00:00Maine's Senate primary is today, and embattled Democratic hopeful Graham Plattner is defiantly
00:06continuing his campaign despite a growing list of bizarre and disturbing scandals,
00:10the types of things that historically would torpedo someone's political career.
00:14The Post's political reporter Ryan King is in Maine talking to voters,
00:18following Plattner's campaign events, and hopefully enjoying a lobster roll or two.
00:22He filled me in on all the latest.
00:24So we've talked to a bunch of Maine voters, particularly voters who intend to back Graham Plattner for Senate.
00:32And what I could say is he's got a lot of enthusiasm behind him during a lot of his events
00:38in Maine,
00:38even after the scandals, the recent scandals have become public.
00:44He's continued to pack various venues.
00:47His supporters are very much sticking by him and are very defensive of him in light of all the different
00:54controversies,
00:55including the bombshell reporting about his prior unsettling behavior towards past girlfriends,
01:03the extramarital sexing scandal.
01:07They're still backing him despite concerns about the Nazi tattoo and his lengthy Reddit history.
01:16So it is pretty remarkable how strong his support is on the ground.
01:21And certainly going to some of his campaign events really makes clear how there's a very big difference
01:28between how Plattner is covered and talked about in the national level
01:33versus what it's like on the ground at some of his rallies.
01:38And now notably, you know, campaign events are typically sort of, you know, reality distortion fields
01:43where you're just only seeing people that are backing particular kids.
01:47But it was pretty remarkable with Plattner.
01:49We had gone to a town hall of his on Sunday and not a single person there had asked him
01:55a question
01:56about the misconduct allegations about his behavior towards his ex-girlfriends and any questions like that.
02:05And then you asked some of his supporters about those controversies and they all brushed it aside.
02:11And so Tuesday is going to be a real test of Plattner standing within the Democratic Party.
02:19We're finally going to see how rank-and-file voters are processing these scandals.
02:25We're going to see, you know, if he has any major defections.
02:28Right now he's the only major candidate in the race.
02:31There are two lower-tier candidates and the main governor, Janet Mills, his name is still on the ballot.
02:37So if we see significant defections from him in the Democratic primary on Tuesday,
02:43that could be a big warning sign for him.
02:46You
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