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Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign has been thrown into deeper despair after campaign manager Kevin Brown announced he would step down on Monday – just four days after Platner announced his appointment.
The exit, first reported by Axios’ Holly Otterbein, comes after a crisis week for Platner, who has faced mounting scrutiny since acknowledging on Pod Save America that a skull-and-crossbones tattoo he said he got while drunk 18 years ago closely resembled a Nazi SS Totenkopf.
Speaking to Axios, Brown said: “Graham is a dear friend. I started this campaign Tuesday but found out Friday we have a baby on the way. Graham deserves someone who is 100% in on his race and we want to lean into this new experience as a family, so it was best we step back sooner than later so Graham can get the manager he deserves.”
Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer running to unseat Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins, said he had since replaced the image with a Celtic knot featuring dogs.
“I was appalled to learn it closely
The controversy, however, followed the uncovering of a trove of old Reddit posts in which Platner appeared to downplay sexual assault in the military, use homophobic slurs, and call white rural Americans “racist and stupid.” He has since called those remarks “indefensible,” saying they were written during a “dark time” marked by post-traumatic stress.
Platner’s campaign was once pitched as a working-class alternative to Collins’ long incumbency and backed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT).