Graham Platner tests Democrats' tolerance for scandal

Donald Trump shattered long-held political norms when Republicans elected him twice despite scandals that would have sunk most candidates. Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is testing whether Democrats are willing to play by the same rules.

Why it matters: The answer will show whether voters' tolerance for scandal — long thought to be a Trump-only phenomenon — is hardening into a broader feature of American politics.

Driving the news: Platner suffered the latest in a string of setbacks when the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported he exchanged sexually explicit texts with at least a half-dozen women while married.

• His wife discovered the messages and reported them to the campaign during its vetting process.
• Platner's camp dug in after the texting story broke. In a video released Saturday, Platner's wife, Amy Gertner, called it "really shameful" that outlets would focus on it instead of covering the issues Platner is running on.
• Strategist Morris Katz — also a close adviser to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani — dismissed the reporting as a privacy violation by "opportunistic operatives."

Zoom in: Platner has been dogged by one controversy after another — from old Reddit posts downplaying rape and insulting Black people to a tattoo of a Nazi symbol he had inked on his chest in 2007 and only covered up last year after becoming a candidate.

• The oyster farmer and military veteran apologized for his writings, calling them crude and indefensible, and said he hadn't known the tattoo was a widely recognized Nazi symbol.

But his campaign has only been gathering steam. His Democratic primary opponent, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out in late April after polls showed her losing badly.

• A late May survey by the University of New Hampshire had Platner up 9 points against Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a general election matchup.
• Already the favorite of progressives, Platner has seen much of the Democratic establishment fall in line, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was previously all-in for Mills.

Friction point: Some Democrats say the party shouldn't adopt the GOP's tolerance for scandal.

• "I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying," Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) said on CNN last week. "It would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner's brand … is what wins us durable majorities throughout this country."
• Asked about the sexting reporting on Sunday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told ABC News, "Yeah, I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer and that's what campaigns are for."

For many others, including progressives, winning can trump moral reservations when control of the Senate is at stake.

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's former chief of staff, congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, accused Auchincloss of "essentially endorsing Susan Collins. … Absolutely no excuse for a Democrat in the House to back a Republican for Senate in a crucial swing seat."
• "[M]aybe Maine Democrats have absorbed the same lesson Republicans adopted in 2016: Once voters stop treating scandal as disqualifying, policing your own side for off-the-field behavior starts to look like unilateral disarmament," center-right columnist Matt Lewis wrote last week.

Reality check: Trump and Platner's conduct is different in type and scale. The stakes of a Senate race are not the same as a presidential election. One has expressed contrition, while the other prides himself on refusing to apologize.

The bottom line: Maine is a must-win seat for Democrats. The race will come down to whether enough Democrats and independents are willing to hold their noses for Platner like skeptical Republicans did for Trump.