Massachusetts accounts for 4th-most contributions to Graham Platner campaign

Massachusetts accounts for the fourth-most contributions out of all 50 states sent to controversial Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign, with a Democratic Party PAC sending him an eye-popping $3.6 million to date.

The backing for the Bay State comes as Platner has been embroiled in personal controversies ranging from his now infamous tattoo of a Nazi symbol to alleged sexual messages sent to women on the Kik app while he was married, and other past actions and statements.

ActBlue, the Massachusetts-based fundraising platform and political action committee for the Democratic Party, has processed $3,647,247 in earmarked individual contributions to the Platner campaign to date, according to the latest Federal Elections Commission (FEC) filings.

A handful of professors from MIT, UMass and other universities have also sent individual contributions to Platner in their own names, with the largest individual contributions as high as $7,000, an amount sent by the likes of Harvard-based multi-millionaire philanthropists Kenneth Nickerson and his wife Katherine Deyst, among others, according to the FEC.

Douglas Sharpe, the General Manager of a Concord-based radio station, sent the campaign a $5,000 check. About a dozen or so lawyers and capital investment managers contributed amounts in the $3,500 range, records show.

Massachusetts only ranks behind Maine, California, and New York in contributions to Platner’s campaign.

The support for Platner in Massachusetts is not limited to finances, with the state’s prominent politicians publicly expressing their support for Platner or flat-out endorsing him.

Most recently, Gov. Maura Healey publicly backed Platner during a Tuesday appearance on GBH radio, stating that Platner has her support in a November general election matchup against Sen. Susan Collins.

“Yes, and I’ll tell you why. I’m disgusted by what he posted and I’m disgusted by his other behaviors and antics. But, here’s the thing, come November, there’s going to be a clear choice: There’s going to be Susan Collins, on the one hand, who has stood with Trump,” Healey said to GBH host Jim Braude.

Just hours later, Healey doubled down on her support for Platner while trying to walk back the endorsement she gave earlier on the radio.

“The person I endorsed in the race was my colleague, Governor Janet Mills. We also served together as Attorney General. She is on the ballot. What I’ve said, too, is come November, we need to do everything we can to defeat Susan Collins,” Healey said when pressed by the Herald on how she could support a candidate embroiled in as much controversy as Platner.

Mills suspended her campaign in April, but still remains on the ballot as Maine’s primary election falls on Tuesday.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been the most vocal supporter of Platner’s in Massachusetts, fully backing his candidacy alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Sanders and Warren have co-hosted multiple campaign speeches for Platner throughout Maine and have advocated for him in national television interviews over the past month.

In a Thursday appearance on CNN, Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Seth Moulton echoed the anti-Susan Collins sentiment as a reason for Maine voters to elect Platner, while avoiding answering whether Platner should end his campaign if more controversial actions of his are unearthed.

“I mean, we just don’t know. We just don’t know what more can come out. But I do know this, that he’s running against a senator who every single day rubber stamps Trump’s agenda, a senator who, just like 98% of the Republican Party, supports this war in Iran that’s raising everybody’s gas prices, that’s getting Americans killed,” Moulton said on CNN News Central host Kate Bolduan.

“So, all of these things that Susan Collins does every single day are bad. And I think voters in Maine are going to have to make a decision that only they can make, weighing those two alternatives,” he said.

Appearing on the same CNN program Thursday, Sen. Ed Markey notably dodged endorsing the scandal-plagued Platner, complimenting the Maine candidate’s platform and his opposition to President Donald Trump and his policies while falling short of giving an endorsement.

“I know that he is out and he is campaigning on kitchen table issues. I know that he’s opposed to this slush fund, which Donald Trump is putting together. He’s putting affordability front and center for the voters of Maine to decide this race. And I think that he has the right issues to be focusing upon this year in Maine,” Markey said, before being pressed by host Boris Sanchez.

“In my opinion, he has taken the issues and he’s galvanized a grassroots movement all across Maine. People are responding at the town meetings, they are up, they’re energized, and in my opinion he is on a pathway to victory in the state of Maine,” he responded.

Platner’s campaign was present at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention in Worcester. Platner staffers shared table space with Markey’s campaign as they displayed campaign signs and solicited donations and volunteers.