Warren says her ‘kind of man’ is left-wing Senate hopeful rocked by Nazi-tattoo, Reddit controversies

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., long a progressive force in New England, traveled to Maine over the weekend to boost left-wing Senate candidate Graham Platner ahead of the state’s pivotal Democratic primary. 

“Graham is a combat veteran. He’s an oyster farmer, he is an organizer, and he is the person who is going to beat Susan Collins,” said Warren at his campaign rally on Saturday in Portland. 

At one point during the rally, Warren said Platner was her “kind of man,” recalling that she first noticed him in an interview where he argued the system was “rigged” after the 2008 financial crash as no bankers were jailed.

Warren is championing Platner as a “fighter” for Maine voters, drawing national attention to the candidate ahead of a showdown with two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who has the backing of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. A series of controversies, however, trail Platner. 

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“Insiders who go along to get along are not going to hose the corruption out of Washington. We need Graham Platner to come in and get the corruption out of Washington,” said Warren from the rally.

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“There are people who realize that when the system is this broken, when there are this many billionaires who have this much control over our country, it is no longer time to make little change at the margins, it is time for big, structural change,” Warren added.

Maine’s Democratic primary is June 9, with Platner working to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November’s general election. 

Platner’s past controversies have been political fodder for the Mills campaign, including directing voters to his decade-old Reddit posts in which he appeared to place blame on sexual assault victims and defended Hamas military moves, among other messages from the 2013 and 2014 era. Platner also came under fire for having a chest tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, which he has since apologized for and covered.  

“For those of you who have read these things and been offended, have read these things and seen someone that you don’t recognize, I am deeply sorry,” Platner said in an apology video in 2025. 

Warren, who is one of President Donald Trump’s most relentless critics, notably condemned Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth last year for his Christian tattoos, which include the Jerusalem Cross and the Latin phrase “Deus Vult,” which translates to “God wills it.” 

“We cannot have a Defense Secretary whose fellow service members feel concerned enough about to report as a potential insider threat,” Warren wrote in a lengthy letter to Hegseth in 2025 over her concerns with his tattoos. 

The Massachusetts Democrat has downplayed Platner’s past controversies since her endorsement of the Senate candidate. 

“Look, he has apologized for that, and he’s out there talking to the people of Maine every single day,” Warren told HuffPost when asked about Platner’s controversies. 

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The race has amplified divisions within the Democrat Party, with left-wing lawmakers such as Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders back Platner, while Schumer and Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have backed Mills for the Senate. 

Platner, angling himself a Washington outsider, spoke Saturday about wealth being shifted to the “ruling class” through a system created by establishment politicians.

“The money went somewhere, and it wasn’t down here. It was stolen from us, stolen from us in a system that was built by establishment politicians like Susan Collins,” said Platner, as Democrats increasingly lean into slamming the Trump administration and GOP for its economic policies in the lead up to the midterms. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Warren and Planter for comment on Monday. 

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Bonny Chu contributed to this report.