Sullivan Harbor Baptist Church wants nothing to do with Graham Platner. The small Maine church took to Facebook last week to make that unmistakably clear, posting that it does not endorse Platner or any candidate and asking him to remove the church's photo from his campaign material.

A Fox Digital review found that versions of the ad continued to run on Facebook and Instagram anyway.

Platner, a 41-year-old Democrat running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, rolled out a 30-second spot earlier in March titled "The Veteran Who Came Home." The ad features Sullivan Harbor Baptist Church, apparently meant to anchor his image as a rooted, small-town candidate. His own hometown church rejected the association publicly.

That a house of worship felt compelled to issue a public disavowal tells you more about this candidacy than any opposition ad could.

A Past That Keeps Resurfacing

The church dust-up is only the latest chapter in a campaign season defined by what Platner has said, posted, and apparently tattooed on his body. Old Reddit posts reemerged in fall 2025, and controversial online comments resurfaced throughout the year. Among the highlights: Platner reportedly referred to himself as a communist, denigrated law enforcement as "bastards," suggested White Americans are "racist" and "stupid," and, according to Mills campaign advertising, made crude remarks in 2013 suggesting women deserved sexual assault.

Then there's the since-removed chest tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.

Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran who served multiple overseas deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, has largely blamed his comments on a period of "disillusionment." In his own words:

"So, Maine, I'm asking you not to judge me for the worst thing I said on the internet on my worst day 14 years ago, but who I am today."

He also said of his past statements that "these are words and statements I abhor." Perhaps. But voters are entitled to weigh the sheer volume and variety of the offending material. A single regrettable post is a bad day. Communist self-identification, Nazi-style tattoos, anti-police rhetoric, racial generalizations, and remarks about sexual assault form something closer to a pattern.

The Democratic Primary No One Planned For

The Platner saga has created an extraordinary headache for national Democrats. He is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and has consistently led two-term Gov. Janet Mills in polling ahead of the state's June primary. Mills, who is 78 and would be the oldest freshman senator in U.S. history if elected in November, carries the tacit support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Mills unveiled her first negative ad last week, ripping Platner over the 2013 remarks. That she waited this long to go negative against a candidate with this much baggage suggests how cautiously the Democratic establishment has handled his insurgent campaign. Platner frequently talks about the need for generational change, a framing that draws an obvious contrast with Mills's age.

So Democrats face a primary between a septuagenarian governor propped up by the party establishment and a political newcomer whose past reads like an opposition researcher's fever dream. Neither option strengthens their hand against Collins in November's midterm elections.

The Religious Branding Play

The decision to feature the church in the ad deserves its own scrutiny. Platner's campaign knew his record. They knew the resurfaced posts, the tattoo story, the 2013 remarks. The ad featuring Sullivan Harbor Baptist Church was plainly designed to soften all of it, to wrap a deeply problematic personal history in the visual language of faith and community.

RNC spokeswoman Kristen Cianci did not mince words:

"Invoking religion in this ad was a transparent attempt to distract people from the fact that Graham Platner is a morally bankrupt, Nazi-sympathizing, rapist-apologizing, chauvinist."

She added that "it's no wonder Platner's hometown church can't stomach being associated with him."

The church's rebuke lends credibility to that reading. When you build an ad around a community institution, and that institution immediately tells the public it wants out, the ad doesn't just fail. It becomes evidence of the very thing it was trying to obscure.

What This Race Tells Us

Maine's Senate race is shaping up as a case study in the contradictions of progressive populism. Platner's supporters see a young combat veteran challenging a geriatric establishment. His critics, including members of his own party, see a candidate whose digital footprint disqualifies him from serious consideration. Both things can be true simultaneously.

What cannot be true is the version of Graham Platner that the 30-second ad tried to sell. A man whose hometown church publicly asks to be disassociated from his campaign has lost the most basic credential a local candidate can claim: that the people who know him best will vouch for him.

Sullivan Harbor Baptist Church did not endorse anyone. It just made sure the world knew it didn't endorse him.