Platner delivered the first victory speech
Graham Platner delivered a speech Tuesday acknowledging the shortcomings of the past and criticizing incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins. (Credit: Matthew Symons of Fox News Digital)
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Senate Republicans are warning that disgraced oysterman Graham Platner could still defeat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, if the party fails to take the race seriously.
Republicans are securing several seats in expectedly close races, including Nebraska, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, while seeking to flip Georgia. Maine is the exception: Sen. Susan Collins' seat is the only Republican-held Senate seat in the state won by Kamala Harris in 2024, making it the Democrats' direct path to returning Sen. Charles Schumer, DN.Y., in the office of the majority leader, said Republicans in a memo released on Wednesday.
“It is a grave mistake to think that Platner is too damaged to win,” a National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) memo obtained by Fox News – addressed to “Interest Groups” – read.
The NRSC agreed that Maine is the “linchpin” of the 35 seats up this year and that despite Platner's Nazi tattoo, allegations of unpopular violence, the revival of biocide in port-a-johns, and his social policy platform, he remains a credible threat to Collins in the middle of the road.
SEE: MAINE VOTERS CRY AT PLATNER'S SEPARATION CAMPAIGN AS NEARLY RIGHT: 'HE'S A DISGRACE'
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vt., and Graham Platner of the Democratic US Senate stand together at the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop at the Collins Center for the Arts on the campus of the University of Maine on May 24, 2026, in Orono, Maine. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“Senator Collins has won tough races before and he can win this one, but only if we meet this moment with absolute urgency,” the NRSC said.
“Because Democrats can't win a majority without [Collins’ seat]they met in full with Graham Platner, the deeply flawed, leftist candidate who won the nomination last night. Platner has dominated his party's fundraising efforts, outscoring Senator Collins every quarter since he entered the race. We have to match the power and money to keep the seat,” the memo said.
The NRSC said Democrats are not looking at Platner's race as about a candidate but about a power grab.
COLLINS DEFENDS GOP TRUTH IN MAINE SENATE BATTLE THAT RECOMMENDS GOP MAJORITY
The committee said any of Platner's many scandals would have ended many campaigns, but Democrats remained united around him. The NRSC reported that after ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield's allegations against Platner broke, Platner raised $200,000 in one day in what the campaign said was its best haul of the cycle.
“The political fundamentals in Maine remain a challenge, and it is a grave mistake to think that Platner is too damaged to win,” the NRSC said.
Collins is the only federal Republican left in New England and the only Republican in the Senate north or east of Pennsylvania.
The NRSC reported that Platner beats Harris by seven points himself while noting that Collins has won tough races in the past, but this one is different.
Collins won his last race against former Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon by about eight points, and his last election loss was back in 1994 when he was now Sen. Angus King Jr., Maine, won the state in a four-way contest.
Republicans said in a memo that the big story this past week about Platner is not his latest scandal, but the fact that Democrats are circling the wagons around him tightly and “raising him.”
WATCH: DEM SENATORS EXCUSE PLATNER'S BEHAVIOR IN PROBLEM WITH MAINE ASSISTANT
Graham Platner speaks to the crowd at his viewing party after winning the Democratic nomination for the US Senate at the YMCA in Blue Hill, Maine, June 9, 2026. Platner will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the election for the seat. (Matthew Symons of Fox News Digital)
They cited Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna visiting Maine for an interview-slash-ad with Platner and the fact that Democrats keep saying Collins and Trump are worse than a left-winger.
“You've got to do what you've got to do,” the NRSC quoted former deputy Biden campaign manager Rob Flaherty as saying, while noting that Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said Platner's mistakes were “nothing.”
They also pointed to one of the most influential Democratic operatives who said that Platner's mistakes actually strengthened his qualifications.
Platner lashed out at former Pennsylvania state lawmaker Teddy Daniels after a video surfaced of the Purple Heart recipient being besieged and severely wounded by the Taliban several years ago.
“We've got a guy who's 100 times more f–ed up than he is and he's never going to be as f–ed as we have in Washington,” said Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign planner James Carville, who suggested that Platner's apparent PTSD should be a sign on the Hill about why war power is neoconservative.
“This is not a group that abandons its core. This is a group that considers, accepts, and prepares to fight,” said the NRSC.
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“Republicans need to match that urgency immediately. Define Platner. Defend Collins. Resource Maine,” they said. “Senator Collins has proven time and time again, through his conduct and his performance and his commitment to the people of Maine and America, that he will succeed.”
“You can win this race, but you can't win it yourself.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the NRSC, DSCC, Platner and Collins campaigns for additional comment.
