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Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner claimed that he has been able to “make a living on the sea” since leaving the armed forces during a Friday rally, an assertion his financial disclosures don’t appear to support.
Platner, who is running for Senate in Maine to unseat incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins, has long identified himself as an oyster farmer and harbor master, giving a blue-collar tinge to his left-wing campaign. Financial disclosures, however, show that he brings in relatively little money from oyster farming, with reports suggesting that Platner receives the majority of his income through veteran’s disability payments.
“My healthcare gave me freedom,” Platner said at a June 5 rally. “It gave me the freedom to take risks, to start a business and to sink my intellect and my physicality into mastering the skills necessary to make a living on the sea.”
PLATNER’S ANTI-CORPORATE CRUSADE HITS AWKWARD SNAG AS RECEIPTS TELL ANOTHER STORY
Platner’s comments drew ire on social media, with many questioning the Senate hopeful’s claim to working-class identity.
Platner’s 2025 financial disclosures show that he listed “other $5,001” as his annual income from farming oysters. The candidate’s entire business is only worth between $50,000 and $100,000, which accounts for his boat, lines, anchors and other farming equipment, per the disclosure.
He earned an additional $3,000 serving as the harbor master for Sullivan, Maine, — a role the Washington Free Beacon reported was largely clerical and where he was responsible for overseeing the 17 boat moorings on the small town’s coast.
Taken together, these sums are dwarfed by the $4,800 Platner says he receives through monthly disability payments. Platner is legally entitled to such a sum owing to injuries he suffered while serving in the armed forces.
“I’ve got a couple herniated discs. My shoulder’s a wreck. My knees bother me,” Platner, who saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, told News Center Maine in an October 2025 interview.
Despite his reliance on disability, Platner has consistently referred to himself as an “oyster farmer” while campaigning for Senate.
In a September 2025 interview with the New Yorker, for example, he called himself a “small-town oyster farmer.”
While Platner credits federally funded healthcare for his ability to start a business, a number of other factors have assisted him along the way.
A restaurant owned by Platner’s mother, for instance, is the only customer listed on his financial disclosures as purchasing oysters from him. Additionally, Platner’s farm is located on a private island owned by his business partner’s family and he received a $200,000 loan from his father to purchase his home, the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.
“Platner lies in this clip,” freelance journalist Magdi Jacobs said of Platner’s statement on Friday. “He says he ‘makes a living off the sea.’ He objectively does not.”
Others pointed out that the reality of Platner’s oyster farming may not match what people typically think of when someone says they make their living on the ocean.
“Buddy, I love oyster farmers you’re not trawling Georges Bank, you’re pulling up traps in a protected 25-foot deep bay,” D.C.-based lawyer Patrick Brennan wrote on social media.
PLATNER CONTROVERSIES FUEL SPECULATION ABOUT LITTLE-KNOWN MAINE BALLOT REPLACEMENT PROVISION
The Maine Democrat hasn’t been shy about the fact that he receives significant money from the federal government as compensation for disabilities he accrued during his service as an infantryman, telling News Center Maine that, in addition to the estimated $4,800 he receives in cash benefits, a portion of which he puts toward his mortgage every month, he also received subsidized healthcare.
“I put $954 of it toward my mortgage,” he said.
He did not mention the loan from his father during the interview.
Platner’s ascent within the Democratic Party came off the heels of the 2024 election, where liberals were largely seen as having lost partially due to their failure to appeal to male voters.
“I definitely don’t think I’m uniquely qualified for it,” Platner previously said when asked about his purported appeal to younger men. “I do understand that because of my journey, I think my voice on the issue can be more accessible, just because I’ve been angry on the internet as a younger man, I get it. I also get that it wasn’t anger on the internet that got me out of it. It was quite literally, community. It was building healthy, normal relationships with people.”
While some have argued that Platner’s combat experience and blue-collar background provide what Democrats have been missing, others claim that his public persona doesn’t totally match public records.
PLATNER CONTROVERSIES FUEL SPECULATION ABOUT LITTLE-KNOWN MAINE BALLOT REPLACEMENT PROVISION
“The entire fabric of Graham Platner’s biography continues to fall apart under even modest scrutiny,” National Republican Senatorial Committee press secretary Bernadette Breslin told Fox News Digital. “Mainers deserve authenticity — not Platner’s perverted past, inflated résumé and ‘working-class’ rebrand.”
The Platner campaign did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Monday.
Some have argued that the apparent incongruence between Platner’s blue-collar public image and what’s appeared in media reports doesn’t seem to be hurting him with voters.
“Despite this — Platner seems to connect with working class voters here in Maine,” Fox News national correspondent Alexis McAdams reported on June 5. “Tonight, at least a dozen veterans stood up in the crowd to show support [and] many people here say they are working two or more jobs to just scrape by.”
Platner has been battered by widely publicized scandals in recent weeks surrounding his deleted social media posts, allegedly abusive treatment of women and a Nazi tattoo he got during his time in the armed forces. He has, however, resisted calls to drop out of the race.
“This is the political establishment doing its best to make sure that people like me, who have lived lives that are sometimes flawed, sometimes complicated, they’re going to try to send the message that if you ever attempt to get into power, if you ever attempt to advocate for yourself, we will crush you,” Platner recently said of the controversy surrounding his candidacy. “This is the political establishment trying to fight back. And they are going to fail.”
While Platner has been the presumptive nominee since Democratic Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the Senate race in April, he faces a test on Tuesday as Mainers head to the polls to vote in the state’s primary elections.
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