Time magazine put Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner – the self-proclaimed communist with the Nazi tattoo – on the cover and sold him as a solution for Democrats. He's a "party crasher" who's "scandal-plagued," but he's a "star." They summed up in tweet: “Even in this antiestablishment political moment, Graham Platner’s rise has been remarkable. His candidacy is forcing the party to come to terms with what it’s willing to risk in exchange for a fighter.” TIME’s new cover: Even in this antiestablishment political moment, Graham Platner’s rise has been remarkable. His candidacy is forcing the party to come to terms with what it’s willing to risk in exchange for a fighter https://t.co/1ExIrgNTaY pic.twitter.com/Yc1uLkzUUk — TIME (@TIME) May 21, 2026 This make-lemonade-out-of-lemons exercise came from Time writer Julia Terruso: Platner’s story feels a lot like a pat movie plot: With Democratic voters yearning for outsiders to shake up the system, along comes a rough-hewn, gravelly voiced Marine Corps veteran from Sullivan, Maine—pop. 1,300—as their new national star. He barnstorms the state with a pugilistic brand of economic populism, building a following so quickly that he forces his central-casting opponent, the two-term Democratic governor, Janet Mills, out of the race before voters can cast a ballot. Even in this antiestablishment, unabashedly ageist political moment, Platner’s rise has been remarkable. Yes, Mills is 78. She’s also a lifelong Mainer who served as a state attorney general and DA, went toe-to-toe with President Donald Trump, and was the handpicked Senate recruit of national Democratic leaders. Platner, 41, is a newcomer carrying enough baggage to sink an oyster boat: a Nazi tattoo, a DUI from a post-military period of heavy drinking, and a trove of Reddit posts that spewed hostility in almost every direction. Working-class candidates are having a moment—but surely, many Democrats lament, the party could have found one who hadn’t, for example, defended peeing on dead Taliban fighters, or joked about the Virgin Mary being a “skank.” Voters gravitated toward Platner anyway. After decades of nominating buttoned-up technocrats with glittering résumés, many Democrats want candidates with flaws, faded ink, and redemption arcs that resemble their own. Platner’s past, in other words, may actually be his path. “Platner’s rise fits a moment where many Democrats feel the traditional playbook hasn’t worked, either politically or personally,” says admaker Jim Margolis, who advised Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “Democrats are willing to bet on someone who may have a few warts but feels fresh, unscripted, and tuned in. His ‘difference’ may well be his secret sauce.” "His Nazi tattoo may well be his secret sauce." That's some shameless material. Terruso tries to spin Platner around other Republican arguments:  Platner may project the kind of blue collar voice Democrats have rarely nominated of late. But his opponents have sought to highlight his family’s money to discredit this working-class image. His grandfather was a celebrated architect who designed the original Windows on the World restaurant and iconic modernist furniture. His father was a lawyer, and his mother owns a successful restaurant in town. Platner briefly attended the elite Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. “I absolutely hated it, because I was surrounded by, frankly, rich kids,” Platner says. “It was a world I did not understand.”  He wasn't "surrounded by rich kids." He was a rich kid! But now he's in league with Bernie Sanders and AOC and Zohran Mamdani, so he's painted in oily prose as a "pugilistic economic populist" with a "redemption arc."