Maine oyster farmer Graham Platner's Senate campaign is in crisis after reports of offensive online messages over many years.

Why it matters: Many national Democrats seized on Platner as a solution to the party's problems with young men and working-class voters in the wake of their embarrassing losses in 2024. • Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made Platner's bid central to his mission to remake the Democratic Party as more progressive and economically focused. • Platner won the adulation of other Democratic senators, raised more than $3 million in the first six weeks of his campaign, and attracted large crowds at his events.

Driving the news: Platner, a 41-year-old military veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, made crude comments about Black diners, rural white people, police offi

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