆战队战友喝酒时纹的。他说，去年得知这个纹身类似纳粹标志后，就用新图案遮盖了。但一名前女友的新指控对普拉特纳声称自己知晓纹身问题的时间线提出了质疑。
卡纳组织了周五与普拉特纳共同出席的集会，他在接受福克斯新闻数字频道采访时被问及，是否担心当前的指控以及未来可能出现的更多指控会拖垮普拉特纳的竞选，损害民主党夺回参议院的希望。
“我更担心明确表明我们反对厌女症，那些关系是有毒且不稳定的，对此没有任何借口，”卡纳说道。“我和格雷厄姆谈过，他说当时他正处于非常黑暗的时期，他作为步兵从两次伊拉克服役中归来，目睹了暴力和死亡。但这不能成为借口。”
2026年民主进程：随时了解福克斯新闻选举中心动态
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6397687673112
但卡纳补充道，普拉特纳称“回到缅因州当牡蛎养殖户并找到平静后，他真的成长了，他为那段时期感到羞耻。在我看来，这表明他在承担责任、改善自己的生活，我们这个国家需要这样的救赎。我同意他的许多经济政策，我们应该向亿万富翁征税，我们应该关注工薪阶层。”
在周二晚间的演讲中，普拉特纳试图将自己塑造成一个改过自新的人。
“如果你和我一样相信，我们可以改变政治、改变国家，那么你也必须相信人是可以改变的，”普拉特纳对人群说道。“我之所以相信这一点，是因为我亲身经历过。而我之所以能亲身经历这一切，都是因为我的妻子。”
福克斯新闻记者在集会前采访的缅因州选民，对普拉特纳的争议是否会影响他们对这位候选人的看法存在分歧。
来自缅因州沃特伯勒的杰夫在提到普拉特纳时说：“这不是一个好局面。我认为这个人不应该参与竞选。我是保守派，但他的负面形象太多了，如果民主党想选出能获胜的候选人，就必须另找他人。他不是合适的人选。问题太多了。”
来自缅因州阿克顿的艾伦自称是注册共和党人，她说：“他是个完美的人吗？当然不是。”
但她补充道：“但我认为他会上任后好好履职。”
柯林斯周五从国会山返回缅因州，此前她在国会山度过了忙碌的一周，创下了连续10000次投票的里程碑。她在回答记者关于普拉特纳面临的最新指控的问题时表示：“最新报道中的指控令人不安。我认为格雷厄姆·普拉特纳有很多问题需要回答。”
详情：民主党参议员回避支持普拉特纳，缅因州候选人的丑闻笼罩初选最后几天
2026年5月5日，缅因州共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯在缅因州哈里森参观一家食品银行。该食品银行得益于这位参议员协助争取到的联邦资助得以扩建。（保罗·施坦豪泽/福克斯新闻）
普拉特纳正面临共和党团体的大量政治攻击，包括全国共和党参议员委员会（NRSC）在普拉特纳赢得初选后发布的严厉声明。
“今天标志着格雷厄姆·普拉特纳末日的开始，”NRSC主席、参议员蒂姆·斯科特在X平台上发帖称。“他将被曝光，他的议程将被摧毁，缅因州选民会拒绝他。任何华盛顿民主党人的支持或左翼亿万富翁的资助都救不了他。缅因州的选择很明确，我们不会掉以轻心。”
共和党全国委员会（RNC）也将矛头指向了普拉特纳。
“格雷厄姆·普拉特纳称他暴力且不稳定的过往被‘用作政治武器’。普拉特纳曾说过，他会通过强奸来彰显自己的主导地位，‘强奸就是为了权力’，”RNC研究团队近期在X平台上写道，并附上了针对这位候选人的最新指控。
尽管面临这些指控和共和党人的攻击，支持普拉特纳的民主党政客中没有一人撤回背书。
“我们需要团结起来，认清目标是击败苏珊·柯林斯。从舒默到桑德斯，所有人都围绕这一目标团结在一起，”卡纳告诉福克斯新闻数字频道。
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6395246234112
普拉特纳吸引了大量支持者，筹集了可观的竞选资金，民主党将缅因州视为夺回参议院多数席位的关键机会。
但击败柯林斯并非易事。六年前，民调显示这位参议员即将败选，但柯林斯出乎预料地以9个百分点的优势击败当时的民主党州众议院议长萨拉·吉迪恩成功连任。
温和派共和党议员柯林斯有时会投票反对唐纳德·特朗普总统的议程，此次她将竞选第六个六年任期的参议院席位。
2021年1月6日国会山骚乱后不久，她在特朗普第二次弹劾审判中投下了定罪票。去年年初，她还反对现任国防部长皮特·赫格西思的提名。
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但她也因2018年投票确认布雷特·卡瓦诺大法官进入最高法院而被铭记，这一投票最终帮助最高法院保守派多数推翻了具有里程碑意义的“罗伊诉韦德案”裁决，该裁决曾将堕胎在全国范围内合法化。
保罗·施坦豪泽是驻摇摆州新罕布什尔州的政治记者，全程报道全国竞选活动。
Scandal-plagued Platner captures Democratic Senate nomination
The combat veteran backed by Sanders and Warren will now face the moderate Republican incumbent in a crucial midterm race
June 9, 2026 9:27pm EDT / Fox News
By Paul Steinhauser , Andrew Mark Miller
A ‘Fox News Sunday’ panel discusses the ongoing controversy surrounding Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and its implications for his Maine Senate bid, and more.
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BLUE HILL, Maine — He’s been facing one of the roughest stretches of his bid for the U.S. Senate, but Graham Platner on Tuesday captured the Democratic Party’s Senate nomination.
Platner, a military combat veteran and oyster farmer who is backed by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, defeated two longshot rivals in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary, the Associated Press reports.
“Susan Collins said she would only serve two terms, she’s now running for her sixth,” Platner told the crowd at the Blue Hill YMCA after he was declared the winner.
“She has worked in politics longer than Joe Biden,” Platner said, positioning his campaign as a rebuke to the political establishment of both parties. “The truth is, Susan Collins doesn’t serve us. She serves Donald Trump. She serves the Epstein class.”
