Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner took a brutal last-minute hit from a former top staffer just hours before Maine voters headed to the polls.
Genevieve McDonald, a former Maine state representative who briefly served as Platner’s campaign director last year, warned voters Monday night that Platner should not be elected to the U.S. Senate.
In an opinion piece published by The Washington Post on the eve of Tuesday’s Democratic primary, McDonald wrote: “Graham Platner is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.”
McDonald said she quit Platner’s campaign after just two months because of what she described as a pattern of dishonesty and troubling behavior.
She said she had overlooked his Nazi-linked tattoo and a possible cheating scandal but could not ignore how “he exhibits a pattern of dishonest behavior.”
“I was one of the Platner campaign’s first gaslighting casualties,” she wrote.
McDonald said she was “disturbed” by what she learned while working for Platner from August to October 2025.
“If America wants a stronger democracy, elevating leaders with integrity is essential,” she wrote in the opinion piece. “Leaders with sound judgment and ethics. Leaders who embrace and live the ideals the nation stands for.”
Platner has campaigned as a progressive economic populist focused on taxing billionaires and lowering costs for working-class Americans.
But his campaign has been hammered by a growing list of controversies, including the Nazi-linked tattoo on his chest, allegations of physical misconduct involving an ex-girlfriend and lewd Reddit posts that have followed him into the final stretch of the primary.
“I know firsthand why Graham Platner shouldn’t be a U.S. senator.”
Democrat Graham Platner’s former political director skewering the candidate and the campaign that she once worked for just hours before polls close in Maine.
Genevieve McDonald issuing a warning to voters… pic.twitter.com/fBm1tDzjar
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 9, 2026
McDonald specifically called out one Reddit post in which Platner said white, rural Americans are ‘racist’ and ‘stupid.’
That is the same demographic he is now trying to win over as he seeks to represent Maine in the Senate.
McDonald also blasted the campaign’s “feigned ignorance” about the meaning of the tattoo, calling it “appalling.”
After the opinion piece was published, Lyndsey Fifield, the woman who has accused Platner of physical violence, stood behind McDonald publicly.
“Last year, I watched a woman sacrifice her career to stand on principle and warn the public about a dangerous man. Genevieve has been relentlessly attacked, but she kept her honor and her soul. She has inspired me to stay strong through this storm.”
McDonald also claimed in the op-ed that the campaign offered her a $15,000 severance package if she signed a nondisclosure agreement.
She said she refused.
McDonald wrote that she wanted to believe Platner’s redemption narrative. The candidate has often portrayed himself as a man with a troubled past who turned his life around.
But she said the mounting scandals were too much for her to keep working on the campaign.
She also took aim at Platner’s carefully crafted image as a working-class Mainer, oyster farmer and small-town harbor master.
“I realized the campaign had not been honest with me,” McDonald wrote. “As someone from a real working-class background, I knew this would undermine his cross-party appeal.”
That image has faced scrutiny as critics have examined Platner’s finances and business background.
His mother, who owns a restaurant, is listed as the only customer of his oyster farming business on financial disclosures. He farms off a private island owned by the family of his business partner, and his father gave him a $200,000 loan to buy a home.
McDonald urged Maine Democrats not to accept the idea that Platner is the only candidate who can take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
“I want better for my daughters, and for the people of Maine,” McDonald wrote. “Democrats are being sold a narrative that Platner is the only choice for the race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Maine voters don’t have to accept that.”
Two other Democrats are on Tuesday’s primary ballot: Gov. Janet Mills and consultant David Costello.
Mills had been Platner’s main challenger but withdrew from the race because of a lack of campaign cash. Her name still appears on the ballot because she dropped out after ballots had already been printed.
McDonald closed her warning with a direct message to voters.
“The answer to a broken political culture is not to accept it,” McDonald concluded. “Demand better from those entrusted with power or seeking it.”
“Enough is enough.”
The election-eve broadside landed at the worst possible moment for Graham Platner, who entered primary day already battered by controversy and now faces public condemnation from a former insider who says she saw enough to walk away.
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