Graham Platner’s Ex-Campaign Chief Unloads in Scorching Washington Post Op-Ed Ahead of Primary: ‘Enough is Enough’

A former senior aide to Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner warned he “shouldn’t be a U.S. senator” in a blistering public takedown of her one-time boss published on the eve of Maine’s Democratic primary.

Genevieve McDonald, who served as Platner’s political director during the early stages of his campaign, laid out her case in a Washington Post opinion piece, a month-by-month breakdown on her mounting concerns and resignation published Monday before Maine Democrats head to the polls to choose a challenger to Senator Susan Collins (R-ME).

“Graham Platner is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country,” McDonald declared.

She wrote: “I quit the campaign in October, disturbed by what I learned about the candidate and concerned about his potential impact on the Democratic Party’s prospects in my home state. As Tuesday’s primary arrives, I want to make clear what transpired since August and why my concerns have only grown.”

McDonald accused Platner of displaying “a pattern of dishonest behavior that is impossible to ignore,” arguing that successive controversies have undermined his assurances that no further damaging revelations would emerge.

“Despite being exposed by a series of scandals beginning last October, he kept assuring voters and the Democratic Party that there were no more skeletons in his closet,” she continued. “Then more emerged – the latest, in recent days, have involved former girlfriends’ serious accusations of physical mistreatment.”

Platner’s campaign has been dogged for months by scrutiny over past online comments, allegations surrounding a tattoo said to resemble a Nazi Totenkopf symbol, reports of sexting with women outside his marriage, and, most recently, accusations of abusive behavior made by a former girlfriend in The New York Times. Platner denied allegations of abuse.

“I was willing to believe his explanations, I wanted to believe, until his flaws as a candidate became impossible to ignore,” McDonald wrote.

She also claimed that after resigning, she was offered “$15,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement,” an offer she said she declined. She further wrote that “over the past eight months, women have come to me with their own disturbing stories about Platner.”

“The answer to a broken political culture is not to accept it. Demand better from those entrusted with power or seeking it. Enough is enough,” McDonald signed off.

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