The embattled Platner, who is facing numerous controversies, will now challenge moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who was unopposed for the GOP nomination, in left-leaning Maine in this year’s midterm elections. The race is one of a handful across the country that will determine whether the GOP keeps control of its slim Senate majority.
THE TEN RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE’S MAJORITY
Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks to an overflow crowd outside a campaign event Sunday, June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.(Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)
Platner, who advocates an economically populist agenda as he takes aim at corporate influences and advocates for the working class, also topped two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in the primary. The governor’s name remained on the ballot even though Mills, who had been backed by longtime Democratic Senate Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, suspended her bid earlier this spring after significantly trailing Platner in fundraising and polling.
“We’re going to win in November and we’re going to take power back for the people in this country,” Platner predicted Sunday night, at his final rally ahead of the primary.
Platner has been playing defense the past month, amid multiple controversies. They include inflammatory online comments made on Reddit, a well-publicized and now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, recent reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married, and new allegations last week from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes. Platner has called the latest allegations of violence untrue.
On Monday, a day before the primary election, a former high-level staffer from the Planter campaign wrote in the Washington Post that Platner “is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.”
While the mounting controversies triggered some Democrats in the nation’s capital to question whether Platner was damaged goods, the candidate this past weekend thanked Maine voters for continuing to support him.
“When hurtful things I said on the internet a decade ago came out into the public as I shared my personal journey through PTSD and darkness of recovery and accountability and growth. Maine had my back,” Platner said at a rally Friday not far from his hometown in Down East Maine. “Now, as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back. And when politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me. Maine, you have my back.”
PLATNER TO SUPPORTERS: ‘MAINE, YOU HAVE MY BACK’
Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to supporters at a rally in Bar Harbor, Maine, on June 5, 2026(Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
Platner, who has acknowledged his battle with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from his three tours of duty in the war in Iraq with the Marines and one tour with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan, apologized for his controversial Reddit posts after some of them made headlines last fall soon after he launched his Senate campaign.
