On GBH’s Boston Public Radio Tuesday, host Jim Braude asked Gov. Maura Healey if she would support Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued Maine Senate candidate, if wins next week’s Democratic primary.
“If he goes on to win in the primary that’s coming up,” Braude asked, “would he get your support in the final?”
“Yes, and I’ll tell you why,” Healey responded. “I’m disgusted by what [Platner] posted, and I’ve been disgusted by some of his other, you know, behaviors and antics. But here’s the thing: you know, come November, there’s going to be a clear choice. There’s going to be Susan Collins on the one hand, who has stood with Trump.”
Healey pointed to Collin’s crucial vote to confirm Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, saying she didn’t believe he would overturn Roe vs. Wade. “We now live in a country where one in three women don’t have access to abortion.”
Healey also cited Collin’s support of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, saying that’s not who we need in Congress right now, and “that’s why Susan Collins needs to go. She needs to go for the people of Maine but also for the people of this country.”
Healey’s remarks were framed by the Boston Herald as the “Gov backing [Platner].” But as both the GBH interview and the Herald’s own reporting made clear, that backing is contingent on Platner winning the primary — and here, Healey seems to have an abiding preference for her counterpart, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who Healey endorsed earlier this year. Mills suspended her campaign for the Senate in April, but her name will still appear on the primary ballot on June 9.
As Healey put it yesterday when asked by the Herald about her contingent, post-primary support for Platner: “The person I endorsed in the race was my colleague, Gov. Janet Mills. We also served together as Attorney General. She is on the ballot.”
That’s a point Mills herself has been making since the recent revelation that Platner sexted multiple women, which follows previous revelations involving a tattoo featuring Nazi imagery (whose origin Platner claimed not to know) and racist and sexist posts to Reddit. And because she’s still on the ballot, Mills remains an option for anyone who feels Platner’s baggage is too extreme to trust him to challenge Collins this fall.
In a statement to GBH News Wednesday, a Healey campaign spokesperson offered what seemed tantamount to a double endorsement: Mills over Platner in the primary, but in the general election in November, anyone except Collins.
“Governor Healey endorsed Governor Mills for Maine Senate and has been clear that if she were voting in the Maine primary next week, she would be voting for Janet Mills,” the spokesperson said. “[Healey] also believes it is essential that we defeat Susan Collins in November and take back the Senate so that we can stand up to Donald Trump and his harmful agenda.”
While Healey’s position on Platner is nuanced, Massachusetts’ two U.S. senators are less equivocal in their support of the Marine-turned-oysterman. In a statement, a spokesperson for U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said she continues to support Platner’s candidacy in the wake of the sexting revelations. And in an interview Tuesday on MS Now, U.S. Senator Ed Markey voiced support as well, lauding Platner’s focus on populist economic issues.
“He is campaigning on healthcare costs, on food costs, on gasoline costs, on the impact that Trump economic policies are having upon the lives of people who live in Maine,” Markey said of Platner. “And that is the issue which American voters, Maine voters are going to want to have the focus on for the rest of the year, and he is putting those issues front and center for the voters to see every single day.”
On the other extreme of the Platner divide in Bay State politics is Congressman Jake Auchincloss, who is Jewish and, like Platner, served in the Marines. Before Platner’s recent sexting revelations, Auchincloss told CNN that he finds Platner’s Nazi tattoo and his explanation of how and why he received it to be “personally disqualifying.”
Auchincloss also argued that Democrats would err by making Platner’s Democratic brand — a deeply populist, intensely progressive approach in the mold of Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — a blueprint for the party moving forward.
An Auchincloss spokesperson did not immediately reply when asked if Auchincloss believes Mills is the right choice for Maine’s Democratic primary voters.
