Sen candidate Graham Platner leads Maine Gov Janet Mills by 34 points among Democrats: UNH poll

Attention has turned to Maine’s Senate primary races amid recent controversies surrounding Democrat candidate Graham Platner. A new poll has found that, despite the controversies, Platner is in the lead among Democratic candidates

The Pine Tree State Poll, a State of Opinion Project by the University of New Hampshire, found that among those who plan to vote in the state’s 2026 Democratic primary, 58 percent said their first choice would be Platner, 24 percent said their first choice would be current Maine Governor Janet Mills, and all other candidates receiving 1 percent or less. An additional 14 percent were undecided.

When asked for their second choice, as the state is a ranked choice vote state, 28 percent selected Mills, 17 percent selected Jordan Wood, the former chief of staff for California Rep Kaite Porter, 15 percent said Platner, and 37 percent were undecided.

As Mills is trailing in polling for the primary, her approval rating among Democrats has sharply fallen in recent months. In August 94 percent of Democrats in the state approved of Mills’ job performance, which is down to 83 percent in October.

The poll was conducted between October 16 and 21 of 510 likely 2026 Democratic primary voters in the state and has a margin of error of 4.3 percent.

Platner has come under fire recently for prior posts he made to Reddit as well as a tattoo on his chest that resembles Nazi imagery. In posts made after returning from overseas during his time in the Marines and Army, Platner claimed he had become a communist, that he had an "antifa supersoldier" label on his "armor," telling other users to join the Socialist Rifle Association and suggesting that he participated, and saying that "all" cops are "bastards."

Platner has apologized for the posts, saying that he was "just being an a**hole on the Internet" and, "I got out of the Army in 2012. I had PTSD, I had depression, I had all of the things that come with serving in a war—in two wars that I eventually began to not believe in at all. It left me feeling very unmoored. It left me feeling very disillusioned, very alienated, and very isolated. And I think, like a lot of people, I went on the internet to post stupid things and get in fights and find some form of community in some way."

He has also apologized for the tattoo, saying he got it in 2007 while in Croatia with fellow Marines, saying that it was never his intent to get a tattoo resembling Nazi imagery. He has gotten the tattoo covered.