And Platner has said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007 while drinking with fellow Marines stationed in Croatia. He said that he covered up the tattoo with a new design after learning last year that it resembled a Nazi symbol. But new allegations from an ex-girlfriend raise questions about Platner’s timeline regarding knowledge of the tattoo.
Khanna, who organized Friday’s rally with Platner, was asked by Fox News Digital whether he’s concerned if the current allegations, and any potential future ones, could sink Platner’s campaign and hurt Democrats’ hopes of winning back the Senate.
“I’m more concerned about making it clear that we’re opposed to misogyny, those relationships were toxic and volatile, there’s no excuse for that,” Khanna said. “I talked to Graham and he says he was at a very dark period, he had come back from two tours of duty in Iraq as an infantryman seeing violence and death. That doesn’t excuse it.”
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https://www.foxnews.com/video/6397687673112
But Khanna added that Platner said “he really grew as a person when he came back to Maine and he was an oyster farmer and he found peace and he is ashamed of that period. To me that suggests someone taking accountability and improving their lives and we need that redemption in this country. And I agree with a lot of his economic policies, that we should be taxing the billionaires, we should be focusing on the working class.”
In his speech on Tuesday night, Platner attempted to frame himself as a changed man.
“If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change,” Platner told the crowd. “And the reason I believe that is because I have lived it. And the reason that I have lived it is because of my wife.”
Maine voters Fox News reporters spoke with ahead of the rally were divided on whether Platner’s controversies would impact their opinions of the candidate.
Jeff from Waterboro, Maine said “it’s not a good situation” as he pointed to Platner. “I think it’s somebody who shouldn’t be in the mix. I am a conservative, but he’s just got so much damage, if the Democrats want to have a winner, they’re going to have to find somebody else. He’s not the guy. It’s just too much.”
Ellen from Acton, Maine, who said she is a registered Republican, said, “Is he a perfect person? Heck no.”
But she added, “I think he will go in and do a good job.”
Collins, returning to Maine on Friday after a busy week on Capitol Hill where she reached a milestone by casting her 10,000th consecutive vote in the Senate, was asked by reporters about the latest allegations facing Platner.
“The allegations in the latest story are troubling,” Collins responded. “And I believe that Graham Platner has a lot of questions to answer.”
SEE IT: DEM SENATORS DODGE ON BACKING PLATNER AS MAINE CANDIDATE’S SCANDAL CLOUDS FINAL DAYS BEFORE PRIMARY
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine tours a food bank in Harrison, Maine, on May 5, 2026. The food bank was able to expand thanks to federal funding that the senator helped obtain.(Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
Platner is facing plenty of incoming political fire from Republican groups, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) who released a scathing statement after Platner’s primary victory.
“Today marks the beginning of the end for Graham Platner,” NRSC Chair Sen. Tim Scott posted on X. “He will be exposed, his agenda destroyed, and Mainers will reject him. No amount of DC Democrat support or left-wing billionaire backing will save him. The choice in Maine is clear and nothing will be taken for granted.”
And the Republican National Committee (RNC) also targeted Platner.
“Graham Platner says his violent and erratic past is being ‘weaponized’ against him. Platner said he would rape someone to show his dominance and ‘rape was about power,’” the RNC research team recently wrote on X, pointing to the latest allegations against the candidate.
Despite the allegations and the incoming fire from the GOP, no Democratic politicians who have backed Platner have rescinded their endorsements.
“We need to unite and realize that the goal is defeating Susan Collins. And everyone from Schumer to Sanders is unified around that goal,” Khanna told Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6395246234112
Platner has drawn large crowds and built a healthy fundraising war chest, and Democrats see Maine as a crucial pickup opportunity as they aim to win back the Senate majority.
But beating Collins won’t be easy. Six years ago, public opinion polls indicated the senator was headed to defeat, but Collins defied expectations and won re-election by topping then-Democratic state House Speaker Sara Gideon by nine points.
Collins, a moderate Republican who at times votes against President Donald Trump’s agenda, is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6389042405112
The senator voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, in 2021 soon after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And early last year she opposed the confirmation of now-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
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But she is also remembered for her 2018 vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, which eventually helped the court’s conservative majority overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling which had legalized abortion nationwide.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast.