Oysterman Graham Platner won the Democratic Primary to challenge GOP Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, beating back a wave of controversies to get the party’s nod in a must-win race.

Platner defeated Gov. Janet Mills and professor David Costello to win the nomination. His margin of victory ― he was earning 75% of the vote to Mills’ 19% when the race was called at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time ― would likely be enough to tamp down any chatter about Democrats somehow replacing him as the party’s nominee.

Platner, a progressive, launched to fame last summer with a viral launch video promising to take on the “oligarchy” and has run hard against President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. But a series of scandals — including years-old offensive Reddit posts, a since-covered tattoo that resembled Nazi iconography and more recent reports he sent sexual messages to other women while married — have taken the sheen off his image and thrown his ability to beat Collins into doubt.

Platner, who has said much of his past behavior was linked to untreated post-traumatic stress disorder following his time serving in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, referenced the scandals in his victory speech Tuesday night.

“I’m still far from perfect, but every day I wake up and try to be a little better, a little kinder, than I was the day before,” he said while standing behind a lectern reading “They Don’t Know Maine.” “If you give me a chance, I will be a senator for the people who cannot afford to buy a senator.”

Collins, who is running for a sixth term in the Senate and has a powerful post at the head of the Appropriations Committee, has defied Democratic dreams of ousting her in the past, though a sharply anti-Republican political environment this year has Democrats hopeful.

Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and Democrats must win Maine – a blue state that backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 by a seven-point margin – in order to have any realistic shot of taking back Congress’s upper chamber.

Much of Platner’s speech was dedicated to ripping into Collins.

“Susan Collins may have started her career decades ago in Washington with good intentions,” Platner said. “But she has become as corrupt and spineless as the establishment she now serves.”

Republicans, however, suggested that Platner’s past makes him unqualified and unelectable.

“While Senator Susan Collins has demonstrated strong character, steady leadership, and unmatched effectiveness, Graham Platner is a dangerous deviant who cannot be trusted to represent the Pine Tree State,” said Alex Latcham, the executive director of Senate Leadership Fund.

Platner’s victory also amounts to a stinging defeat for Mills, who entered the race late last year with the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. But questions about the 78-year-old Mills’ age and ideology kept many Democratic voters in Platner’s corner. She ultimately dropped out of the race in April.

Mills, whose allies have remained critical of Platner, issued a statement on Tuesday night that mentioned neither candidate.

“I will continue to fight with everything I have to improve the lives and livelihoods of Maine people,” she said.

The DSCC, however, made clear it was backing Platner.

“Susan Collins has never been more vulnerable after she voted with Trump 96 percent of the time, confirmed his far-right judicial nominees, and took millions from special interests while voting to rip health care away from Mainers,” Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the DSCC, said in a statement. “In November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority.”

Other Democrats nationally remain wary of his candidacy, fearing that another shoe will drop and bury his campaign. Platner and his allies, however, have insisted those voices are overly focused on insider chatter compared to issues voters are actually deciding on.

“The national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define this campaign by,” Platner said. “But in trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us.”

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